Mixing sex with religion

PASTOR Timothy Omotoso is not the first religious leader in this country to face claims of abuse:

Archbishop Sandile

Christopher Ndlovu of the National Christian Assemblies of God in Port Shepstone was exposed for having sex with more than 30 women. He was arrested in 2007 on charges that included rape and indecent assault, but was acquitted in 2010. Dozens of women flocked to him because they wanted to pass “through the Pearly Gates”.

Theunis Christiaan Olivier admitted to indecently assaulting and sodomising as many as 2 000 children in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Under the alias Brian Shannon, Olivier, was arrested in 2004 on five charges of indecent assault. Olivier was working as a Sunday school teacher in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, at the time. The case was thrown out due to bungling by police and prosecutors. In 2007 Olivier was jailed for life for killing a six-year-old in 2005.

Pastor Bongani Ndwandwe of Mandlankala in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, was sentenced in 2015 to 10 years for sexually assaulting two close relatives. The court heard that Ndwandwe first raped the older victim when she was 19. He was also accused of raping a 15year-old pregnant relative. The court found that he abused the children after their mother died.

In 2014, Catholic priest Georg Kerkhoff was extradited from South Africa to Germany to face allegations of sexual assault of children in that country. He was convicted on 25 charges and sentenced to six years in prison. He had been arrested in South Africa after being accused of molesting five children at a youth camp in Brits, North West, in 2008.

In May 2016, Pastor Mthuthuzeli Mnapi of the Christ Healing Fountain Church was found guilty of raping two young women — who had come to him for help after being raped by other men. — Yasantha Naidoo, Bongani Mthethwa and Nathi Olifant