Church members want pastors banned after rape allegations
A group of members of the Five-Fold Interdenominational Church Outreach’s Pimville branch held a protest at the gate of the church on Sunday morning, calling for the resignation of a senior pastor.
A group of members of the Five-Fold Interdenominational Church Outreach’s Pimville branch held a protest at the gate of the church on Sunday morning, calling for the resignation of a senior pastor.
Earlier this month, members of the church accused a senior pastor of sexually assaulting young women and minors at the church.
The initially accused pastor has since been removed from his position and was succeeded by his wife, who congregants have now also demanded that she forfeit her role and have accused her of being an accomplice to the alleged assaults through bribery and intimidation.
The congregants gathered on Chris Hani Road, near Maponya Mall before marching to Pimville Zone 2 where the church is based. They protested outside the gate before submitting a memorandum that was to be escalated to the highest authority of the church. Amongst several points made in the memo, the members call for the arrest of both pastors and a ban prohibiting them from serving in any church in the country.
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The memorandum was received by representatives of the church, who declined to speak to Soweto Urban.
According to the fuming congregants, more than several young women, including minors had brought to the attention of the church’s committee allegations of having been sexually harassed by a pastor at the church. Some also claimed to have been bribed or intimidated to stay quiet allegedly by the pastor’s wife.
“She continues to phone and threaten the young women who were abused by her husband,” the memorandum read.
The Sowetan reported in early March that the church members also lodged a complaint with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission). In the complaint, it was alleged that one of the minors who was sexually abused by the pastor had fallen pregnant as a result.
Kliptown SAPS’s Captain Nomvula Mbense urged that anyone with concrete information should come forward and open a case even on behalf of the victims for a police investigation to begin. She also assured that police would provide safety if anyone had indeed been intimidated or silenced.
This is not the first time the church finds itself embroiled in sexual-related controversy. In 2015, a woman made headlines when she revealed that a deacon at the church had sent her unsolicited sexual pictures shortly after she joined.
The then 21-year-old woman told Daily Sun at the time that senior pastors at the church dismissed her complaint when she approached them with the matter. The deacon, however, claimed that interest between the pair had been mutual.
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