Bishop Zondo fails to stop public hearings into ‘sexual abuse’

The High Court in Johannesburg has dismissed an application by controversial Pastor Bishop Bafana Zondo and his church Rivers of Living Waters Ministry to interdict the CRL commission from holding public hearings into allegations of sexual assault at the church.

The urgent application was heard, virtually, by Judge Leonie Windell on Friday. It was launched by Zondo, the church, and Lydia Malete, a senior pastor at the church who has been summoned to appear before the commission on Monday.

On behalf of Zondo, Advocate Ishmael Semenya argued that the commission did not act within its rights when it held publicly broadcast hearings last month into the allegations against him and the church, and that the allegations that emerged put Zondo’s life in danger.

“This application does not want to stop the investigation by the commission. What we don’t know is that Monday is just one of the days in which the first applicant is called to give evidence. We are not told that that is the end of these hearings, it may very well be that on Tuesday and Wednesday they have called other parties that are not before the court.

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“So we [are] saying the commission is entitled by law to do their investigations but are they entitled to do it by way of public broadcast in matters in which these injurious allegations keep being repeated in the public spaces? That is the nature of the application, we are not stopping them at all,” said Semenya.

CRL within its rights

Representatives of the commission argued that it was well within its rights to hold public hearings and that the allegations were already in the public domain. They said the applicants had the option to testify in camera and that if the commission did not grant them that option, only then should they approach the courts.

“… the commission can decide to hold the testimony in camera so all of the harm that my learned friend has brought to court today can be avoided by applying to the commission who will make a decision,” argued Advocate Duncan Stubbs on behalf of the CRL.

“If my learned friend is not happy with the decision, that is the point in time the applicant would come to the court and say we will not preside in open hearings we have given the commission, a constitutional entity, a chance to consider this issue, they have considered it wrongly and we ask the court to please assist us. It is at that point that that should happen not at this point,” he added.

In her judgment, Windell noted that the commission had very broad powers as defined in the CRL Act.

“The applicants submit that the commission’s decision to hold open hearings is unlawful and contrary to the act but refer to no provision that prohibits the conduct of open hearings and they do not resonate with the clear language of the act in regard to the commission’s process which vests the commission with a broad discretion,” she said.

“I am further satisfied that the applicants have in any event not established a clear right. The applicants based their clear right on the constitutional right to dignity, privacy, thought, belief and opinion: The rights on which they rely are rights that is shared by everyone in the Republic. It is not sufficient for the applicants to assert merely that they have these rights,” she added.

Windell also agreed with the commission that the allegations were already in the public domain, as the matter was of public interest, and that Zondo and the church had the opportunity to refute the allegations by appearing before the commission.

“The event that has given rise to the alleged violation of the applicant’s dignity is the hearings in November. The applicants are now being given an opportunity to put forward their own versions and refute the allegations if they are able,” she said.

Before the commission commences on Monday afternoon, Semenya will be arguing for leave to appeal the decision.

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