By Celani Sikhakhane
- Government officials rescued children from a KwaMaphumulo church property because members refuse to use public services like schools and hospitals.
- The provincial health minister wants police to arrest the church leaders for telling people to stop taking their ARV medicine.
The Department of Social Development has rescued children from a church in KwaZulu-Natal where members live completely cut off from the outside world.
More than 50 people have left their families and jobs to live full-time at the eKhaya labaFundi bakaJehova church in KwaMaphumulo.
The group farms crops and animals to survive. Members refuse to use public schools, clinics and hospitals, saying these places go against their faith.
Children at the church are not allowed to go to school. Instead, the church teaches them basic skills on the property.
Church leader Vusumuzi Sibiya said the property is only for people who follow the command of Jesus Christ.
“We are a holy nation, a nation separated unto God. How do we sustain ourselves? We do farming here,” he said.
Some members have stopped taking important medical treatments, including ARVs.
KwaZulu-Natal health minister Nomagugu Simelane-Mngadi said the church leaders are putting people’s lives in danger and must be arrested.
“We need to make sure that no one has a holiday from taking ARVs. This is a crime,” she said.
Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, agreed that the leader should be arrested.
She said the church is holding people and stopping them from getting healthcare and education.
“Their practices are so harmful because he detained people and refused them from taking chronic medical treatment,” she said.
Social Development spokesperson Thuba Vilane said social development minister Mbali Shinga will visit the church on Thursday.
She will be joined by Mkhwanazi-Xaluva to meet with the church leaders and discuss the complaints.
“We are going there on Thursday with the CRL Commission and will engage with the leaders of the church on several issues,” Vilane said.
Pictured above: MEC for Social Development Mbali Shinga and CRL Commission Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva intervened at the church cult, which had banned children from attending schools.
Image source: Department of Social Development
