Former congregants accuse archbishop of corruption

Soon the membership grew and congregants moved to a classroom at Sokwazi Secondary School in Zone Eight. Within a short space of time, these new premises also became too small to accommodate the growing number of worshippers flocking to the church in large numbers every week.

Again, not long, the church was relocated to the Shadaal Centre in Zone 13 before it was, for the third time, moved to the Sandamela Highway bottle store building in Sebokeng where its headquarters still stands.

It was around 2008 during the church’s meteoric rise through its founder’s fiery charismatic sermons which were broadcast religiously on several local and national radio stations former congregants claimed things began to go awry.

Detailing their displeasure with the archbishop, former church members accused their leader of duping them with muti into blindly embracing him and his charismatic gospel of instant earthly riches to Prof Somana at the WRL Commission. They said they were expected to pay several amounts into the church coffers, which they claimed were linked to the pockets of the archbishop.

However, through sermons heard on radio stations, the church still expanded its membership outside Sebokeng, including the townships of Kathorus.

The church boasted a membership of 10 000 followers in Sedibeng alone at the time and well over 40 branches across South Africa. In Evaton, the church erected a 700-seater tent to accommodate their congregants and also claimed a total of 25 full-time employees.

“We believe every believer must belong to, be attached to, firmly fixed in, committed and submitted to a local church,” wrote the archbishop on the church’s social media pages.

It is now these disgruntled former congregants, who once glorified the archbishop and called him a man of God, who have turned their backs on him, calling him a rapist, a molester, a hieratic and a wizard before the commission.