Church guards brutally evict abandoned mansion's tenants

04 December 2016 - 12:47 By Stephan Hofstatter and Khanyi Ndabeni
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They came in the dead of night bearing sledgehammers and guns.

Xoliswa Jali was sleeping with her six-month-old baby, Zwelihle, when they kicked her door in.

"They pointed guns at us. The big ones. When I stood up they tripped me. I fell down with my child. Then they smashed everything."

Jali, 22, and her son were among 46 people evicted from an abandoned mansion on a hill near the Ponte City tower in inner Johannesburg. Most had moved there from poor rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal in search of work.

At 3am on November 16, the Revelation Church of God, founded by Prophet Samuel Radebe, sent dozens of armed security guards with dogs to storm the mansion, evict the tenants and dump them on the street.

At first light they threw a barbed-wire cordon around the property to prevent the tenants from returning. The church apparently wants to build a new building on the site.

The evicted occupants spent 17 days living on the pavement, enduring torrential rains that washed the food and few possessions they could salvage down the street.

Yesterday they returned to their wrecked home after the High Court in Johannesburg ruled in their favour on Friday. A court order directed the church to remove the barbed wire and restore the occupants to "undisturbed possession of the property".

There was little left to return to. The church's security guards used sledgehammers and axes to break down doors and walls and smash windows. The rooms are strewn with the wreckage of cupboards, wooden partitions and doors, rubble and a jumble of food wrappers, cooking utensils, plastic cups, clothes, shoes and shards of glass.

"They made a mess of everything," said Jali. "Now I must clean it up. I have no choice. I have no other place to stay."

Jali moved to Johannesburg from Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2000 with her mother and brother when she was 15. "There's no work in Kranskop. My mother heard from a friend there's a place here to stay. So we moved in." She is unemployed and lives on welfare grants.

Her brother, Siyabonga, 25, was beaten on the head with rifle butts and told he was a hobo.

 

The abandoned mansion in South Street, Berea, from which occupants were evicted in the dead of night. Image: Simphiwe Nkwali / Sunday Times Simphiwe Nkwali

 

Philani Ngidi, 37, who does odd jobs on construction sites, said he was woken by guards smashing his door and wall down. "When I came out, they beat me with a big hammer on my back. I fell down and lay here in pain for two hours. Then I walked to the hospital."

Justice Mokone, 35, is a part-time panel beater who loves reading. His books, including a copy of The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, lay scattered among the wreckage.

"I only have a matric but when I get time, I study," he said. "I'm not happy about this at all."

Buzani Mbongwa, the group's spokeswoman, is angry that "a man of God" could "chase children into the streets".

Radebe, the church's founder, is no stranger to controversy. Members of his church call themselves spiritual soldiers and often worship carrying spears and knobkerries and sometimes wearing traditional attire.

Last year, Radebe refused to appear before the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, which was investigating the commercialisation of religion and abuse of beliefs.

A month later, one of his followers, Koabeng Qhobela, allegedly threatened to kill commission chairwoman Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva after she had opened a case against Radebe for failing to appear. Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said she had since hired bodyguards and laid a charge against Qhobela.

She said church members had been frequenting Braamfontein, where her offices are, wearing T-shirts bearing Radebe' s name and the words "#handsoffourpastor".

Qhobela's case will be heard next week. Radebe could not be reached for comment.

stephanh@sundaytimes.co.zandabenik@sundaytimes.co.za

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