A Johannesburg branch of a global family of churches has been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse and rape of at least eight male congregants who have laid complaints against a former pastor at the church.
Ntandoyenkosi Clark Sithole, a pastoral counsellor at Every Nation Rosebank (ENR) in Parktown North was released on a R5,000 bail on Monday after he appeared in the Randburg magistrate's court on four separate charges of sexual assault, according to police.
Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Mathapelo Peters confirmed to Sowetan that Sithole was arrested in Randburg on Friday.
“Police have since established that two more cases of sexual assault have been opened at Linden SAPS against the same suspect. The investigation of the respective cases has since been centralised,” said Peters. It was still unclear whether the four charges he faced in court were part of the eight complaints.
Sowetan understands that some of the alleged assaults started in Gqeberha and Makhanda in the Eastern Cape where Sithole worked with youth from various university campuses a few years ago before he came to Joburg to join ENR. The church, formerly known as His People, allegedly knew about his past but only acted in December last year after fresh complaints resulted in Sithole’s sudden resignation.
His duties included counselling men who have had past sexual abuse traumas or those who have sexual identity issues. He was running the church’s Well programme.
“I know about the case but I don’t want to comment on it,” said Sithole yesterday.
An alleged victim who spoke to Sowetan this week said the pastor violated him twice on the night of July 4 2018 when Sithole hosted a cell for the youth at his communal house in Randburg.
“I was sexually abused when I was a child. He knew about that and The Well was a platform for us to talk about our experiences to find healing. At the end of the session, he invited me to his room to talk further in private. I had known him since 2013 in the Eastern Cape so he knows my past and I didn’t see anything untoward when he said we can share a bed because other people were also sleeping there.”
He said Sithole questioned him about his sexuality and how the body of a sexual abuse victim sometimes reacted with an erection when touched “inappropriately”.
“He quickly put his hands in my pants trying to stimulate my genitals and to get a reaction so he could prove his point. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. At that point I was uncomfortable and I asked that we go to sleep. Once more I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he made the whole approach seem innocent,” said the man.
A few minutes later Sithole allegedly put his hand over the man to touch his private parts.
The following day Sithole allegedly sent a recorded apology via a voice note to other church members. He claimed to have suffered a nightmare that he acted out on his victim.
“I woke up at 4.30am from a very bad dream. In the dream I was being raped again. Basically, I have been carrying this thought that I feel like I’m a molester because I was taught to molest by the different abuses I have gone through.
"I woke from a dream where I literally relived that story but when I woke up [name withheld] was shaking next to me. It turned out that when the dream was happening I was enacting it on him [name withheld]. Luckily I had not done any penetration but apparently I felt him up and pulled his pants. I didn’t grope or have sex with him... This has happened with [name withheld] before and I don’t know why it keeps happening.”
Another church member confirmed that the recording circulated among church members in 2018.
Sithole is due back in court in June.
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