By Celani Sikhakhane
- Members of eKhaya labaFundi bakaJehova held a mass prayer protest on Thursday before government leaders visited the camp in KwaMaphumulo.
- More than 50 church followers have left home and stopped taking chronic medicine to focus entirely on their religious faith.
More than 50 people have left their families, jobs and businesses to live full-time at a church near Stanger in the north of KwaZulu-Natal.
Followers of eKhaya labaFundi bakaJehova have taken their children out of school. Many have stopped taking Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), which are medications used to treat and prevent HIV and other chronic medicine to focus on prayers. They say medical care goes against their faith.
The group is led by Vusumuzi Sibiya. He calls himself a messenger. He claims his followers are a holy nation who must be separated from the system of the world.
Members now live full-time on the church property, where they grow their own food and keep animals. They do not visit clinics or hospitals and refuse to mix with anyone outside the group.
On Thursday, members held a mass prayer protest. They wanted to show the government that they chose to join the church to be spiritually saved and to escape the social problems of the world.
They told journalists that nobody forced them to leave their homes and move to the camp.
The protest happened just before a visit by top government leaders. Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, the chairperson of the CRL Rights Commission, and KZN social development MEC Mbali Shinga arrived on Thursday morning.
Mkhwanazi-Xaluva has said she is worried about the church. She said its practices are very dangerous to human life.
The government leaders came to meet with church leaders to discuss what is happening at the camp. Details of the meeting were not known on Thursday afternoon.
The visit comes a week after some children were taken from the church property so they could go back to school.
Pictured above: Church members of eKhaya labaFundi bakaJehova pray during a protest on Thursday.
Image source: Facebook
