CHURCH REVOLT

Church fallout over ‘gay’ slur

The head of one of SA’s leading churches is facing a revolt from some church members, who claim he suspended and publicly “humiliated” a pastor for apparently being gay, and maligned his son for having dreadlocks that made him look like he was “on drugs”.

Bishop Dr JS Luphuwana, the leader of the Ethiopian Church of SA, has denied the claims.

The church says it merely put Potchefstroom parish leader Rev Jabulani Motsai on “compulsory leave of absence” to fix his marital problems and that the suspicion of him being gay was raised in a letter from his wife.

Motsai’s supporters have set up a movement called Luphuwana Must Fall. Its Facebook page has more than 530 followers who want Luphuwana to step down.

Last week lawyers representing the church, which has about 150 branches across SA, sent a six-page letter to three of Motsai’s supporters threatening them with action if they did not stop their attacks on Luphuwana.

The letter from Aysha Bhabha Attorneys, which the Sunday Times has seen, accuses them of “defaming a senior member” of the church and distributing “untrue and highly defamatory comments, some which contain malicious falsehoods”.

Patty Sekgoto, a member of the movement who attends the Potchefstroom parish, said Motsai had been “humiliated” by Luphuwana and that due process had not been followed in his “suspension”.

She said Luphuwana “had been on Motsai’s case, including attacking his children” at the youth conference in Potchefstroom in April.

“At one stage the bishop said: ‘How can a child of a pastor have dreadlocks as if he’s on drugs?’ It’s Motsai’s son who has dreadlocks who was at the conference,” Sekgoto said.

“Before announcing that Motsai had been suspended, he said in Xhosa: ‘Umuntu awazi noba yindoda okanye umfazi [One doesn’t even know if that person is a man or woman],’” Sekgoto said.

“Even though the bishop did not mention Motsai’s name, it was very clear to everyone at the conference who he was referring to.”

However, Luphuwana denies this. “I have never uttered those words in my entire life,” he told Sunday Times.

Another member of the movement, Xoliswa Damane, from Cape Town, said that a month later, the church’s pastors, excluding Motsai, were invited to a meeting in Bloemfontein where a letter from Motsai’s wife was read out. In it she said their marriage was falling apart and that she suspected her husband was gay.

Everyone at the meeting was told that Motsai would be given three years off to sort out his life.

Damane said they were unhappy with how Luphuwana had handled the Motsai matter. She said they wanted Luphuwana to vacate his office with immediate effect and an interim leader to be appointed before the next elective conference at the end of the year, where a new bishop would be elected.

Motsai told the Sunday Time he had joined the group calling for Luphuwana to step down.

“I feel very bad. The treatment the bishop is giving me, it’s not good at all, it’s not from people who call themselves Christians and the ministers of the word.”

Motsai said though he had not personally heard Luphuwana’s remarks about him and his children, as he had been in charge of the kitchen at the conference, other church members had told him about them.

A letter sent by the church to Motsai three days before the conference stated that after processing a letter from his wife citing their marital problems, its executive council had resolved to withdraw his 2022 appointment as a parish minister and circuit manager of Potchefstroom.

“For the duration of this year your membership will be at Mafikeng parish,” the letter, signed by church secretary Sandile Zondi, stated.

He referred questions to Zondi, who said Motsai was on “compulsory leave of absence” due to marital problems, and that the issue of him possibly being gay had been raised in a letter from his wife.

He confirmed they had received two letters from the Luphuwana Must Fall movement demanding that Luphuwana step down and that an extraordinary conference be called to look into appointing an interim leader.

In the letters, which the Sunday Times has seen, Luphuwana is referred to as a “dictator”.

Zondi said their district conference was in July and that it was there that a call for an extraordinary conference could be made if the majority of the members expressed such a view.

“If the movement [Luphuwana Must Fall] is convinced that it represents the majority of members then it should be easy to win arguments in the upcoming district conferences,” Zondi said.

He said Motsai has not been suspended as a church priest or member but was being afforded time to attend to his marital problems.

“What has changed is that he is now not in charge of a specific parish in the church. This was as a result of the conference resolution that allows a minister to concentrate on attending to marital problems rather than be burdened by the demands associated with leading a parish,” Zondi said.

On Luphuwana questioning Motsai’s sexuality, Zondi said: “While the purported sexual orientation of Motsai may have been mentioned in his wife’s correspondence, that formed no basis for the action the church took. It is purely on the basis of marital problems and giving the man of God a chance to resolve them in one way or the other.” He said he had “no recollection” of Luphuwana referring to dreadlocks.