EL CBD churches feel wrath over methods

East London’s CBD has at least 14 charismatic churches pumping their message of God and everlasting salvation to the people, but a national commission has come out strongly criticising methods which include hypnosis.

The 64-page report released on Tuesday by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities came out strongly against:

• Churches being used for money laundering;
• Pastors forcing congregants to pay for “blessings” and “prayers”, water, anointing oils, T-shirts, towels, Vaseline for “good luck”;
• Church leaders using speedpoint electronic payment machines in church to get congregants to pay up using their bank cards; and
• Churches raising money but not being registered NPOs or Public Benefit Organisations (PVOs) with SARS.

Saturday Dispatch walked the CBD on Thursday last week and counted the 14 charismatic and three established churches, giving a total of 17 churches within a limited space.

There were seven in Oxford Street, which is the CBD’s retail heartland, two in busy Buffalo Street, two in Gladstone Street, two in North Street and one each in Union, Terminus, Cambridge and Station streets.

Eight of the ministries occupied ground floor premises which were previously shops facing onto the streets, three were in dingy alleyways and six were in the upper floors of shabby buildings, especially in Terminus Street and Buffalo Street.

Rivers of Living Waters Ministries in Oxford Street occupied premises formerly used by a furniture shop a few years ago, which has moved to Buffalo Street.

All 14 were quiet and three were locked but most had billboards, some of the signage in the form of a wrapping which covered the former shopfronts.

The adverts claimed their pastors could perform “practical miracles”.

The report, signed off by the commission’s chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, states that recent controversial news stories about pastors “have left a large portion of society questioning whether religion has become a commercial institution or commodity to enrich a few”.

Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said in a radio interview this week that some pastors had admitted to using hypnotism on their congregants and putting them in a “trance”. She said people were vulnerable and not in control of their actions when they were under hypnosis.

She said: “One of the pastors we interviewed admitted under oath to have hypnotised the congregants. He said his congregants were not seeing the snake, but a chocolate because they were in a trance. We are concerned about the people who play with people’s psyches and psychology, without the relevant qualification and monitoring. We have come out to protect people from being exploited because they wouldn’t do such things under normal circumstances,” she said.

Her report states that 82 churches in South Africa were investigated. None were in East London, but seven were in Port Elizabeth.

The commission recommended that churches should:

lRegister with the social development department as NPOs or PBOs;

lBe prosecuted if they fail to register and their licence to practise be revoked;

lBe prosecuted if there is fraud or misappropriation of funds; and

lEstablish internal oversight groups or “structures” to monitor and regulate church funds.

It also recommended the setting up of a “mechanism” to register places of worship and umbrella bodies.

Saturday Dispatch was told that the only available and affordable space for the churches in East London was in the CBD.

Christ the Rock ministries pastor Mpilo Sirhamza, who is based in Queenstown and only comes to East London on Sundays, said:

“My church was initially at the Old Telkom building, in Gladstone Street but there wasn’t enough space for me to pray.

“Then I moved to another building which has now been changed to a students residence. Now we are renting in Oxford Street,” he said. — sisiphoz@dispatch.co.za