WHEN the good Lord gazes down on his children in church on Sundays, he surely smiles when he hears songs rising up to the heavens.Songs also rang out from the house of his flock at the Uniting Reformed Church in Rockville, Soweto South Africa yesterday.
But instead of songs of praise, the congregation were singing songs of protest against their pastor!
Members of the church told Daily Sun that they’ve had enough of Reverend Thabo Mabetha.
They stood up in church with placards, sang struggle songs and blew whistles. They said it was their way of telling the pastor that they wanted nothing more to do with him.
“He is taking us for a ride. He is full of himself,” said one member who only gave her name as Rapuleng.
She said ever since the pastor arrived 10 years ago, the church hadn’t moved forward but instead was falling apart.
“Our toilets are not in a good state and we have no fence. In fact, nothing is okay, but we pay good money every Sunday.
“Where is our money going?” she wanted to know.
She alleged that instead of fixing their problems the pastor came up with new rules.
“He wants to be paid for every service he does. Before he will marry you, you pay R1 500. For funeral services he wants R1 000 and for children’s baptism, it’s R500. Everything is paid for.We want him to go,” she said.
During the whole drama, the pastor pretended that everything was normal and sang struggle songs along with the congregation.
When Daily Sun tried to speak to him, Mabetha said: “You came to my church and without my permission you started taking pictures!
“I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
Lucas Mokhele said his family were surprised when they needed a pastor for his cousin’s funeral and learned that they were expected to pay R1 000 for his services.
Lucas claimed that when they questioned Mabetha about it they were expelled from the church.
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