I would have hired out my church for free, says Pastor Mboro on Grace Bible Church debacle

Pastor Mboro has weighed in on the storm that unfolded after Grace Bible Church apparently quoted the Joe Mafela family R89,000 to hold the star's memorial service, saying he felt that the church could have handled the situation differently.

Mboro told TshisaLIVE that as much as he understood the church's stance, he felt they should have supported the Mafela family.

"The church can say that there are overhead costs that need to be paid for but it would have been a good thing to give support to the family. This was a traumatic incident that the family was not prepared for and they obviously do not have that kind of money to pay. The right thing to do would be to help them not kick them out on the street," Mboro said.

• 5 moments from Joe Mafela's memorial we will never forgetHundreds of friends, fans and family members gathered at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg on Thursday to pay tribute to acting veteran Joe Mafela. 

He said that if the family had reached out to him he "would not have charged" them to use his church.

"There are some people in the church which we help free of charge. People who need a place to hold a memorial or a funeral. People whose family members have been in the mortuary for two or three months because they can't afford to have the bodies released. As a church we represent Christ and we help people in need, as Christ would have. We must just give," Mboro added.

He said that it was time for artists and churches to build relationships with each other and not try to exploit one another.

"I would like to encourage artists to support the church while they are still alive. We cannot have a situation where artist demand money to perform at church but want to use our facilities for free when they have memorials or funerals," Mboro said.

• Joe Mafela's family on R89K fiasco: They apologised to us Joe Mafela's family have broken their silence on the raging debate that was sparked by the R89,000 quote they were given by Grace Bible Church for the veteran actor's memorial service. 

Grace Bible Church made headlines on Thursday after actor Mangaliso Ngema took to social media to reveal that the church had quoted Joe's family R89,000 to host a memorial.

When asked for comment, the church would not comment on the amount they quoted the family. While Joe's niece told TshisaLIVE that the church had apologised and that the incident was now closed.