TURFED by the prophet
up. I have no choice. I have no other place to stay.”
Jali moved to Johannesburg from Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2000 with her mother and brother when she was 15. “There’s no work in Kranskop. My mother heard from a friend there’s a place here to stay. So we moved in.” She is unemployed and lives on welfare grants.
Her brother, Siyabonga, 25, was beaten on the head with rifle butts and told he was a hobo.
Philani Ngidi, 37, who does odd jobs on construction sites, said he was woken by guards smashing his door and wall down. “When I came out, they beat me with a big hammer on my back. I fell down and lay here
in pain for two hours. Then I walked to the hospital.”
Justice Mokone, 35, is a part-time panel beater who loves reading. His books, including a copy of The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, lay scattered among the wreckage.
“I only have a matric but when I get time, I study,” he said. “I’m not happy about this at all.”
Buzani Mbongwa, the group’s spokeswoman, is angry that “a man of God” could “chase children into the streets”.
Radebe, the church’s founder, is no stranger to controversy. Members of his church call themselves spiritual soldiers and often worship carrying spears and knobkerries and sometimes wearing traditional attire.
Last year, Radebe refused to appear before the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, which was investigating the commercialisation of religion and abuse of beliefs.
A month later, one of his followers, Koabeng Qhobela, allegedly threatened to kill commission chairwoman Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva after she had opened a case against Radebe for failing to appear. Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said she had since hired bodyguards and laid a charge against Qhobela.
She said church members had been frequenting Braamfontein, where her offices are, wearing Tshirts bearing Radebe’s name and the words “#handsoffourpastor”.
Qhobela’s case will be heard next week. Radebe could not be reached for comment.
When I came out they beat me with a big hammer on my back