Fire that liar
When creepy Pastor Sipho claims that Khanyo seduced him, Phakade knows who to believe.
“Sex pests are the worst thing that can happen in a church,” says actor Sandile Dlamini (Phakade). “Once the community feels that a church has stories like that, they lose hope that they can ever get help from that place”. And so while Sandile is against physical violence in real life, he found it hugely satisfying as Phakade and the choir give Pastor Sipho (Thabo Mnguni) the boot for seducing and sexually abusing young women in his care. “You cannot give somebody blows like that even when they do things that bad, that wrong. It was satisfying when I kicked him out the church and saw the choir women stripping him and making sure that he leaves and never, never comes back,” Sandile says with a soft laugh. “I don’t like people who behave in that manner. It’s a very personal feeling that people can’t abuse sexually other people or take advantage when they see vulnerability in a woman. They need to respect other people’s bodies.” And it’ll be quite a turn up for Pastor Sipho when he realises that his priest’s collar won’t shield him from suspicion.
TRUE FAITH
When Pastor Sipho treated the choir as his personal harem during February, he was relying on a long-standing habit that communities around the world have of automatically disbelieving women and children who make claims of sexual abuse, particularly against people in positions of power. But in the first week of March, Sipho discovers that he’s picked a fight with the wrong community. When he goes too far with Khanyo (Nqobile Ndlovu), she goes straight to her father Phakade with not only her story but the stories of the other women that Sipho has seen as prey, which they have brought to her in trust. And when Phakade believes her, their faith in one another as a family stops Sipho in his tracks when Sipho tries to claim that Khanyo came onto him. He knows that’s nonsense!
“Phakade knows that she would not have done what Sipho is claiming she did. He knows that Khanyo is aware that this kind of behaviour could greatly jeopardise her opportunity to be a priest, because that can affect her career,” explains Sandile. “So Phakade does not believe Sipho. And Phakade actually grabs the man because he has learnt that other girls are accusing this pastor of the same thing and that makes Phakade even angrier because why didn’t he pick this up? That girls in the church have been abused by this pastor is so horrific.” And when Phakade stands up for their daughters, the community stands up for him too, welcoming him back at last into the church that his father built.