‘I’ve Made Peace With Death’: Fugitive Apostle Chiwenga Pleads for One Final Week to Visit Wife’s Grave Before Surrendering to Authorities
Fugitive Apostle Talent Farai Chiwenga, a long-time critic of the Zimbabwean government who fled Zimbabwe after alleging attempts on his life—including a car crash that killed his wife—has publicly appealed to the government to give him one week to visit the graves of his late wife and parents before submitting himself to authorities upon his planned return to the country.
In a video recorded during a church service and widely shared on social media this week, Chiwenga, who has lived outside Zimbabwe for years, said he has purchased tickets and intends to fly into Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on Emirates Airways.
He stated he will not enter the country secretly and will place himself in the hands of the government.
“I only have one request to the government of Zimbabwe,” Chiwenga said. “I request that they give me one week. During that one week, I would like to visit my wife’s grave… and I want to visit my parents’ grave that passed away last week… and go to my father’s house” to see a tombstone installation completed about two years earlier.
He added that if the request is denied, “it’s okay. I’ve also made peace with that.”
Chiwenga’s decision to leave Zimbabwe followed years of outspoken street sermons and online messages in which he criticised the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
He regularly accused authorities of human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, abductions and torture of activists and journalists, and said the shedding of innocent lives brought a curse upon the nation.
In 2018 he declared he had seen “two coffins that will bring this country to a standstill,” a statement widely interpreted as a reference to Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga — his cousin — who was then seriously ill.
The vice-president publicly rebuked him, accusing him of satanism and of using God’s name to attack leaders. Talent Chiwenga stood by the remarks, said the vice-president was unfit to lead, and stated he was prepared to die for what he had said.
He later reported being interrogated by state security agents at his rural home in Hwedza.
These criticisms, he has claimed, made him a target.
On 12 June 2019, while driving from South Africa toward Harare, his vehicle was involved in a crash near Masvingo that killed his wife, Rejoice Jerina Chiwenga, and two other church members.
From his hospital bed, Chiwenga insisted it was not an ordinary accident but an assassination attempt by “cruel politicians,” saying he had earlier written to President Mnangagwa warning that he was being stalked.
A second crash in July 2020 near Norton, which he also described as a deliberate assassination plot, left him with further serious injuries.
He has said he underwent multiple surgeries as a result of the two incidents.
In October 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that Chiwenga had fled his Harare home after telling the organisation he believed a state “Ferret team” had been sent to kill him for his activism.
He has since lived primarily in South Africa.
While he has repeatedly linked his departure to security threats arising from his sermons, he has also stated that he left mainly to seek medical treatment for injuries sustained in the accidents and that he did not flee solely out of fear of ZANU-PF.
In the recent address he said he has “made peace with” the possibility of death, arrest, imprisonment at facilities such as Chikurubi, or other outcomes, framing his return as a matter of spiritual duty.
He indicated he would surrender himself for any action arising from his past remarks.
The video has circulated widely among Zimbabweans online.
No official response from the government or police had been reported as of late Monday.
Chiwenga’s ministry maintains a presence in Harare, though he has conducted services and lived primarily abroad for several years.