Rapist pastor cites jealousy for his sexual crimes charges
Thubakgale, who is serving life jail term, ‘raped minors’
A convicted rapist pastor is on trial for further rape charges of more minor victims.
The Limpopo High Court in Polokwane heard that pastor James Thubakgale, 58, leader of Divine Deliverance Church of Christ in Seshego, had targeted young female congregants and raped them.
Prosecutor Erick Mabapa said Thubakgale raped two minors at hotels.
“Mr Thubakgale, you raped one minor at Carousel Hotel and at the time she was on her menstruation. And you had a towel to wipe her,” he said.
Mabapa said that in a similar incident, another minor was also taken to a lodge and raped.
“The minor was on her period too. You also raped another minor who was a high school pupil in Polokwane,” he said.
The court heard Thubakgale was footing the bill for the high school pupil’s rent.
He is serving two life sentences after he was convicted of the rape of two girls, aged 14 and 16, after he was sentenced in the Mankweng regional court last year.
Thubakgale has denied raping all the girls and women he is accused of attacking, and blamed other people for being jealous of his career as a pastor. “I was running a successful church and it was always full to capacity. Then people I regarded as senior church members were scheming behind my back,” he said.
Thubakgale said he had no reason to rape because he is capable of expressing his love interests to women.
He is facing five charges of rape, extortion and assault with grievous bodily harm.
The state alleged that Thubakgale would force his congregant to pay tithes and when some failed to do so he would assault them.
Judge Gerrit Muller postponed the matter for further evidence.
The pastor, who appeared without a lawyer, shocked the court when he claimed that he has amazing healing powers and could cure a person living with disability.
He told the court he has cured some of his congregants who were unable to walk on their own. “I prayed for people using crutches and wheelchairs, and they got healed through my anointing prayers. I prayed for, helped and healed my congregants.”
The former member of the SA National Defence Force said he became a pastor in 2006 after “God told me to leave the army”.
“I was attending a church when a word of God spoke to me to quit the SANDF after 21 years of service and start my own church. I resigned as the word further instructed me to use my garage at home as a prayer point.”
The pastor told the court that at the time of his arrest in 2019, he had 37 pastors under his church and branches in Makotopong, Capricorn district and Burgersfort in Sekhukhune.
Mabapa asked Thubakgale if he was running a cult masquerading as a church, as many people alleged.
The pastor denied he was running a cult. “Some people were not happy with the church, hence they reported me to the police and media that I have buried bodies in the church yard. Police came with sniffing dogs and couldn’t find anything, and the story was published in Sowetan.”
His accomplice Sophonia Matsobane Mafa, 50, and Lucky Ramohlale Mafa, 27, from Seshego, who are facing charges of extortion and assault respectively, were not in court yesterday.