Religious sector needs scrutiny
THERE have been a lot of cases involving unscrupulous church characters in the Eastern Cape in recent weeks.
To say these – which vary from alleged rape by a church elder, church members allegedly killing police and a “prophet” claiming to make the disabled walk again – bring the churches into disrepute, is an understatement.
Today, we report on how the popular Pentecostal church in East London, the Spirit Life Church led by pastor Jay Israel Senior, has been lying to desperate people that he can make disabled people walk again.
He supposedly does this by simply praying for the people, who miraculously get up from their wheelchairs and suddenly walk.
This is nothing but part of his broader scam to con people who are desperate to believe in miracles, as he also charges people at least R500 just to have a one-on-one consultation with him.
The more people believe he has been chosen by God as he claims to be, the more they will pay to have private sessions with him, and the more his purse will swell.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Kwanele Ndwalana, 22, and Siphosomzi Tshefu, 23, who confessed to the brutal killing of the five police officers and a soldier in Ngcobo last month, told the Ngcobo Magistrate’s Court that two of the guns used to kill the officers had been taken from police officers in Butterworth and Cala.
They also implicated Phutumile Mancoba, one of the leaders of the controversial Angels Ministry Church in Ngcobo.
The Dispatch also reported how an elder at the Peniel Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mdantsane had resigned after he was accused of repeatedly raping a relative.
These were just recent incidents as churches and their leaders have been in the news for the wrong reasons, like spraying congregants with Doom insect killer and churchgoers made to eat snakes and grass.
South Africa is a secular state, which means because of the several religions in the country, no religion is placed above the other, but the majority of South Africans look up to church leaders to lead the charge for moral regeneration.
This then expedites the need to investigate the nature of churches – starting with their finances.
There has been a lot of commercialisation of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems in the country, which led to the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Communities recommending in Parliament that religions should be regulated. It recommended every religious practitioner must be registered and fall under umbrella organisations. But the recommendations were never implemented.
Every sector must be scrutinised so that we avoid a repeat of what happened in Ngcobo last month.