Prophet Magaya said this report by the Zimbabwe Mail claiming he paid a man to settle an adultery lawsuit is false.

A Zimbabwean religious leader denied paying $150,000 to settle an adultery lawsuit. He says he never paid any sum or had the affair in question after a man named Denford Mutashu accused the religious leader, Prophet Walter Magaya of Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries of having an affair with his wife.

Mutashu dropped his lawsuit against the prophet last month and the Zimbabwe Mail claimed the prophet had paid him off. Magaya has threatened to sue the Mail if it doesn’t retract those claims.

Magaya’s lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, denied there was any payment and said the newspaper published a fake story.

“The allegations that you make about our client having paid for adultery that he never committed are astounding and an act of criminal nuisance,” Mpofu said, according to Zimbabwe news and online radio station Nehanda Radio.

Mutashu, the man who accused Magaya of adultery, also denied being paid any settlement and said he voluntarily dropped his lawsuit. “I had not been given money by anyone at anytime as had been reported by The Zimbabwe Mail,” Mutashu said, according to Nahanda Radio. Mutashu even went to Magaya’s church and “asked for forgiveness in front of thousands of people,” the Zimbabwe Daily News reported.

Magaya originally called for the newspaper to retract by Sept. 23, All Africa reported. That deadline has since passed, and iMediaEthics has asked Magaya through his ministries if he is moving forward with the lawsuit since the article in question was still published on the Zimbabwe Mail’s website.

The Sept. 17 story that Magaya has complained about is titled, “Adultery saga: Magaya settles out of court.” It claimed,

“Popular PHD Ministries founder, Prophet Walter Magaya, who was recently sued for adultery by a Harare man, has settled the matter out of court, amid reports he paid over $100 000 in damages.”

The claims were attributed to anonymous sources. The Mail reported:

“Although reasons for the withdrawal of the case were not stated in the notice of withdrawal in possession of The Zimbabwe Mail, the newspaper is reliably informed that Magaya would pay Mutashu about $150 000 in damages.”

Magaya was being sued for $500,000 by Denford Mutashu over accusations of an affair with Mutashu’s wife, Nomsa Ruvazhe, All Africa reported. He wanted the money “for the pain and suffering as well as public humiliation.”

iMediaEthics’ e-mails to the Zimbabwe Mail bounced back.