Hearing into abuse of religious systems starts tomorrow

NELSON Mandela Bay pastors, prophets, priests and other religious leaders will gather tomorrow for the Eastern Cape leg of the national hearings by the CRL Rights Commission on the commercialisation of religion and the abuse of people’s belief systems.

Commission spokesman Mpiyakhe Mkholo said religious leaders whom the commission felt could add value to their investigative study would be part of the hearing at the Radisson Blu hotel.

“This in no way insinuates or suggests any wrongdoing on the part of some of the leaders,” Mkholo said.

One of the pastors scheduled to be interviewed is Angels Ministries pastor Banele Mancobo, whose Ngcobo church was in the media spotlight earlier this month when police and social workers rescued 21 children aged between five and 18.

The commission started an investigation into the commercialisation of religion and the abuse of people’s belief systems in August last year – at a time when a few pastors from different churches made headlines as church members were shown drinking petrol and eating snakes, rats and grass.

The commission was established to investigate if these incidents were not abusing people’s belief systems.

Hearings have already been held in five provinces.