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Members of Ekhaya Labafundi bakaJehova Church in KwaMaphumulo in KwaZulu-Natal.
The leader of the controversial religious group Ekhaya Labafundi bakaJehova in KwaMaphumulo, Vusumuzi Sibiya, has been ordered to leave the land on which he was running his church operations.
The directive was issued by local traditional authority leader, Nkosi Makhosini Qwabe.
This comes after an oversight visit conducted last Friday by the CRL Rights Commission and the Department of Social Development.
During the visit, officials removed 19 children who had been living at the church premises with their parents as they were reportedly not permitted to attend school.
Authorities have raised significant concerns about the church’s operations and the isolation of its members from broader society.
Qwabe says Sibiya didn’t have permission to run a church or to occupy the land in the first place.
“The council has told Sibiya to tell all his congregants to leave the church and go back to where they come from. I have sent other senior members of the council to go to Sibiya and the congregants to convey the same message. Sibiya violated the law and we didn’t know that there is such a thing and if we knew, we would have intervened a long time ago.”
Qwabe is calling on the police to also conduct a raid at the church.
“We are totally against Sibiya’s activities as he calls on people not take medication and children must not go to school. He even violated health regulations and accommodated more than 52 people and children in a small area like. I want police to go there with sniffing dogs and check if there are no illegal tombstones in his yard.”
Sibiya was not available for comment.
Last week, he told the CRL Commission that congregants were not forced to join his church but to come voluntarily.
