PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

 

Theological reflections on Ubuntology and African township Pentecostal Charismatic pastors during the Covid-19 pandemic

 

 

Abraham Modisa^I; Mkhondo Mzondi^II

South African Theological modisa@sats.ac.za

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Globally, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) also known as Covid-19 affected every facet of human life. Everyone had to find new ways of doing things, as many nations introduced lockdown regulations as a means of curbing the spread of the corona virus that causes Covid-19. Included in the regulations was the closure of places of worship, which challenged the clergy from different denominations in South Africa to imagine how to do ministry in this new context called the "new normal". Not only that, African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors, like other members of the clergy, were also expected to guide and encourage church members in these times of uncertainty. In addition, they were also expected to care for church members, the community and for themselves and their families. This article reflects on how African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors may minister in the Covid-19 context by applying the modified theologies of Mashau and Kgatle's Ubuntology.

Keywords: Theology of Ubuntu (Ubuntology): Covid-19; care; African Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors; Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches

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Introduction

The national lockdown introduced on 26^th March 2020 in South Africa highlighted the plight of the clergy in various Christian traditions as well as the poor and marginalised people in various communities. New challenges emerged during the implementation of the national lockdown. As Covid-19 infections and deaths increased, members of the clergy wrestled with two expectations. Firstly, how to provide pastoral care to the church members and their next of kin who had lost a loved one during the period of lockdown, and how to conduct burial rites. Secondly, how to convey a message of hope and faith to those who had lost their means of income and faced isolation and loneliness during the lockdown period. Specifically in this article, attention is given to African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors who may become part of the Covid-19 infection, recovery and death statistics while providing pastoral care, and face the reality of losing their only means of income. Consequently, the challenge emerged to conceptualise new ways of providing pastoral care for their church members and caring for themselves. The article addresses the two challenges by suggesting a (post-) Covid-19 theological praxis for African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors.

Ubuntology

Literature shows some theological reflections on the notion of Ubuntu in different contexts between 1978 and 2019 (Setiloane (1978), Sebedi (1998), Goba (1998), Tutu (1999), Myaka (2003), Mzondi (2009) and Mashau and Kgatle (2019)). In the mid-1970s, Setiloane reflected on Ubuntu-Botho in the Setswana-speaking context and concluded that Ubuntu-Botho is religious. Two decades later, Sebidi and Goba contributed to the volume Perspectives on Ubuntu: A tribute to Fedsem and described Ubuntu as a way of life, highlighting its moral value. The charismatic and towering anti-apartheid figure, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, popularised Ubuntu during his tenure as the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and through his book No future without forgiveness. After him, a few discourses reflected on the praxis of Ubuntu in different contexts. Mnyaka engaged Ubuntu within the context of xenophobia in South African townships; Mzondi juxtaposed Western, Ubuntu and New Testament leadership values to propose a "'Two souls' leadership". Recently, Mashau and Kgatle, articulated Ubuntology (the theology of Ubuntu) to address negative praxis among Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches in South Africa. Mashau and Kgatle (2019:7) maintain that:

The theology of Ubuntu is an array of theologies that are knitted together like a rainbow. It is a coat of many colours but one that is able to bring warmth to those who are naked, marginalised, exploited and abused by religious leaders who are prosperity gospel preachers. These colours will include among others:

• theology of life

• theology of care

• theology of solidarity

• theology of economic justice

• theology of hope and accompaniment

To emphasise the element of praxis, the article modifies the five theologies of Ubuntology by using ministry instead of theology. Thus, it uses ministry of life, ministry of care, ministry of solidarity, ministry of economic justice, and ministry of hope and accompaniment. This modification recognises Naude's (2019:223-224) three criticisms of Ubuntu, namely, that its values are associated with traditional communities, it has no empirical evidence, and its values are not unique to Africans.

The article employs Ubuntology to reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on African Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors, church members, and the poor in the community. It further suggests some praxis for African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors to minister in the Covid-19 context and beyond. The article has three main sections: Covid-19 in South Africa, theological reflection, and actions on Covid-19, while a post-Covid-19 theological praxis for African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors forms the last section.

 

Research methodology

This article uses qualitative data from literature, electronic and social media. Data from the latter is gathered from African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors belonging to three associations, namely, the South African Union Council of Independent Churches (SAUCIC), West Rand Ministers Fraternal (WRMF) and Randfontein Evangelism Initiative (REI). Participant observation shows that these pastors expressed their lived experiences about life and ministry under Covid-19 regulations in WhatsApp group posts (SAUCIC, WRMF and REI communications, March 2020-January 2021) between March 2020 and January 2021. The author obtained informed consent from the leader of each association to use the communications from the WhatsApp group. Kawulich (2005:2-3) mentions that participant observation enables the researcher to describe what is happening in a community as s/he has become a part of it, while Musante (2015:251) explains that as a participant observer "a researcher takes part in the daily activities, rituals, interactions, and events of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects."

 

Covid-19 in South Africa

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on 11^th March 2020, at a press briefing at the World Health Organization's (WHO) head office in the United Nations offices, that the WHO had declared an outbreak of the novel corona virus which causes Covid-19, a global pandemic. The virus originated in Wuhan, China. At that time, the confirmed global infections exceeded 113 000, with over 4 000 confirmed deaths in more than 110 countries. The realities of this unknown pandemic, which had spread rapidly from China to Europe, North and South America and the Middle East, had not yet reached the African continent.

In March 2020, South Africans heard the news that the Covid-19 pandemic had reached their country. The then South African Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, announced on Thursday 5th March, that the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) had confirmed the first case of Covid-19, and that the 38-year-old male and his wife had travelled to Italy with a group of 10, which had returned on 1st March 2020. The patient had been in self-isolation since 3rd March 2020 (NICD 2020). On 15th March 2020 President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of national disaster and placed the country on national lockdown level 5 on 26th March 2020.

 

Theological reflection and actions on Covid-19

Christians and non-Christians in South Africa faced the unknown pandemic with uncertainty and some degree of fear. Like in other parts of the world, they all looked to the government for guidance and advice. Medical scientists sitting on the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) influenced the direction during the Covid-19 pandemic. Strangely, Christian leaders were no longer in charge of their flock, and all were subject to national lockdown regulations that barred all forms of religious gatherings. Unavoidably, medical science took the lead during the Covid-19 pandemic. These developments also called for some theological reflections and direction from Christian leaders, as the development challenged the natural function of the church to guide members through pastoral care and support. There were no immediate theological answers from the church regarding the pandemic that challenged the biblical view of koinonia and the different forms of Christian liturgy which the deadly pandemic disturbed and interrupted. Two questions emerged: How were pastors and believers expected to make sense of and practise their faith during this deadly pandemic? And how were they expected to comply with health protocols in the context of the poverty and inequality ravaging the country? There were no easy answers to these questions. Without claiming quick solutions to make sense of ministry during and following the Covid-19 pandemic, the article suggests a ministry praxis that is grounded in the spirituality of the community. This view resonates with Pityana's (2020:357) argument that the ministry of caring, of assurance and hope within different communities needed to be conceptualised and implemented.

In the weeks before and during the early period of the national lockdown, and in the subsequent months, two major Christian organisations in the country addressed the pandemic within the context of the church. Details from their websites show that the South African Council of Churches (SACC) provided some Covid-19 guidelines to their member churches, namely, "church in action" and "a Covid-19 pastoral plan" (SACC n.d.). The other organisation, The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA), explained in its Covid-19 response communication that it had collaborated with the SACC in efforts to address the pandemic (TEASA 2020), and later provided some plans and actions for its member churches. Heartlines (n.d.) also contributed by producing some Covid-19 material to assist local churches to guide their members. Other churches outside these structures also began to look for ways to guide their members during the period of lockdown.

During the same period, some posts from the three WhatsApp groups mentioned above (SAUCIC, WRMF and REI communications, March 2020-January 2021) showed some reactions among African townships Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors. First, Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors associated with the South African Union Council of Independent Churches, an organisation claiming to represent the several township and rural Pentecostal Charismatic churches, acknowledged that Covid-19 had spread to South Africa, and began to organise prayer and fasting meetings for their member churches and pastors. Second, during the first week prior to the implementation of the national lockdown on 26 March 2020, a message based on Isaiah 26:20 "Go home, my people, and lock your doors!" went viral among African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors. Third, some African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors joined efforts to lobby the President to call for a prayer day. This led to the National Day of Prayer held on 22^nd March 2020 at noon. Fourth, some African township Pentecostal Charismatic pastors used social media (SAUCIC, WRMF and REI communications, March 2020-January 2021) to spread among themselves a message of comfort and hope based on Isaiah 40:1, 50:4, and 2 Corinthians 2:1-4. They also encouraged each other to persevere and to hold on to their faith in God during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spread of Covid-19 to South Africa and the subsequent national lockdown level 5 regulations introduced from 26th March 2020, together with the reintroduction of the adjusted level 3 national lockdown measures on 28th December 2020 highlighted three anxieties that required theological reflection about the post-1994 South African society. First, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the existing gap between the rich and the poor in South Africa, and the widespread national scourge of Gender-Based Violence and femicide. Second, the national lockdown level 5 and the adjusted level 3 and 4 restrictions showed that the decision to restrict the sale of alcohol had helped to reduce trauma cases in public and private healthcare facilities when compared with the pre-Covid-19 strain on those facilities in the same period in 2019.¹ Linked to this pre-Covid-19 strain is the culture of "after tears" (a drinking meeting after the funeral that has spread widely in townships and reached rural areas of the country). Finally, the national lockdown regulations also highlighted the plight of the clergy, church members and the poor in the community.

 

A Covid-19 theological praxis for African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors

As mentioned above, the national lockdown level 5 introduced on 26^thMarch 2020 in South Africa highlighted the plight of the clergy in various Christian traditions. The Covid-19-related death of the 86-year-old John Hlangeni, infected after attending a Bloemfontein breakfast meeting, highlighted the plight of the clergy. Sadly, he died, while his 81-year-old wife was still admitted in the Intensive Care Unit.² He was the third person in the country and the first African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastor to succumb to Covid-19. His death (and later, the deaths of other African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors and pastors from other Christian traditions) prompted the need to reconsider ministry praxis during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Such ministry praxis suggests that pastors should intentionally attend to the socio-economic issues that affected them, their church members, and the community during the national lockdown period. This could be achieved by implementing Mashau and Kgatle's (2019:7) modified ministry of care, Mzondi's (2009:50-51; 2015:151-154) Ubuntu values of care and sharing, and Marumo's (2013:96) articulated understanding of koinonia that includes the poor and marginalised.

 

Care and support for the pastor and the poor

Pastors are providing an essential service to their church members and families because they are performing the age-old ecclesiastical duties of counselling, caring for and supporting church members and their families during periods of personal and family crisis, the death of loved ones due to (un)natural causes, and marrying members. Even though some of these duties were suspended during the early months of the national lockdown period, believers still needed pastoral care and support during that time.

Unfortunately, the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) did not classify the pastor as an essential service provider, but pastors were allowed to conduct funerals according to Covid-19 regulations. This duty needed pastors to exercise extreme caution, because they did not, and still do not have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Sadly, during the pandemic, some pastors were infected while providing pastoral care and support to the members of bereaved families and conducting funerals. Thus, the pastors' families were without care and support, even income, during their period of isolation or quarantine. The same applied to the families of those pastors who succumbed to Covid-19. Consequently, the pastor was now a part of the national Covid-19 statistics of infections, recoveries, and deaths. These developments indicate how the Covid-19 pandemic affected African township Pentecostal-Charismatic praxis and prompted the re-imagining of its theology and ecclesiology during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Mouton (2005:8) explains reimagining as,

the ability of the human imagination to re-describe reality, to re-name experiences, to re-tell their stories from new angles. This refers to the human capacity to speak metaphorically - to see new possibilities and to make new connections between known images and (past and present) experiences.

In this article the intended re-imagining applies the modified theologies of Mashau and Kgatle's Ubuntology mentioned above.

 

Re-imagining Pentecostal-Charismatic theology

Kgatle (2019:2) indicates that some African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors have espoused the teaching of Prophetic Churches and follow its main proponent in South Africa, prophet Shepherd Bushiri. Shepherd Bushiri's prophetic ministry promotes a transactional faith that emphasises actions to please God to obtain his favour, elevates the prophet and disregards empowering the church members to make sense of God's presence in a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, such prophetic ministry robs the believers in Prophetic Churches of the ability to reflect and put their hope and trust in God and to engage matters of social justice.

Furthermore, the pandemic has tested the praxis and the demonstration of koinonia as the government closed all religious gatherings and forced believers to stay indoors, far away from experiencing the usual tangible benefits of joining together in worship, sharing holy communion, and listening to the ministry of the Word. The pandemic forced the church members and the church leaders to obey the authorities in the quest to fight and curb the spread of the deadly virus. Most importantly, the unexpected occurred: the medical scientists sitting on the National Coronavirus Command Council took the lead in ordering various communities and the nation, while religion was placed at the back. These developments left believers on their own. Those pastors who could, managed to find some quick ways to guide believers and provided some counselling related to the unknown Covid-19 pandemic that had infused fear and uncertainty in many believers.

Much happened over the last ten months of the national lockdown regulations in South Africa considered in this study. Pastors and believers experienced the reality of the pandemic differently. Pastors in the three WhatsApp groups (SAUCIC, WRMF and REI communications, March 2020-January 2021) discovered that doing ministry during the Covid-19 pandemic was not easy, as the usual contact with believers was now absent. As the believers faced emotional, financial, and physical challenges, pastors were not easily available to assist and offer them pastoral care and support. Pastors felt disempowered, as they could not provide pastoral care and support to believers. These developments highlighted the relevance of doing a contextualised prophetic ministry in the "new normal."

As such, it is prudent for pastors to learn and accept that a relevant and prophetic ministry should not lose sight of the poor and the marginalised by engaging in a theology from below in the spirit of Ubuntu. This requires promoting the modified theologies of Ubuntology without associating them with the incorrect teaching of financial giving to gain God's blessings (cf. Gbote and Kgatle 2014:5).

Ubuntology takes cognisance of the fact that many people lost their employment as a sizeable number of small to medium-size companies and big companies lost income and eventually closed. This increased and worsened the country's high unemployment rate and the number of poor believers in the local church also increased. Tithing and offering collection in churches decreased, as those who managed to stay employed seldom paid tithes and offerings, since they were receiving drastically reduced wages or salaries. Others just stopped paying tithes and offerings. Sadly, some of the posts in the West Rand Ministers Fraternal WhatsApp (WRMF communications, March 2020-January 2021) showed that pastors were counted as one of the poor in the local church, as they had lost their only means of income due to the Covid-19 national lockdown regulations. This loss of the means of income highlighted that the pandemic had created amongst pastors the inability to pay rental for premises used for worship, service their vehicle, settle their debts, and provide for their families. This inability also caused emotional and psychological challenges among them.

To survive another pandemic that might affect their means of income, pastors require proper and sound financial management acumen (cf. Kgatle 2020:4-5). The tendency to use tithes and offerings for family and personal benefit needs reconsideration, as Covid-19 has disturbed the practice of making believers bring tithes and offerings to the feet of the apostle during Sunday services, so that the pastor might bless them. To experience the ministry of hope and accompaniment, pastors are advised to avoid consumerism and crass materialism and learn to save and to invest some of their income for unforeseen circumstances.

Furthermore, establishing a dualism between ministry and income generation is ill-advised. Learning from Paul, a tentmaker, pastors should consider working with their own hands to support their families. A tent ministry also known as a bi-vocational ministry, promotes the African wisdom and view that "ga go na kgomo ya boroko": this translates as "there should be no unyoked cow". Pastors will then augment their earnings from the church by engaging in some entrepreneurial endeavours to support themselves and their families instead of relying solely on tithes and offerings from church members. The ministry of care could also be practised by establishing some financial support means like mogodisano (a round robin monetary contribution system common among burial societies and stokvels) among themselves that will enable them to have some sustainable income during a period of ministry and some unforeseen financial crisis. Such efforts will build on the observed praxis among members of one group, where some of the pastors contributed cash to buy groceries for needy pastors, their families, and members of the community (WRMF communications, March 2020-January 2021).

The Covid-19 pandemic showed the need for pastors to promote Mzondi's (2015:151-154) Ubuntu values of community, sharing and caring analogous to Mashau and Kgatle's (2019:6) modified ministry of solidarity and ministry of care. Encouraging believers to share what they have among themselves and with those who are in need in the community promotes the Setswana idiom "bana ba motho ba kgaoganya tlhogo ya tsie" (trans. siblings share what they have). The ministry of solidarity and the ministry of care require that the pastor should teach believers to work hard and not to expect short-cut solutions that consumerism and the prosperity gospel elevate. This praxis will enable them to avoid the desire to achieve the status of "Pentecostalism of wealth", achieved by a few pastors. Sharing what they have among themselves and caring for one another and those in the community promotes the ministry of care and ministry of solidarity. This also enables the believers to replicate the New Testament concept of koinonia, taught by Paul and Peter in their letters, which, as Dreyer (2015:193) notably highlights, has a natural convergence with Ubuntu.

As shepherds of God's flock, pastors should note that Pentecostal-Charismatic believers and the poor are always gullible, and usually follow whatever seems to bring quick solutions to real-life problems. Hence, they flock to the emerging Prophetic Churches. This inclination requires pastors to practise the ministry of economic justice by speaking out and defending the poor from all forms of exploitation that promise achieving the status of "Pentecostalism of wealth".

Instead of pointing believers to seeing themselves as anointed women and men of God, they should point them to Christ, just like Paul who set an example by pointing believers and leaders to Christ. His ministry brought hope and encouraged faith and perseverance among the believers. As a sign of practising the ministry of hope and accompaniment, modern believers need to be taught to be content and to expect that their faith will be tested, as experienced by the believers of the first century CE.

Finally, as it emerged, there is a need for proper theological training to address false doctrines and myths that flood believers during uncertain times such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Such theological training should cover Resane's (2020:6) ministry composition, spiritual/personal formation, and academic organisations. Relying on the prophetic ministry, which attracts many people because it addresses the immediate need but neglects building the believers through sound doctrine that will enable them to stand and contest for their faith, contradicts Resane's (2020:2-3) biblical shepherding responsibilities of guarding, protecting, and providing.

In efforts to address theological training, various institutions are currently contributing by providing some appropriate elementary theological training for African township and rural pastors in South Africa. The Centre for Faith and Community in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria provides some basic theological training for these leaders, and the University of Free State assists SAUCIC to train its members by using its Shepherd programme. Additionally, the Association of Christian Religious Practitioners (ACRP) in collaboration with the Quality Council for Trade and Occupation (QCTO) has also addressed this need by conceptualising and developing NQF level 2 and 5 theological training material.

 

Re-imagining Pentecostal-Charismatic ecclesiology

It was noticed from the three WhatsApp groups (SAUCIC, WRMF and REI communications, March 2020-January 2021) that when the country moved to the adjusted level 3 of the national lockdown regulations church attendance among African township Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches had dropped. The new provision in the adjusted level 3 national lockdown limited gatherings to 50 people indoors or 50% of the venue capacity. The same drop in attendance was also noticed in the subsequent national lockout regulations, which allowed 100 people or 50% of the space capacity. Finally, the long period of no face-to-face fellowship also affected believers, as fear, uncertainly and doubt about Covid-19 had gripped them, resulting in them not trusting church gatherings, although willing to do shopping and to attend funeral services. An interesting observation about Covid-19 infections shows that congregants in funerals and church services,

sing and worship loudly, sit close to each other and often touch surface/fomite which may be contaminated. COVID-19 has proven to be highly contagious and transmitted mainly by droplets or close contact with asymptomatic carriers and infected persons. (Jaja, Anyanwu and C Jaja 2020)

The phenomenon challenged pastors to begin to talk a new language of technology, namely live church streaming, to express koinonia differently (cf. Cloete 2015:3-5). This brings questions of the relevance of technology in the church, the affordability of data, and the digital gap between the old and the young. Data affordability is a big challenge among the mainly poor African township Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches which pastors lead.

Ubuntology enables the re-imagining of ecclesiology by shifting from the historical and habitual church-building gathering to consciously promoting small house-gatherings consisting of small group Bible studies and prayer meetings in townships. It hangs on the Ubuntu values of community, sharing and caring identified in the ministry of solidarity and ministry of care. This re-imagining will contribute to the expression of the Ubuntu maxim: "motho ke motho ka batho" or "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which translates as "a person is a person through others". The phrase "when you meet together" appearing in I Corinthians 11:20 and 14:26 regarding household codes for conducting the Lord's supper and maintaining an orderly corporate worship, allows the re-imagining of koinonia during the Covid-19 pandemic in line with the praxis of house churches in Corinth. Paul's sentiments in these instructions promote the benefits of the community of believers instead of the individual, during the first-century house churches. Similarly, the ministry of solidarity promotes the benefit of the community of the believers instead of the individual during the Covid-19 pandemic and after.

Effectively, the church, being the community of believers, called to live their faith and to be a witness to those outside, functions accordingly because in these small group Bible study and prayer meetings believers gather to benefit one another as seen in the above Scriptures. This praxis resonates with the ministry of life, the ministry of care and the ministry of solidarity. Consequently, witnessing to those outside church will be possible in periods of national lockdown as believers meet to encourage, support, and share the Word while attempting to make sense of, or find meaning about the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an expression of the ministry of life, the ministry of care, and the ministry of solidarity. Of course, such meetings should be held without compromising the need to observe health protocols to curb the spread of the virus during such small and large group gatherings. Furthermore, Crouch, Keilhacker and Blanchard's (2020:18) view about grief and hope below resonates with Ubuntology. They mention:

Grief and loss go together in Christian faith with vision and hope in a singular way because they are the story of Cross and Resurrection. There is no greater grief than Calvary, the crucifixion of the very Son of God by the ones he came to save.

Small group house meetings will also assist the community of believers to rekindle the fire of koinonia. It further addresses the need to reach the elderly in the church, who are frail and often need care and support. Most importantly, this move will help curb operating expenses for churches that rent school classrooms/halls, shops and other premises for worship meetings.

 

Summary

This article focused on how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors who belong to three associations, church members and the poor in the community between March 2020 and January 2021. Applying Ubuntology, the article focused on two anxieties that emerged during the Covid-19, namely, care and support of the pastor, and care of the poor in the church and the community. Regarding the former, it was observed that what Mashau and Kgatle termed the theology of solidarity and theology of care (modified as ministry of solidarity and ministry of care in the article), Mzondi termed the Ubuntu values of community, care and sharing. These two anxieties served as entry points to propose a Covid-19 praxis for African Township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors applying the modified aspects of Ubuntology to promote the ministry of care, the ministry of solidarity, the ministry of economic justice and the ministry of hope and accompaniment.

 

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1 See newspaper reports by Swart 2020; Du Toit 2021; Francke 2021; and Zulu 2021.
2 See news report by Mahlati 2020, Nkuyane 2020, and The Citizen 2020. The pastor was an African pastor who had planted a local church in Mohlakeng township, Gauteng Province, called Batho-Botlhe Baptist Church, a branch of the Baptist Convention. He was also a part of the local fraternal and worked with the author in the township prior to his retirement to his hometown in Bloemfontein, where he was attending a Pentecostal-Charismatic church.