Shembe faction finally wins court battle
IT HAS taken five long years in which Shembe followers battled it out inside and outside court, but yesterday Durban High Court Judge Achmat Jappie finally ruled that Vela Shembe had been nominated by the church’s late leader to be the head of the eBuhleni-based Nazareth Baptist Church.
Judge Jappie ruled that a deed of nomination, which was the key piece of evidence relied on by Vela Shembe, and which stated that late leader Vimbeni Shembe had nominated him as leader, was a valid document.
The judge said Vimbeni’s son Mduduzi Shembe, who was announced as the leader at his father’s funeral, had failed to show that his father had verbally nominated him.
The court’s ruling places Vela in charge of all assets of the church and would also make him the sole trustee of the Church of Nazareth Ecclesiastical Endowment Trust, which has control of properties owned by the church.
Vela would also be the legally recognised leader of more than 2 million followers.
While the wealth of the eBuhleni church has never been revealed, in court documents the church previously said that it makes an income of several million rand a year.
But the legal battle is not over as the court’s judgment will remain suspended because Mduduzi’s advocate Rajesh Choudree was granted leave to appeal against the judgment.
The church was faced with a leadership crisis after Vimbeni Shembe died in 2011.
Vela, who is Vimbeni’s cousin, and Vimbeni’s attorney Zwelabantu Buthelezi said the late leader had nominated Vela as the leader and went to court to be declared the leader.
Mduduzi said he had been verbally nominated by his father and announced as the leader by inkosi Mqoqi Ngcobo at Vimbeni’s funeral.
Followers of Mduduzi Shembe, who watched the judgment on a large screen erected at Albert Park yesterday, said the court’s ruling did not affect their spiritual belief that Mduduzi was their leader.
The followers said they did not feel defeated at all and would not recognise anyone other than Mduduzi as their “lord”.
Choudree told the crowd that they should not lose faith as there were various issues the legal team would use to challenge the court’s judgment on appeal.
“The fight goes on. As long as Unyazi (Mduduzi) is with us, who can defeat us.”
Speaking after the ruling, Vela told the media that he felt that the late leader Vimbeni Shembe had been vindicated by the court’s ruling as he had been insulted and labelled as someone who could not be trusted.
“But today the judge has told everyone who was nominated by Uthingo (Vimbeni Shembe).”
In his judgment, Judge Jappie said if the deed of nomination was a fraudulent document, then it would have had to have been as a result of a “conspiracy” orchestrated by the church’s general secretary Chauncey Sibisi and Vimbeni’s attorney, Buthelezi.
The judge said while Sibisi had been challenged about how he ran the affairs of the church, there was no evidence to show what Buthelezi stood to gain by being involved in a conspiracy.
He also relied on the evidence of two handwriting experts, who found that Vimbeni’s signature on the deed of nomination was genuine.