A church that claims that it can cure "the blind, the lame, Aids and cancer victims" has been told by the Advertising Standards Authority to permanently remove its adverts - for the third time.

The Solid Rock Church, in the northern Johannesburg suburb of Northcliff, published an ad in a Johannesburg newspaper that said: "Bring the blind, the lame, Aids and cancer victims.

"43 crutches, 25 walking sticks, 2 white canes from blind people already left behind!"

The ad included a photograph of the crutches hanging in the church.

The ad was brought to ASA's attention by the vice-chairman of the Gauteng committee of the Professional Editors' Group, Hilary Phillips.

She told ASA that the church was exploiting the "desperation, ignorance and gullibility" of its congregants and collecting "large sums of money in the process".

In its ruling, given on Monday, the ASA said that the ad "bears a striking resemblance" to others placed by the church that the authority ruled against in 2005 and 2006.

"The respondent was twice sanctioned for exactly such advertising," the ruling said.

But the church's pastor, Johan van Wyk, told the ASA that the ads did not claim anything but merely encouraged people "to bring everybody" to the church.

He told The Times: "Everything in the advert is true; the crutches and other medical equipment are hanging in my church as proof that it did happen.

"Not everybody gets healed but a lot of people do get healed. "

The pastor and his wife, Marinda, studied at the Rhema church Bible school before forming "The Gathering of the Dangerous", later renamed "Solid Rock - the church on fire".

Lyndie McCauley, former wife of Rhema Church pastor Ray McCauley, recently attended Van Wyk's church.

Rhema church spokesman Giet Khoza said: "I haven't followed their ministry and I don't know what they are doing so it would be hard to comment on that."

The Solid Rock church website has short written testimonies of three congregants in which they thank Van Wyk for healing them. One man said: "Pastor Johan prayed for me I was immediately healed!"

The ASA ruling said that the church "is clearly continuing to make unsubstantiated healing claims despite an instruction not to do so". It gave Solid Rock 10 days to respond.