Celani Sikhakhane
Reverend Nkosinathi Mbatha, who stole an expensive coffin in May, was sentenced on Monday and has already started serving a two-year sentence in the Melmoth prison.
And while nobody is disowning the seventh commandment that says, “thou shalt not steal”, the church is divided over the matter. It cannot decide on the appropriate punishment for stealing a top-of-the-range Dome type coffin, the green runner and two grave anchor crosses.
The MaJerusalem Zion Church’s Reverend Mbatha was arrested in May for stealing the funeral equipment.
Some senior members of the church want him stripped of his Pastoral position while others suggest that jail time is punishment enough for the reverend.
Mbatha was arrested in ULundi on 15 May after the Celani Funeral Services property had a break in.
Later it was revealed that Mbatha, who owns a funeral parlour himself, had stolen the funeral equipment to bury a client.
Bishop Mthandeni Dlamuka said that they are ashamed of Mbatha and they will deal with him as a church.
“Some members of the church who were his friends supported him throughout the case. From our side we did not support him because he embarrassed us. We are planning to impose our own sentence which is to remove him from his position and give him a suspension from the church for three months or more,” said Dlamuka.
Other leaders don’t believe that Mbatha should be punished by his church because he is already sentenced by the court of law.
“I don’t think it’s our place as a church to punish or give him our own sentence. So if we do that it will mean we are overstepping,” said another bishop, who did not want to be named.
