By Celani Sikhakhane
- Police want to stop one Shembe church group from climbing their holy mountain at the same time as another group.
- The different Shembe groups must take turns to avoid fights on the mountain.
The decades-old fighting between two rival Baptist Nazareth Church factions over the right to climb the church’s sacred mountain in the KZN Midlands might be decided by courts.
A Shembe church group faces being stopped by police from making their yearly trip up their holy mountain because another church group will be there at the same time.
The Department of Justice wrote to the Nazareth Baptist Church’s ekuPhakameni group on 20 November.
The letter said police would ask a court on 29 November to stop them from climbing Nhlangakazi mountain near Montebello outside the small sugar-farming town of Dalton.
EkuPhakameni spokesperson Pastor Thetha Ngiba told Scrolla.Africa they got the letter from police.
“We are going to a meeting but we will talk to you later. Yes, the South African Police Service is planning to get a court order against our journey to the holy mountain,” said Ngiba.
The Church split it into two groups namely the Ekuphakameni founding fathers faction and the breakaway eBuhleni faction decades ago over a bitter leadership tussle for the soul of the church with a following of millions in KZN.
It isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2012, the eBuhleni group of the same church had to wait their turn to climb Nhlangakazi mountain to avoid clashing with ekuPhakameni members.
In January, the ekuPhakameni group climbed the mountain in Inanda for 15 days of prayer as part of their yearly pilgrimage. Police had to guard them during their climb up the mountain outside Durban.
The Shembe church has split into three groups – eBuhleni, ekuPhakameni and Ginyezinye. They must take turns climbing the mountain to stop fights.
The eBuhleni group wasn’t supposed to climb the mountain last time because they were fighting over who should lead them.
This leadership fight started in April 2011 when Vimbeni Shembe, who led the biggest group of the church, died.
Pictured above: Police plan to file a court order against the Shembe Nazareth Baptist Church ekuPhakameni faction led by Inkosi Vukile Ncoyincoyi Shembe.
Source: Supplied
