PENTECOSTAL clergyman Pastor Hastings Salanje has boasted that no other man of God has his collection of cars and lives as well as he does with his collection of choice homes and ostentatious wealth.
Pastor Salanje, originally from Malawi but now living in South Africa from where he runs his Wells of Revival Ministries in Johannesburg, has become a social media sensation, gaining more than 4,000 followers since starting his Facebook page earlier this year. He has now taken to Facebook to flaunt his home and cars and to also challenge anyone who could find a pastor that lives as well as does.
“Find me a pastor who is living in a house same like mine and I will give you R2500. I want you to find me three cars similar to my one car, that Mercedes Benz S500 or 600 Blue Efficiency 2012 to 2015 Facelift and I will reward you with R5000.
"If you get one I will give you R2500, the car must be in Malawi and with a Malawian number plate, whether belongs to the government I don’t mind. If you do that then I will know that your claim is right and I will stop testifying but if you don’t then you are in trouble because I have just testified 20% of what God has done in the past 12 months," Pastor Salanje wrote on his page.
Unlike most clergymen, Pastor Salanje does not use the platform to share scriptures or reach out to his followers but rather uses it to brag and show off his riches. His Facebook page is littered with images of his expensive cars and upmarket mansion.
His bragging has gained him a lot of criticism from those he refers to as haters, however. Pastor Salanje used to live in Lilongwe before fleeing the country amid rumours which suggested he was a Satanist and his church, Wells of Revival Ministry was established in August 2000 in Blantyre, Malawi.
Five out of the world's 10 richest clergymen are Nigerian evangelical pastors according to the latest list compiled by online millionaires' portal www.richestlifestyle.com. In a list published in March this year, the portal revealed that Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor TB Joshua, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, and Pastor Chris Okotie feature as numbers one, two, seven, eight and nine respectively.
Known as pastorprueners, Nigeria's evangelical clergymen are both wealthy and highly influential. Apart from owning churches where worshipers have to pay 10% of their earnings, most of them also own businesses, including universities and media outlets and most of them also own one or several private jets and are behind the rising boom of the private aircraft industry in Nigeria.
