The embattled KwaSizabantu Mission has released a glowing report absolving itself of damning allegations, including rape, made by former members.
Members of the 50-year-old KwaZulu-Natal establishment have been accused of fraud, rape, assault and money laundering. The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) is probing the church in hearings that began last month.
On Friday, the church released the report of an investigation it commissioned, conducted by what it said was an “independent panel” comprising adv Khumbu Shazi and attorney Peter le Mottée.
The lawyers cleared the church of allegations that it is a cult, but said they found some “concerning issues” that needed to be addressed. They also dismissed ex-members’ claims of rape and sexual abuse.
“We found no substance to these allegations. The witnesses who spoke to us regarding this aspect mostly relied on hearsay and could not give primary accounts of any specific incident,” the report said.
“We were not able to find credibility in versions of the alleged victims. We found no credible evidence that claims of rape were reported to the mission [or that the] mission covered them up.”
The lawyers also dismissed allegations of physical abuse and said corporal punishment was only meted out at the church before it was outlawed.
“In so for as these allegations refer to the use of corporal punishment before it was outlawed in 1996, we found these allegations to be credible and [they] were acknowledged by the relevant representatives of the mission,” said Shazi and Le Mottée.
“We could not find any evidence of physical abuse that was sanctioned by the mission outside of that mentioned ... above. We found that at times, in meting out corporal punishment (before 1995), the teachers and the elders at the mission were decidedly vicious.”
The panel also dismissed allegations that the church facilitated virginity testing. “All the witnesses confirmed that virginity testing was stopped in 1996, almost a decade before the Children’s Act was enacted,” they said.
And while admitting they lacked “specialist resources”, they dismissed money-laundering allegations. “We could not find any evidence that any companies affiliated to the mission have been involved in money laundering,” said the report.
“Our investigation did, however, uncover issues that were of grave concern to us regarding a loan which was advanced by the mission to a person known as Ndlela. Due to constraints and a lack of specialist resources, however, we could not reach any conclusive finding on the issue of loan.”
Allegations of contravention of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act also failed to withstand the lawyers’ scrutiny. They found that employees at the mission and its associated companies were paid timeously. They were also paid minimum wages, as required by the law.
“We did find, however, that looking at the total remuneration packages of the employees, the affiliated companies can, and should, do much better for their employees than the current position,” the report said.
“We found that the companies currently do not offer any additional benefits for their employees, namely pension fund contributions, bonuses (13th cheque or performance-based bonuses etc).”
Dr Peet Botha, a former member and pastor at the mission, said he had not seen the report, but questioned its findings.
It is clear from what is said to be in the report that the mission is manipulating its own process to find [itself] innocent.
— Dr Peet Botha, former member and pastor at the mission
“It is clear from what is said to be in the report that the mission is manipulating its own process to find [itself] innocent. The mission chose the investigators and paid them to investigate themselves, and to come out with a report that exonerates the mission on all aspects,” he said.
“It shows us that they are just playing a game and they are taking care of themselves. They are putting out a positive report towards their financial assets and hoping people who bought from their businesses, like aQuellé and Emseni, previously would start buying again based on the report’s exoneration.
“It’s like former president Jacob Zuma setting up a parallel investigation to the Zondo commission, choosing his own judge and his own attorneys, and they find nothing wrong on his part. And he says to the world: ‘See I am innocent’.”
Erika Bornman, a former pupil at the mission’s Domino Servite School and a former member of the mission, was interviewed by the panel, but said it backtracked on its promise to send her a copy of the report.
“When I told them I was very hesitant to speak to them because I didn’t trust them, they assured me that they have the mandate to release it to me and [the] public at the same time they release it to the mission,” she said.
“Now they are just refusing point blank. I spoke to them against my better judgement. I said to them from the beginning that an organisation cannot investigate itself and I had put my trust in the CRL Commission, the Hawks and the department of labour.
“But I spoke to them because I felt that — and I feel that is why other people spoke to them — we can’t say it was a whitewash if we didn’t at least try.
“It is utterly unfair to vilify us in public, but deny us the opportunity to read what they wrote about us. It’s unconscionable and highly questionable, and revictimises us all over again.”
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