ANC-linked church leader on the run from Limpopo police

A warrant of arrest has been issued for an unidentified church leader and member of the ANC’s Concerned South Africans Group after he failed to hand himself over to police despite promising to do so.

This is in connection with sexual assault allegations made against him by one of his former employees for an incident that reportedly happened in June after he allegedly used the promise of a meeting with Faith Muthambi to lure his employee out of her hotel and into the bushes in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, reports Sunday World.

According to the publication, the woman whose identity is being withheld shared details about the work trip that preceded the alleged assault.

“We arrived in Thohoyandou on a Saturday night, July 15, for a meeting on July 16. That same night, the man received a call and told us it was Muthambi on the phone and she had asked to meet with him. He told the two colleagues to stay behind as he was only taking me to meet Muthambi. We drove for some time until I realised we were driving into some bushes. I became scared, I asked where we were going and asked him to call Muthambi again. He then made a call but the phone was off. I pleaded with him to drive out of the bushes because it was not safe,” she said.

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She opened a case two weeks later and reported the matter to Luthuli House. She initially opened the case at a Johannesburg police station, where she alleges that an officer tried to discourage her from filing charges, but the matter was referred to Limpopo, as that is where the alleged assault took place.

The woman also filed a case at the CCMA after the man allegedly unfairly dismissed her towards the end of July and withheld her salary for that month.

When contacted by the publication, Muthambi denied knowing the man in question and requested that he leave her name out of his controversies.

The paper contacted him again this week after finding out that the woman had written a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking him to help her find justice as the man has managed to evade the law over the past few months.

He told Sunday World that he has just been indisposed and that he was not on the run.

“Who said I’m running away from the police? At one point I was in Cape Town and at another point I was involved in an accident. Even now I am in Cape Town attending an ANC meeting,” he told the publication.

He also allegedly told the paper he had met with the police at a station before changing his story and stating that the meeting happened at a place the police told him to go, which was not a police station.

Limpopo police have denied this and state they they are still looking for him.

They had to issue a warrant for his arrest after going to his Joburg office and not finding him there. He has reportedly not shown up for work over the past two months.

The presidency has referred all queries on this matter to the ANC, who have yet to comment.

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