Pachena
Ex-convict, tenderpreneur, church benefactor and friend of presidents, Wicknell Chivayo, a polarising figure, who called himself Mukuru weMazuva (The Ancient of Days) died tragically on Wednesday around 5pm when his helicopter crashed and caught fire in Marondera, Zimbabwe.
The Ancient of Days, is a biblical title for God from the Biblical Book of Daniel.
Many Christians accused him of blasphemy, but controversy and Chivayo were joined at the hip.
He was a polarising figure in life and death, with many Zimbabweans openly celebrating his death on social media while many others are mourning his sudden demise.
For a man who spent years making social media announcements telling chosen Zimbabweans to “go and see Victor” to collect vehicles he had gifted them, Wicknell Chivayo’s final journey ended without warning, in the wreckage of a helicopter in the farmlands of Marondera.
The aircraft came down in Marondera Rural, about 74 kilometres south-east of Harare, at around 5pm on Wednesday. Five people were on board, among them Chivayo’s wife, Lucy ‘Lulu’ Muteke, and two pilots.
Government spokesman Nick Mangwana said there were no survivors. It was in Marondera, only last year, that Chivayo paid a reported US$300,000 in lobola for his bride.
He was born Wicknell Munodaani Chivayo in 1982 and raised in the Gandami area of Chivhu.
His father died in a car accident when he was about ten.
He left school in 1996, worked briefly as a wages clerk, and then found his first trade among the illegal money changers of Harare’s Union Avenue flea market.
That trade led him to prison. In 2004 he was convicted of theft by false pretences after taking about R837,000 in a currency deal he never completed. He served time at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
Asked about that record in a 2016 interview with Zimbabwean journalist, Herbert Moyo, he was contrite in words but defiant in tone. He called it “a regrettable phase” and styled himself a “rags to riches” story.
“Firstly, my criminal record from 2002 is a public matter and during a regrettable phase in my life where I made some wrong, unwise choices, while I was young. Looking in retrospect I went through a difficult period but ultimately it provided me with an opportunity to start afresh after much introspection, regret and self-examination,” said Chivayo at the time.
“At this point through my success I want to give other people like you ‘permission ‘to get out there and win!!! My success and many others represent the possibility of what can be accomplished in life so never give up.”
Then came the line that captured the man.
“I have no PHD or MBA or any degree whatsoever,” he said, “but the people I employ all have that rubbish.”
Indeed, he had become something of a cult hero among many urban youths because of the wealth he had accumulated despite not being highly educated. He was often used as an example, on the streets, that connections and ingenuity mattermore than education.
In the interview with Moyo, he described himself as a third-generation businessman. He called the late Vice President John Landa Nkomo “my uncle, mentor and hero”. He declared himself unashamed to be a beneficiary of the late President Robert Mugabe’s indigenisation policies. To critics who said he fronted for powerful politicians, he replied that he had yet to meet these “mythical and fictitious people”.
“I can assure you that while my enemies and competitors are searching high and low for the foreign interests and senior politicians that I allegedly front for. Our company Intratrek and myself will continue looking for and winning opportunities to improve the lives of Zimbabweans while enjoying life and making a lot of money. (sic)
“If at all my success in 2015 disappointed you, I’m sorry to say 2016 is going to be another bad year for you. When these mythical and fictitious people that I allegedly front for are eventually brought to life, I will also be glad to meet them,” he said.
By then his company, Intratrek Zimbabwe, had won three energy tenders he valued at US$443 million. They were the Gairezi hydro scheme, the Munyati thermal rehabilitation and the 100-megawatt Gwanda solar plant. Intratrek had no track record in power generation.
Gwanda became his first defining scandal. In 2016 the Zimbabwe Power Company paid Intratrek a US$5 million advance, reportedly on the insistence of the then Energy Minister, Samuel Undenge without the bank guarantee meant to protect public funds. Chivayo promised the plant within 24 months. “Where I’m actively involved,” he boasted, “failure is not an option.”
A decade later, Gwanda still has no solar farm.
The courts were kinder than the critics. He was arrested in 2018 and acquitted in 2019. The Supreme Court ordered a fresh trial in 2020, but in 2024 he was acquitted again. Intratrek later won damages against the power utility. In 2025 the government said it would revive the contract.
His greatest talent was political survival and the ability to charm those in the top echelons of power.
When the army toppled Mugabe in November 2017, many Mugabe loyalists fell with him. Chivayo simply crossed the floor.
Within months he was a fixture at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s side, later backing calls for him to rule beyond his constitutional term. In January 2025 he even dismissed Vice President Constantino Chiwenga as a “failed politician”.
His reach went well beyond Zimbabwe. Africans grew used to his social media posts beside presidents such as Cyril Ramaphosa, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Bola Tinubu (Nigeria), Lazarus Chakwera (Malawi), Peter Mutharika (Malawi), William Ruto (Kenya) and King Mswati of Eswatini.
He was particularly close to Ruto, who took to social media to offer the Chivayo family and Mnangagwa condolences hours after the accident.
His wealth had seen him buying high-end property and embarking on endless shopping trips in foreign capitals.
In June this year, he acquired and furnished a mansion in Clifton, one of Cape Town’s most exclusive oceanfront suburbs, for a reported R160 million (about US$10 million), joining a roster of wealthy and celebrity residents.
In July, Chivayo has unveiled his R50 million (US$2.8 million) luxury mansion in Eswatini.
At home, the money flowed in public. Prominent church leaders, gospel musicians, socialites, content creators, sports stars, journalists, lawyers and other high-profile Zimbabweans would find their name in capital letters on his social media page. They were to go to the dealership and see Victor, where a vehicle was waiting. Many members of his apostolic church received Toyota Aquas.
Many saw money-laundering instead of philanthropy.
He was a beneficiary of inflated state tenders, because of his proximity to power. For example, an analysis of data by investigative journalists at The NewsHawks unearthed massive profiteering of up to 30 000% by Chivayo and his associates in the corrupt US$100 million electoral supplies deal between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and South African company Ren-Form CC during the 2023 general elections.
The allegations attracted the attention of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) but the commission cleared him in December 2025, with chair Michael Reza, revealing had hit a dead end.
“So we went to ZEC and asked for the contracts,” Reza said, speaking on the sidelines of an event to mark International Anti-Corruption Day in Harare. “The answer was that they don’t know these people… they have not done any business with them.
“We went to Chivayo, and he said the same. A contract is what links parties to a transaction – and there is no such document.”
Chivayo was a white-robed Madzibaba of the Johane MasoweeChishanu church, part of the apostolic movement that has become a loyal constituency of Zanu PF. He bankrolled its gatherings as freely as he funded the party.
Online, he was a brawler. His longest feud was with former Mount Pleasant legislator Fadzayi Mahere. She demanded answers on the Gwanda solar project, telling him he had been “contracted to build a solar farm”.
He died with his along with his wife, Lucy Muteke, who he married after his earlier marriage to Sonja Madzikanda, ended in 2024.
To his beneficiaries, he was a saviour, philanthropist and an inspiration.
To his critics, he was the gaudiest symbol of a captured state and a poster boy of high-level corruption.
The sudden and unexpected tragic passing on of Mr and Mrs Chivayo, two crew members and a security aide in a helicopter crash yesterday afternoon left our Nation, my family, and me personally numbed and in deep shock and grief. We are all shattered by this unexpected, sudden…
— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) October 1, 2026
I am deeply saddened by the tragic passing of my friend, Wicknell Chivayo, together with his wife, Lucy Muteke, and the other lives lost in the helicopter crash in Zimbabwe. Their sudden departure is a painful loss to their families, friends and all who knew them.
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) September 30, 2026
Wicknell was a…
