For more than a decade, self-proclaimed prophet Paseka Motsoeneng, aka Pastor Mboro, who founded the Incredible Happenings Ministry, has openly flouted the law.
This week, the taloned and diminutive “pastor”, more accustomed to driving around in a convoy of luxury vehicles accompanied by an entourage of heavily armed men, sat in the dock of the Palm Ridge Magistrates’ Court, his eyes cast heavenward, his lips murmuring a prayer.
It didn’t work.
Mboro and his “bodyguard”, Clement Baloyi, were denied bail on 12 schedule five charges including kidnapping, possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of an unlicensed weapon, assault and the discharging and pointing of a firearm.
Mboro’s 27-year-old son, father of the two children who are embroiled in a custody battle and were dragged out of school by a panga-wielding man in the entourage, was released on warning.
Already, out there, in the real world, angry South Africans had burnt down the marquee that had served as Mboro’s “church” in Katlehong after a clip of the little boys being dragged out of Matsediso Primary School went viral.
The court had previously placed the boys in the custody of their grandmother pending court action between their late mother’s family and their father and his relatives.
Private versus criminal law
But in Mboro’s world you make things up as you go along. And usually you get away with it.
Not only that, you are cheered on.
In this world, vaginas are “biscuits” and penises “vuvuzelas”, women are encouraged to bring underwear for “the prophet” to bless and you can buy petroleum jelly “anointed” by the chosen one.
Mboro’s obsession with human sexual reproductive organs is no secret. It is at the centre of his ministry, it seems.
He runs a TV and radio station of his own where “worshippers” can scoot in close to receive his special blessings and let his voice touch their underwear.
In court, Mboro’s legal team looked to the old patriarchs’ playbook, stating that this was all “a private” matter, a mere “domestic” trifle, and that in this instance state and church should be separated.
Women and children are not free agents.
Prosecutor Pheello Vilakazi was having none of it.
“A few months ago all these children were in the crèche. And here you have men waving a panga and an AK-47 in front of a primary school.
“Some of these children have never seen a gun, never mind a machete,” he exclaimed.
These were, he said, “wartime weapons” carried openly in public, waved and fired in front of children.
And not only that, but more guns were found in the boot of one of the cars in Mboro’s fleet parked outside, added Vilakazi.
No one had received any training to use these weapons, which he alleged were unlicensed, and added that the kidnapping had been “brazen”.
Brazen is what Mboro is all about.
The court heard that Mboro had been arrested on nine occasions for breaking the law of the land. Each time the charges had been withdrawn.
I am the Alpha
Mboro’s legal representative, advocate Phillip Dlamini, informed the court that the children were Mboro’s son’s “biological children and it is wrong for him to be charged with kidnapping”.
The children “belonged” to Mboro’s son and he was only at the school to pick them up. It was only when Pastor Daddy allegedly learnt his son “was under attack” that he headed off with his troops, said Dlamini.
“If you can receive a call that your child is under attack, this case would stop and you would want to attend to the matter,” offered Dlamini.
What’s not to understand here?
The taxman must cometh
Although on 19 and 20 August Mboro claimed poverty with regard to the bail he sought – R3,000 was all he could manage – he faced allegations in 2018 of misappropriating church funds to finance his celebrity millionaire lifestyle.
Not only that, the court also heard that he owned multiple properties and had given several addresses to the police.
Religious institutions and public benefit organisations are tax-exempt in South Africa. Mboro knows this.
The South African Revenue Service knows this.
SARS has previously stated its intention to ensure that existing tax legislation directed at such institutions and their employees is applied.
Applications need to be made for public benefit organisation status and those institutions that do not apply are fully taxable.
No wonder Mboro, who claimed to hear cats talking and feel an entity strangling him when he was young, opted to do the Lord’s work in South Africa.
His branded products sell like hotcakes at his gatherings. He might believe the profits from them are tax-free, but they ain’t.
“Whosoever diggeth a pit shall fall in it,” sang Bob Marley, borrowing from the Bible verse.
It is one Pastor Mboro should contemplate in his cell as he awaits his fate. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
