Lead us not into temptation Makamu’s ‘tlof tlof’ audio recording splits the flock
There’s a promo on Moja Love channel on Dstv wherein a man walks the streets with a horde of followers behind him. He purports to be a solver of many a rift between relatives, friends and neighbours. At the end of the promo, his flock acknowledge his counsel by shouting the name of his programme, Rea Tsotella (We care) in unison.
The presenter is the famous pastor, Bishop Israel Makamu, who has carved a niche in many living rooms by bringing the conflicted in his studio to hang in public their dirty linen. The show is entertaining and one of the long-running programmes on Moja Love.
Siblings and their parents bare their all in front of our screens while the studio audience and viewers at home lap it up with glee.
There are bodyguards on hand to prevent fisticuffs when emotions run high.
Bishop Makamu found himself in the eye of a storm after an audio recording emerged wherein he seems to be begging for carnal union from an unnamed lady.
The man of God reportedly admitted that it was his voice on the audio recording although he disputes that he was soliciting for nookie. In the recording, he is heard asking the lady for her address and whether she would “give it” to him when he arrives, to which she responds that she would do so on Sunday.
The bishop has since stepped aside from presenting the popular programme while Moja Love investigates. In a country where men of the cloth have not covered themselves in glory, Makamu’s indiscretions have provided cannon fodder for moralists and sinners alike.
His staunch supporters see nothing wrong that a married man and pastor would drive around soliciting for sex while others deem his actions as deplorable.
Others have pointed out that many a powerful man has succumbed to the lure of tlof tlof (sexual intercourse) at a great cost to their careers.
From Adam in the Garden of Eden, to Samson whose wife Delilah shopped him to his enemies, to King David who deliberately put the husband of his love interest, Uriah, in the frontline to be killed so he could have his way with Bathsheba, the biblical connotations are deliberate and will not be lost to Makamu, who has his own ministry apart from Rea Tsotella.
Others have hinted that the woman might be a storm in a tea cup of pastors who routinely solicit for sex among their flock. There is no word in public on how his wife received the news but South Africans have had a field day in a court of public opinion. “Let him without a sin cast the first stone”, shouted his supporters, quoting Jesus Christ in the Bible when a sinning woman was about to be stoned to death.
Let many more women come out of the woodwork and recount the pastors’ overtures, shouted the other side, baying for more titbits.
The bishop may as well beg for forgiveness.
After all, the Bible says you must not have lust for your neighbour’s wife.