UNITED Family International Church (UFIC) leader Emmanuel
Makandiwa has challenged his accusers, Blessing and Upenyu Mashangwa to stop
maligning him and prove their “lies before the courts”.
In his response to a case in which he is being sued for
$6,5 million by the Mashangwas for allegedly causing them loss of business over
false prophecies, Makandiwa said there was overwhelming evidence that the
couple had were not interested in substantiating their lies, but raise baseless
allegations, including labelling him an occult worshipper.
Makandiwa is objecting to a fresh High Court bid by the
Harare couple claiming $6,5 million from the clergy.
The couple claim they lost a house to a local building
society after they were misled by Makandiwa’s prophecy that their debt to the
financial institution would be cancelled miraculously.
The UFIC leader claimed that evidence before the court
proved that the Mashangwas fraudulently sold their house twice, culminating in
one of the victims, Jemina Gumbo, taking the couple to court.
The raging court case has also revealed that the Mashangwas
have been in and out of the courts, with the Judicial Service Commission’s
case-tracking and monitoring system revealing they have 28 cases before the
courts.
“The applicant’s answer is more name calling and a failure
to address the question of whether this claim is a serious claim in respect of
which relief is seriously sought as opposed to pure annoyance.” Makandiwa said
through his lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri.
“In this matter, I have in my founding affidavit, made
specific allegations that the respondents lied in their pleadings in respect of
the facts establishing each of their causes of action.
“I have, in my founding affidavit, attached documents and
verified my contention that every fact that the respondents allege in their
summons and declaration is false.
“The respondents have shield away from answering these
specific allegations head on. Did they or did they not plead false facts as
founding their cause of action?
“This is the gravamen of the matter. This is what they must
respond to. Their failure to do so is an admission of what I have contended. I
indeed on the face of the founding affidavit, the application is
incontrovertible.”
Makandiwa said he made a principal application on the
grounds that the action is not only both frivolously and vexatious, but also a
self-evident gross contemptuous abuse of the process of this court.
“We contend on the following bases, that the plaintiffs
have deliberately pleaded and founded their purported causes of action on
deliberate and easily demonstrable falsehoods,” Makandiwa argued.
“Each of the six claims suffer from predictable failure and
so groundless that no reasonable person could ever hope to obtain relief
therefrom,
“Allegations of us being fraudsters or people that dabble
in the occult or consult n’angas, false and malafide, made for the public
gallery, do not take to simple question of whether they told the truth or not
in their declaration,” the UFIC founder said. Newsday
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