{"id":2964,"date":"2019-02-05T18:50:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=2964"},"modified":"2019-02-05T18:50:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:50:40","slug":"zimbabwe-pastor-walter-magaya-convicted-over-hiv-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/02\/05\/zimbabwe-pastor-walter-magaya-convicted-over-hiv-cure\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe pastor Walter Magaya convicted over &#8216;HIV cure&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A court in Zimbabwe has convicted a popular self-styled prophet of fraud and fined him $700 (\u00a3540) for falsely claiming he had a herbal cure for HIV and Aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Walter Magaya earlier pleaded guilty to contravening the Medicines Control Act by selling an unapproved drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police arrested him in November, and seized a herbal drug which he said could cure people who had HIV and Aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zimbabwe has the sixth highest HIV prevalence rate in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 1.3 million people were living with HIV, according to UN data compiled in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/world-africa-47114979\">Africa Live: More updates on this and other stories<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-38063882\">The men who claim to be Africa&#8217;s &#8216;miracle workers&#8217;<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/stories-42754150\">How Gambians were forced to take a bogus HIV cure<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 35-year-old Magaya is among a group of young, brash and flashy religious figures who have emerged during Zimbabwe&#8217;s economic crisis, attracting a huge number of followers with promises of miracle healing and miracle money, says the BBC&#8217;s Shingai Nyoka in the capital, Harare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He told his congregation in October that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newzimbabwe.com\/magaya-claims-has-found-cure-for-hiv-aids\/\">the drug, named aguma, had magical powers to destroy the Aids virus within 14 days<\/a>, the privately owned New Zimbabwe reported at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The herb is 100% organic. Why I say so is because we found out that there are no side effects,&#8221; he was quoted as saying.ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government branded his claim as criminal, and police raided his offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The charge sheet said that just before the search, Magaya and others &#8220;destroyed some of the exhibits by flushing them in the office toilets and burning containers which were, however, recovered half-burnt&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Several aguma sachets and other torn sachets were also recovered in an office bin,&#8221; the charge sheet added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/76EB\/production\/_101534403_line976-nc.png\" alt=\"line\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More on Zimbabwe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-africa-46986151\">Where food costs three times your salary<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-46878267\">The most expensive fuel in the world?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-45822166\">No cash, no bread, no KFC amid new Zimbabwe crisis<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-46613237\">Why Zimbabwe&#8217;s Christmas crackers cost $40<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/76EB\/production\/_101534403_line976-nc.png\" alt=\"line\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pastor&#8217;s lawyer, Everson Chatambudza, told the court that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.herald.co.zw\/breaking-magayas-aretha-medical-pleads-guilty-over-aguma\/\">Magaya believed the drug was authentic but admitted breaching the law by distributing it without the health ministry&#8217;s approval<\/a>, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Magaya attempted to comply with the law by notifying the ministry of the drug, but he did not get any response, Mr Chatambudza was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Magaya had also launched a lipstick last year which he claimed could improve blood pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court in Zimbabwe has convicted a popular self-styled prophet of fraud and fined him $700 (\u00a3540) for falsely claiming he had a herbal cure for HIV and Aids. Walter Magaya earlier pleaded guilty to contravening the Medicines Control Act by selling an unapproved drug. Police arrested him in November, and seized a herbal drug which he said could cure&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/02\/05\/zimbabwe-pastor-walter-magaya-convicted-over-hiv-cure\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2965,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions\/2965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}