Mutare pastor arrested over sexual abuse

By Liberty Dube

MUTARE – A storm is brewing at a local church, Royal Family Life Fellowship, after its founder, Apostle Action Khomani, is allegedly involved in sex orgies with female church congregants and misappropriation of church funds, among other shocking shenanigans.

Khomani, also known as AK-47 — who resides at House Number 19, Crispy Road, Palmerstone — was last weekend picked up by the police for allegedly sexually abusing a female congregant (name withheld) sometime in October.

Deputy Manicaland provincial police spokesman Assistant Inspector Luxson Chananda said Khomani (40) was arrested and was assisting them with investigations for allegedly raping a church congregant with the help of his maid after he had invited her for “counselling”.

“Sometime in October 2012, around 5pm, Khomani invited the woman to a prayer and counselling session. After the session, he went to his bedroom while the woman slept in his maid’s room.

“He later during the night called his maid. A few minutes later, the maid allegedly dragged the unsuspecting woman to the dining room. Khomani followed into the dining room and the maid retreated, leaving the two behind. He allegedly raped her once,” Ass Insp Chananda said.

He said the woman did not disclose the ordeal to anyone until June 25 this year when she reported the matter to the police.

Khomani was later released for lack of incriminating evidence, but police insisted that investigations were in progress.

When approached for comment on Tuesday, Apostle Khomani said the allegations were unfounded and meant to blackmail him. He denied the rape allegations saying some church members framed him.

“The rape issue did not happen. The woman who reported the matter to the police actually framed me after we had disciplined her and her boyfriend for co-habiting.

“Co-habiting is against the church’s doctrine. It was after this issue that they decided to tarnish my name and cooked up the rape issue. They started influencing other members of the church to gang up against me.

“Ndakagadzirirwa nyaya. As we speak, brother, I am still recovering from the trauma of spending moments behind bars. I was only released last Friday,” he said.

Responding to allegations that he was misappropriating church funds by sending his children to expensive schools while congregants were as poor as church mice, Khomani said he was a disciplined man who doesn’t even have access to the church coffers.

“Proceeds from the church are so little that they cannot sustain my family. I have relatives who help me. For your own information, I don’t have access to church funds,’’ he said.

The man of the cloth pleaded with The Weekender to spare him. “Please, brother, protect my name because ndichirikurwara,” he added.

However, sources privy to the goings-on at the church said the report was just a tip of the iceberg.

“You will hear of more stories of this nature in the next coming days,” said one church member who requested anonymity.

Various anonymous letters from church congregants were sent to this publication last week with most of them accusing Khomani of “sacrificing the word of God for personal and selfish gains”, impregnating various unsuspecting girls, single mothers and forcing some of them to terminate pregnancies as well as dividing families, among a flurry of allegations.

Reads part of one of the letters: “Where is Christian Church Council of Zimbabwe? This man of God is one of the false apostles written in the word of God in 2 Peter 2 verse 1-6 and Matthew 7 verse 15-20 which tells us to know what’s true or false of these so-called men of God.”

Another letter headlined: “Royal Family Church has taken a wrong turn” said the church had now borrowed its script from a scary horror movie.

“Like the horror movie franchise, the Royal Family Fellowship Church has taken a wrong turn and is now taking a direction towards total destruction where no one will survive, at least speaking in the spiritual sense.

“The author of this horror script is none other than the church’s founding leader, Apostle Action Khomani, who is presiding over everything that is horribly going wrong in the church today.

“Chief among the ills bedevilling the congregation are adultery, where the church leader is sexually abusing girls and married women and maladministration, in which almost every aspect of the church is being poorly managed by the so-called administration.

“Cases of sexual harassment and indecent assault have been raised against Apostle Khomani. This has been done only in church corridors as many dread (sic) to come out in the open for fear of victimisation.

“This is the classical case of the hen devouring its own eggs. It is clear here that Apostle Khomani is betraying the trust his followers have in him by sexually abusing them.

“There is nothing bad like a shepherd devouring his own sheep instead of being devoured by hungry leopards. We now fear the worst for our wives, sisters and daughters.

“What with the danger being posed by Apostle Khomani’s sexual pervasion . . ?”

Another letter headlined: “Churches must not dilute the gospel”, reads: “For me, my bone of contention with the church is how the Word of God is being sacrificed on the altar for personal and selfish gains.

The church leader, Apostle Action, is the chief culprit in this regard.

“I will be honest and state that in its early days, things appeared perfectly normal, but of late they have got worse.

“The core business of the church is being neglected and Christian values are getting compromised in the process due to the poison we are being fed each time one steps onto the pulpit to preach.

“Most of the preaching has become personal attacks on members of the church, at times embarrassing them in front of their families.

“At other times (sic) our leader proclaims himself ‘messiah’ such that employment, job security, marriage, fertility and such other blessings are all in his hands and he can give them forth if we shower him with loyalty, gifts, money and other valuables. It is also declared during the preaching sermon that if we withhold these presents, then we will not prosper.

“Another sad thing in our church is what we call ‘forced faith’ which has become so prevalent, which I feel is very misleading. A clear example is how some members of the church living with HIV were asked to surrender their medication in order to get cured of the disease through faith.

“This is not bad if it works out well, but the tragedy now is that cases of hospitalisation and deaths have been recorded after the patients fell seriously ill due to defaulting on medication. Honestly, we should not be losing lives and compromise our health due to this blind faith that is being forced on us by someone.”

Reads another letter: “Church irikurarama nezvikwereti zvimwe zvinoratidza izvezvi takabva pabig hall to a smaller hall nekuti mari yacho hapana irikungoperera kumafees evana vake vanodzidza paHillcrest apa achigara kumadale-dale kunoita more than 400 dollars, imagine church iri muSakubva.

“Church haina kana stand zvayo kana chainonongedzerwa kuti ndechayo. He recently introduced Direct Partnership with the man of God vanhu pavanenge vachimupa mari direct neEcoCash.

“Ko makambozvinzwepi zvakadai kukumbira mari vana vesangano in the name of God. He is now claiming kuti iye iAreka yaJehovah, heresy iri pachena. Church yedu tinoida, tibatsirei veduwee.” Manica Post