UNHOLY PULPIT BRAWL
At least nine services of the Ethiopian Church of SA were disrupted by a leadership feud last Sunday
● Police had to intervene last Sunday when at least nine services of the Ethiopian Church of South Africa (ECSA) were disrupted by rival pastors fighting to occupy the pulpit.
There was pushing and shoving in several parishes across the country by pastors from two factions — each claiming to be the legitimate church structure.
All parishes of the Ethiopian Church now have two different pastors. This led to commotions on Sunday at churches in Paarl in the Western Cape; Vredefort, Sasolburg, Kroonstad and Bethlehem in the Free State; Klerksdorp and Orkney in North West; Sebokeng in Gauteng; and Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal.
In a video circulating among church members, seen by the Sunday Times, pastors at the church service in Klerksdorp had to be separated as they pushed and shoved each other on the pulpit in front of congregants.
The church, which has about 150 branches, has been rocked by a revolt by members calling themselves the “Hashtag Movement”, which launched a #LuphuwanaMustFall campaign against church leader Bishop Johnson Luphuwana.
The movement says Luphuwana and his executive committee have refused to step down as church leaders since their tenure expired in 2021.
On October 2022, the Dimbaza magistrate’s court in the Eastern Cape granted an order sought by the anti-Luphuwana group that an interim committee be set up to run the church until a new executive council could be appointed.
Luphuwana’s faction then obtained a high court order suspending the October 2022 ruling, pending an appeal they planned to file. It is unclear if an appeal has since been lodged.
The church split, and two separate conferences were held in Durban and in Orkney in December. The Orkney conference, attended by the Hashtag Movement, elected a new bishop, Makhaya Richard Matundu, and a new executive committee. Luphuwana remains leader of the other faction. Newly appointed general secretary the Rev Jabu Motsai, of the faction led by Matundu, said most church members are aligned to the new leaders.
“We’ve been in and out of courts since 2022, police are called to intervene when there is a conflict but things are getting worse as time progresses,” Motsai said, stressing that Matundu was now the rightful Ethiopian Church of South Africa leader.
Motsai is adamant that Luphuwana has been replaced by Matundu.
“The church had its elections … The bishop was elected democratically and the executive church council was also elected,” Motsai said. Everything had been done “in line with the constitution of the church”.
Sandile Zondi, general secretary of the Luphuwana faction, disagreed, saying his group had obtained an interdict from the Eastern Cape division of the high court in December that barred the Hashtag Movement from holding its gathering in Orkney.
“The church learnt the rebel group was convening a parallel conference in December 2023 … We went back to court to ask for the interdict of the parallel conference,” Zondi said.
He blamed the “rebel group” for the conflict rocking the church.
“The rebel group continued with their conference regardless and elected their bishop and executive. It is our view that this is now a new church as they went against the church instructions,” Zondi said.
The other faction has “no right to any of the church buildings or assets”.
“Last year they were able to occupy some buildings and this year we are not allowing them, using the police. They have attempted to fight physically but that will soon subside as the sheriffs are serving any disrupter with the court papers,” Zondi said.
Xoliswa Damane, one of the leaders of the Ethiopian Church of South Africa, said both factions are to blame for the disunity. “Now they’re fighting over a bank account,” she said.
The dispute is suspected to have led to the killing of the Rev Lizo Xolilizwe, who was shot in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, barely a week after being elected to lead the Western Cape region by a camp opposed to the leadership of Luphuwana.
Xolilizwe’s wife Nonkosi Xolilizwe told TimesLIVE at the time she did not know why her husband was killed, but he had spoken about feeling unsafe.