Doreen Mokgolo
Bishop Paul Chimpara first formed his breakaway church in 2018 to escape the fierce conflict between Zimbabwean congregations in Tshwane.
But four years later, the bishop found himself unable to escape the conflict. This came to a head when his five-year-old daughter was kidnapped by a rival congregation earlier this month.
Violence is so rife that the Zimbabwean congregations of the Johannes Masowe Apostolic-affiliated churches meet in the open veld because it is seen as safer.
Leaders vying for influence and power has led to a string of violent clashes between the churches in recent years.
Bishop Chimpara says he and his family received death threats from church leaders for trying to take over the leadership of the main branch in Ga-Rankuwa, forcing him to form a breakaway congregation in Dilopye, Hammanskraal in 2018.
His church has attracted more than 1,000 congregants, many of whom defected from his previous congregation. This attracted unwanted attention from the rival church leaders who have allegedly turned to violence to win back their congregants.
The bishop said during a night vigil in 2019 two men from the old church confessed to him that they had been hired to kill him.
“This was followed by threatening telephone calls ordering me to close my church or risk being killed,” he said.
“I never reported the cases to the police because I knew these were church-related rivalries.
“Even when my daughter was kidnapped, I thought they were only trying to scare me off and would return her soon.”
He has offered to surrender his church and congregation to his rivals.
“All I want is my daughter back. With every passing day I fear for her life,” he said.
The bishop believes his daughter has been taken back to Zimbabwe, making the chances of being reunited with her much slimmer.
A source from a rival church, the headquarters in Ga-Runkuwa, said that the conflict between the church leaders is not surprising.
“We are foreign nationals in a foreign country. Every leader wants to be seen as powerful and this can be measured by the size of their church,” he explained.
Temba police spokesperson Sergeant Herman Moremi said many crimes committed in foreign-owned churches go unreported until a serious crime like murder or kidnapping is committed.
“With this case the parents came to the police station to let us know about the incident a day after the incident,” said Moremi.
“When we wanted to open a case they refused and walked out of the station.”
Moremi added that they had to force and threaten the parents to open a criminal case before they agreed.
Police investigations are still underway and police are following all leads.
Anyone with information that may lead to the suspect’s whereabouts to contact the police on 08600 10111.
