‘Your own president said you’re thieves’ – Mashatile gets grilled at church service

Twelve Apostles Church in Christ’s chief apostle Caesar Nongqunga told Deputy President Paul Mashatile that while the church had no right to call ANC corrupt, it could not reject President Cyril Ramaphosa’s comment on corruption.

Mashatile attended the church’s Thanksgiving service on Sunday, where he had to listen to stinging words from the church leader.

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Nongqunga used Ramaphosa’s 2020 letter to ANC members, where he admitted the ruling party was “accused number 1” of corrupt.

At the time, Ramaphosa said the anger of the general public towards the ruling party’s conduct was “understandable and justified”, as party leaders were accused of corruption during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the time, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said it had picked up on at least 17 corrupt tender awards in which “politically exposed persons” were involved.

“Today, the ANC and its leaders stand accused of corruption. The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as Accused No. 1,” said Ramaphosa.

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Among the solutions suggested by Ramaphosa were lifestyle audits of all ANC leaders, public representatives, senior public services and leaders of public entities, and to development “a clear policy on ANC leaders and their family members doing business with the State”.

The letter came back to haunt the ruling party.

‘Ramaphosa called you thieves’

“What we call the kingdom of God, is the alignment of your mind, will and purpose of God. If your mind is not aligned to the will of God and purpose of God, then you’re not in the Kingdom,” said Nongqunga.

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“God requires that all his people on earth, others are witches, others thieves – the ones that you are. It is your own principal who called you thieves, it is not me. We are talking about the things your own president said and said you steal from the public purse.

“You can’t query me on this one because you will be unfair. You should have queried him that day he said it. We were shocked and asked ourselves what type of a leader is this? How can you call out your own people in this manner?

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“People in the ANC are insulted everywhere, people say you’re thieves and they’re bold in saying that because your own principal said you’re thieves. You will say people have lost faith in you, but it’s things we need to correct together ourselves. There is no ANC constitution – because we were there – that said people should steal money. We don’t have the power to say you are thieves, but we can’t reject what your number 1 said.”

Mashatile: ‘You were right’

Responding to the sermon, Mashatile told the church he was “right”, adding that he appreciated the criticism.

“The chief apostle asked me if he was not too harsh. I said ‘No. No, you were right. Because if you don’t criticise we will not know. The leaders of the church and traditional leaders, when things are not going right in government, must criticise. Don’t be afraid, because when you criticise, we know what to fix,'” said Mashatile.

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“Chief apostle, you were not harsh, that’s what we wanted to hear, because the criticism says fix here and there. By doing so, we will all reconcile and build a stronger movement going forward. I was happy when you said let’s deal with the things of today and tomorrow, not the things that went wrong in the past. This is an opportunity to rebuild and start a new chapter together.”