Erlo Stegen, the founder of KwaSizabantu, died on 26 September at the age of 88. His funeral, on Saturday 7 October, was a massive event with scores of followers, members of various churches, government officials, traditional leaders and ordinary people who had dealings with the mission. Friends had come from a variety of countries to pay respect to the charismatic leader. Yet the number of former members who made allegations of emotional or sexual abuse or of irregular financial dealings against the mission, which they described as a cult, is equally impressive.  In September 2023 after seven months of investigation News 24 published a damning report which sent shockwaves in church and society. These allegations were dismissed as a ‘smear campaign’ by the leadership of KwaSizabantu. Yet, one cannot help wondering. Why this double image? And for those who belong to a church how should one make sense of KwaSizabantu’s double image? What lessons should be learned from it?

That Stegen was a remarkable missionary is beyond dispute. He touched the hearts and souls of many people. Born in 1935 in a family of German descent, he was the fourth child in a family of six. Like his siblings he grew up in the Lutheran congregation of Lilienthal, schooling in nearby Hermannsburg. While no longer institutionally attached to the Lutheran church, he continued to regard himself as a Lutheran. After being part of an evangelistic revival movement started by Anton Engelbrecht, the pastor in Lilienthal, after the Second World War and a breakaway movement born of it, he established the KwaSizabantu Mission in 1970, with the specific aim of evangelising the Zulu people. His fluency in isiZulu, a language he started to master on becoming an evangelist in the Zulu congregation of Maphumulo in 1966, made his task easier.

From humble beginnings KwaSizabantu became one of the biggest evangelistic missions in Africa with semi-annual youth conferences which attract thousands of people and men’s conferences which explore issues of masculinity in a novel way. The mission extends its outreach to Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Romania and Australia through the organisations ‘Christians for Truth’ and ‘True Love Waits’. KwaSizabantu is also known for its social and economic programmes.  It runs non-profit projects such as Radio Khwezi, a community radio broadcasting station, the Emseni Care Centre, which provides care and counselling to HIV/AIDS patients, agriculture training and contribution to food and nutrition, and a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts. In addition to running various development projects and youth camps KwaSizabantu houses the water factory aQuelle and a few greenhouses to fund its activities. In doing so; the mission reportedly created 15,000 jobs in the area.

It is no secret that KwaSizabantu’s highly centralised, if not authoritarian, style of leadership and the mission’s aloofness causes uneasiness among a certain number of Christian people in the province. If the mission had had more contacts with the outside world, including the ecumenical movement, there might have been less controversy, some church leaders, who do not necessarily accept the veracity of the allegations made against the mission, are sometimes heard to say. There should have been more transparency and accountability. In October 2020, shortly after the scandal broke out, a delegation of the KwaZulu Natal Christian Council and of the KwaZulu Natal Church Leader’ Group paid a fraternal visit to KwaSizabantu. The purpose of this fraternal visit was to engage with the leadership in order to have clarity on the KwaSizabantu issues raised in the media.  At the end of the meeting, the KZNCC delegation offered to conduct healing of memories sessions for staff and community members and invited the KwaSizabantu leadership to participate in the regular provincial meetings of the KwaZulu-Natal Church Leaders’ Group, an ecumenical platform for sharing, learning and fellowship.  The staff of the mission welcomed these suggestions.

In July 2023, hardly two months before Stegen’s death, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities released its report on KwaSizabantu. While leaving many questions unanswered, this report represents a first step in the search for the truth. The Commission found, first of all, that the activities of the mission remain within the scope of the freedom of religion. There is no evidence, in other words, that KwaSizabantu functions like a cult. The Commission, however, asked the mission to present its apologies. For what? The media reports did not specify. We know that Stegen and his colleagues have admitted the existence of beatings and invasive forms of virginity testing some time ago. This is perhaps what they should apologise for. On the matter of alleged unfair labour practices, financial irregularities and sexual abuse the Commission did not and could not make any pronouncements.

On all these matters the churches have no competence. Thankfully, church and state are separated in post-apartheid South Africa. The churches do not have the power to judge on civilian matters. But this does not mean that they should ignore the KwaSizabantu case. Since faith communities exist, the risk of corruption and abuse among people claiming to speak on behalf of God is real. The imprecations of the prophets against the false believers in the Old Testament and the stern warnings addressed by Jesus to his disciples are there to remind us of this possibility. Closer to us, the Catholic Church battles all over the world with the scandal of paedophile priests. For these reasons a church – and in this case KwaSizabantu – should never dismiss lightly an allegation of abuse in its midst. All voices must be heard, that of the institution of course but also that of the victims. A space must be found for the protagonists to speak to each other in all honesty and find closure.

 

Professor Philippe Denis is a member of the Dominican Order. He has been teaching Christian history for more than thirty years at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He currently works as research and development manager at the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council. He writes here in his personal capacity.

 

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