Police say no confirmation received that man ‘resurrected’ by Alph Lukau has indeed died

Amid reports that wanted alleged fraudster Elliot Moyo has died, Gauteng police on Monday said it had not received official confirmation that the man “resurrected” by pastor Alph Lukau is indeed no more.

Spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubele said the search for the suspect continues and he remains wanted until police are informed that he is dead.

Zimbabwean weekly tabloid newspaper B-Metro reported that Moyo’s name was Thabiso Proud Mlanje. The 28-year-old ostensibly died on April 3, two days after being transferred to St Luke’s Hospital in Lupane, and was buried at his late father’s homestead in Dandanda Village.

His grandmother Emily Moyo had reportedly said her grandson had died a “painful death” and had been vomiting blood.

According to B-Metro, Moyo fell ill in February and did not properly recover even after he was “resurrected”; he returned to Zimbabwe with his wife on March 8.

In February, a video of pastor Lukau of Alleluia International Ministries church in Kramerville, Sandton, performing the supposed miracle went viral.

In the clip, a Kings and Queens Real Funerals hearse can be seen transporting a coffin into the church where Lukau and congregants pray before the man rises from the coffin, breathing heavily in what is apparently staged to be a miraculous resurrection.

The Sowetan reported that Lukau's church later claimed that the "dead" man was actually "already alive" when his "body" got to the premises. Lukau had reportedly only "completed a miracle that God had already started".

The U-turn came in the wake of Kings and Queens distancing itself from what transpired at the church at a media briefing, according to News24. 

News24 on Monday afternoon phoned Alleluia International Ministries but calls went unanswered.