A TALE of conning church members, disappearing into thin air from a plush Harare hotel and making off with money from the sale of a vehicle is what former cricketer Dumisani Mankunzini has become known for at the Eagle Life Assembly Church led by Prophet Blessing Chiza.
The latest allegations against the former Tuskers cricketer
come hot on the heels of video footage of Mankunzini being confronted and
dragged to a police station by two unidentified women for conning them of an
undisclosed amount of money.
For the first time Prophet Chiza has publicly spoken about
how Mankunzini left members of his Eagle Life Assembly church counting their
losses after they were allegedly conned of more than US$14 000.
So daring was Mankunzini that at one time he allegedly
booked rooms at a Harare hotel, with Chiza’s church members, for three days and
disappeared without paying.
The unassuming church members almost slept in police cells
and were rescued by fellow church members based in Harare who settled the bill
at the plush Harare hotel.
Chiza says he regrets the day the former cricketer joined
Eagle Life Assembly and became a member of the youth ministry.
“I had no idea who Mankunzini was until I started hearing
stories that there was a fraudster in the church who was conning members of
their money and all this happened a few years ago when he was a part of Eagle
Life Assembly.
“We are a very big church with thousands of members and I
didn’t know him personally until the complaints started flooding my office that
a youth ministry member was defrauding other church members of their money.
“The amounts varied from US$300 and upwards that he would
take from church members under the pretext that they would be investors in a
cricket academy that he was running. The total amount can easily add up to
US$14 000 that he conned members of my church,” Prophet Chiza told B-Metro.
Five members of Eagle Life Assembly came close to spending
the night in police cells after Mankunzini allegedly booked them into Rainbow
Towers in Harare in a botched cricket deal that they had been roped into by the
former cricketer.
“I got a phone call that five of my church members were
about to be arrested for not paying for a three-day stay at Rainbow Towers
after Mankunzini had disappeared without paying the bill. Other church members
based in Harare had to pay the hotel bill.
“I was told that during the stay at the hotel, Mankunzini
kept pretending to be on the phone with Heath Streak and Tatenda Taibu who
would be part of that cricket deal, but it all later turned out to be nothing
but lies,” narrated Chiza.
According to Chiza, the former cricketer skipped the
country into South Africa after defrauding a woman of money from the sale of a
vehicle.
“He told the woman that he could sell her car in no time
and she lost her vehicle. Countless cases have been reported to the police by
members of my church that he conned.
“He claims to be related to a Central Intelligence Officer
and that is how he threatens people not to report cases to the police. We have
advised the public not to deal with Mankunzini using the name of our church,”
he said.
Efforts to get a comment from Mankunzini hit a brick wall
as his mobile phone was unreachable.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube
confirmed that they were investigating a case of fraud and theft involving
Dumisani Mankunzini adding that he was held at Bulawayo Central Police Station
to assist police with their investigations.
Stories of Mankunzini’s fraudulent activities are all over
the internet and his modus operandi is strikingly similar: the victims invest
in the former cricketer’s cricket vision, pay for his luxurious accommodation,
road travel, flights and general upkeep. A Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean couple
were scammed of over R500 000 after going the extra mile of bankrolling a
costly Mankunzini-run youth cricket tournament in Bulawayo in 2018.
Now regarded as something of a villainous figure in
Zimbabwean cricket, what further infuriates the growing list of those
hoodwinked by him is Mankunzini’s arrogance and increasingly desperate attempt
to portray himself as the victim. His utterances, in social media posts, blame
his woes on the mischief of detractors, or “haters”, as he likes to call them.
News of Mankunzini’s acts have attracted the attention of
the cricket world. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has since barred the
former leg-spin bowler from getting their official approval to cover its
competitions. The Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have
also distanced themselves from the controversial ex-cricketer following reports
of his underhand tactics to defraud people of their hard-earned cash.
His alleged victims included a guest house, lodge and hotel
in Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa respectively. B Metro
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