Prophet Walter Magaya’s bodyguard cleared in witness tampering case

So the bodyguard for that celebrity preacher, Walter Magaya, just walked free. Tapiwa Fellix Chikondo was on trial for trying to mess with a police investigation, specifically a rape case involving his boss. The charge was obstructing justice. A magistrate in Harare named Tapiwa Kuhudzai found him not guilty after a full trial.

The state's case was that back in November, Chikondo reached out to the mother of the woman who accused Magaya. He supposedly told her not to help the cops and even set up a call between her and the preacher himself. The big piece of evidence was a two-hundred-dollar EcoCash transfer he allegedly sent to the mom, meant to cover her travel costs to Harare to supposedly settle everything. Cops even pulled the EcoCash agent's record showing the transaction. They said he later visited the woman's house to talk about the case, where someone warned him that interfering was a crime. They arrested him a few days after that.

But the magistrate was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, it seems. The court acquitted him. So the guy accused of paying off a witness and trying to kill an investigation just gets to leave without any penalty. The whole thing just adds another layer of murk to the ongoing legal drama surrounding Magaya. Makes you wonder what exactly qualifies as obstruction if this does not stick.