Pastor sells non-existent church stand to South Ko...

Pastor sells non-existent church stand to South Korean counterpart

Zim Now Writer

A Zimbabwean pastor appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court yesterday facing a fraud charge after he allegedly sold a non-existent church stand to his South Korean counterpart who is into missionary work in Zimbabwe.

Blessing Bentura, who is a pastor at the New Creation in Christ Ministries, appeared before magistrate Stanford Mambanje and was remanded in custody to February 28 pending finalisation of investigations.

The complainant is Dong-Chan Jun of Paul Missionary International.

The complainant allegedly approached Bentura in May last year looking for a stand to build a church in the Hopley area.

Bentura offered to assist and introduced the complainant to Tendai Katsaira who is already on remand on the same matter.

On May 21, 2022, Bentura and Katsaira showed the complainant Stand Number 7358 measuring 5 000msqm, which Katsaira said was valued at between US$10 000 and US$12 000.

Bentura demanded a deposit of US$6 000.

The complainant is said to have paid the money in instalments of US$500 on June 11, US$1 900 on June 17, 2022, US$1 900 on July 9, 2022 and US$1 700 on July 13, 2022.

The accused fraudulently generated some receipts purporting the money paid by the complainant was the development fee from the Valuation and Estates division of the City of Harare.

They later became evasive, resulting in Dong-Chan Jun approaching the City of Harare to enquire about the status of the land.

He was told the stand was non-existent, resulting in him filing a police report.