Prophet arrested after ‘witches in baskets crash landed at his shrine’

Police in Zimbabwe are holding a self-styled and suspected false prophet after two women were found with no clothes on outside his house.

The women were pretending to be witches who “crash-landed” while flying over a Harare suburb in winnowing baskets.

It was not clear on Monday what Alfred Mupfumbati (30) would be charged with but police said he would appear in court “soon”.

Police were called to Mupfumbati’s house in Harare’s Budiriro 4 suburb shortly after 5AM on September 11 after reports of two naked women carrying winnowing baskets and behaving strangely.

Police arrested the two women who identified themselves as Chipo Chakadya and Maria Moyo.

They were charged under the country’s witchcraft laws, but a magistrate ordered that they undergo a psychiatric examination while remanding them in custody to September 24.

But relatives and friends of the two women – who told police they were from Nembudziya in Gokwe – have revealed that they lied to investigators about their identities and were in fact from Chihota in Mashonaland East province.

Maria Moyo (43) is in fact Elnert Ben Mbewe while Chipo Chakadya (33) is in fact Christine Nyamupandu Matiyenga.