A married church bishop is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after he allegedly tried to get one of his congregants to perform an abortion on at least four occasions.
Bishop Nathan Tafadzwa Gwenyanya, the founding leader of the Rock Foundation Tabernacle church has also been accused of raping his congregant, 25-year-old Lince Siiwa.
Details of the sordid affair came out publicly when Siiwa dragged the Bishop to court for failing to maintain his son, the product of the alleged rape. Siiwa demanded $25,000 per month for the maintenance of the child who is now 10-months-old.
However, Bishop Gwenyanya engaged Siiwa over the matter and the two eventually agreed to an out of court settlement which will see the man of the cloth paying $11,000 per month as maintenance.
Siiwa later told the Manica Post that she had almost died during the abortion attempts. She further alleged that the bishop tricked her into travelling with him to Vumba after lying that they were going to visit and minister to other congregants. After getting to Vumba, however, the Bishop allegedly tried to seduce her, before forcing himself on her, when she resisted.
Siiwa went on to say that when she discovered that she was pregnant, Bishop Gwenyanya sent his colleague to abort the pregnancy. She claimed that the abortion attempts all failed and that on one occasion she almost died.
She then went on to say, when he realised that the abortion was not working, the Bishop ordered her to lie to her family that her pregnancy was a result of rape by an unknown perpetrator.
She did not explain why the police were not been involved. Bishop Gwenyanya chose not to comment on the matter and referred all questions to his lawyer Stephen Chikamhi.
Chikamhi claimed that his client was the victim of a blackmail plot perpetrated by one of the pastors who wanted to take over the church. He also claimed that Siiwa had never told Bishop Gwenyanya that he was the father of the child.
