11 die, scores injured at Magaya meeting

Milton Chemhuru, the Midlands Provincial Medical Director told The Zimbabwean today that corpses of the deceased are still at kwekwe General Hospital where those injured are also receiving treatment.

“We can confirm that 11 people have died from the injuries sustained at Magaya’s church sermon held yesterday where a stampede is understood to have taken place during the sermon. 54 other people were injured and out of those, we have admitted 24 at Kwekwe general Hospital,” he said.

According to eye witnesses, the commotion arose at the chirch sermon held at Mbizo stadium as people stampeded to leave the venue late at night after Magaya had wrapped up the event.

“People knocked each other on the way out from the packed stadium which had been filled to above capacity by attendants. The security personel manning the stadium were overwhelmed and the security pre-cast walls collapsed as people battled to exit the venue. During the chaos, some people fell down and were stepped over by the crowds while others were hit by the falling pre-cast wall,” said Never Ngwenyama, an eye witness who attended the sermon.

Police provincial spokesperson Joel Goko could not give a comment as officials at his office said they were still compiling facts about the incident. Thy promised to issue a press statement later in the day.

It is understood that the small stadium whose capacity is about 5 000 people, had been thronged by over 30 000 Christians seeking deliverances from various ailments that Magaya is known to be able to cast out.

Another eye-witness, Wonder Banya, also told this reporter that the disaster could have been avoided if there were adequate security details.

"I think organisers of the event did not forecast such a huge crowd at the event. They were overwhelmed by people battling to exit the stadium but the situation could have been helped if enough security details had been deployed," he said.

A visit by this reporter to Kwekwe general Hospital where those injured are admitted revealed that the patients were in deep pain. No comments could however be obtained from them as the nurses were still busy attending to them.

Early this year, a woman, Viola Chingara,reported to the police a murder case at Waterfalls Police Station in Harare under case number RRB2134808, against Magaya after her child had allegedly died at his church while being attended to It is understood that Chingara, fell into a trance when she was being attended to for a perceived aliment at the church’s service in Harare.

It is still unclear if a criminal matter like culpable homicide can be leveled against Magaya on the latest incident.