At KSB, they could learn something important right now. Firstly, those who suppress the truth and never admit to mistakes lose credibility and ruin their reputation. And secondly, once this point has been reached and they stubbornly stick to their course, they encounter growing mistrust. The scandals surrounding the Kwasizabantu Mission and its dogged handling of them have led to it being viewed with suspicion and any moral irregularities suspected in its environment being publicly exposed. Why else were the media reports about a possibly insignificant incident at the Sunday service on 18 January so extensive?
A look back: decades ago, residents of the KwaSizabantu mission would occasionally whisper a remarkable sentence. It was remarkable because it somehow did not fit into the idyllic world of this environment. It was: “The women must be careful and quickly climb the trees when they see him.” They were talking about Jabulani Dube, brother of the current KSB leader Lydia Dube. Everyone knew that he had an extremely pronounced penchant for anything that wore skirts or dresses.
Connie, an employee of the KSB’s own Aquelle water factory, was also wearing a dress when she made an unusual appearance during Sunday service in the mission’s proclamation hall in January 2026. Just as Jabulani Dube was about to begin his sermon from the pulpit and read from the Book of Jonah, Connie rushed forward, wrestled with Dube over his Bible on the lectern, and finally snatched it from him. “You tell us lies, you stand here and preach lies, we’ve had enough of the lies,” she shouted loudly into the hall, but her further cries could not be fully understood in the commotion. She seemed to accuse Dube of taking her virginity. Viewers on YouTube and listeners to Radio Khwezi were able to follow it live.
Dube reacted visibly unsettled and muttered, “Hold her down. I don’t even know her. Take the Bible away from her.” After the Bible was returned to him, he added, “I don’t know where this girl comes from. I only know her by sight. The devil is using her here… Her demon says I took her virginity. I don’t know her.”
Her demon says…? There are accounts that tell a different story about the incident, with no mention of demons. They go like this: Connie actually wanted to marry a young man named Phakamani Mkhwanazi. But, as is often the case at the mission, the pastor, Jabulani Dube, convinced Phakamani to marry another woman. An informant from the mission claims to know the reason: “… because Baba Dube is having an affair with the woman who took his Bible away.”
Whether true or not, the mission in KwaZulu-Natal is once again in the public eye after a video of the scene went viral on social media. Mpiyakhe Mkholo, spokesperson for the CRL Commission, who since the beginning of the amateurish investigation into the abuse scandal has been notable more for his grand announcements than for concrete action, initially referred the young woman to the official channels. “The lady must file a complaint before we can investigate the matter,” he explained on behalf of the commission. However, how the commission intends to investigate the theft of virginity, which was obviously not rape, is Mkholos’ big secret.
The KwaSizabantu Mission also had something to say about the incident, but nothing substantial. Its spokesperson, Dirk Combrink, once again emphasised the mission’s calling to help people in need. Whether he included the young woman, who was clearly in distress after the incident during the church service, in his compassion was not clear. The Natal Witness ultimately quotes him as giving recommendations on how the media should behave. The mission was concerned about the way some members of the public had interpreted the incident. Michael Ngubane, who once beat the children at KSB with rubber hoses, reported a few days later during the church service that the young lady had already come to the mission with problems. She had repeatedly heard voices in her head, including that of Jabulani Dube. She herself had said that she had mental problems. Apparently, however, she could not be helped at the “place where people are helped”.
Was it an affair between a man over 70 and this young woman, or was it the knee-jerk reaction of a mentally unstable employee in a stressful episode? We will probably never know the real background to this strange scene. But no matter what happened and what the background may be, the mission was once again in the headlines and is expressing surprise at this. “They made a huge deal out of it,” Michael Ngubane grumbled about the media, “and they spread it everywhere!” he said angrily during Sunday service a week after the incident. Yes, they spread it everywhere. But why the media pounce on every real or perceived grievance, on every conspicuous detail in the everyday life of the Kwasizabantu Mission, is something they don’t want to understand there. Yet it’s quite simple: for decades, they have stubbornly earned the public’s mistrust, so to speak. The vigilant interest, the targeted observation and the sometimes relentless treatment of the mission by the media are the echo of this.
It was bound to happen. For decades, the mission leadership and its followers have denied countless cases of abuse of all kinds, sweeping criminal activities under the carpet. Added to this are a lack of transparency, religious rigour, dogmatism and stubborn obstinacy. The supposedly pious leadership of KwaSizabantu was and is recognisably narcissistic, acts in a self-centred and uncompromising manner, and has always proven to be incorrigible. All this and more is the stuff that has fuelled doubts and suspicions about the self-proclaimed revival. KSB’s former reputation has been severely damaged, and people believe they are capable of anything bad. It is understandable that journalists like to follow their every move in this conflicted situation. For them, there is always something to be gained there…
Incidentally, Connie left the mission the day after the incident. And the recording of the service was deleted from the mission’s YouTube page. After all, no one should see what happened. It might perhaps damage their reputation…