In her late fifties, softly spoken and immaculate in her yellow uniform, ”MaMofokeng” could easily pass for a school matron. But appearances are deceptive. Masechaba Mofokeng is the bishop of the Holy Jerusalem Church of Repentance in Jabulani, Soweto, and the first South African woman to build her own church.
At 9am, the Jerusalem Church, which runs a healing ministry, is teeming with people, many of whom have already been waiting for two hours. Some are in wheelchairs, others have HIV/Aids or are facing domestic crises.
MaMofokeng brushes off questions about herself and refuses to have her picture taken: ”I’m only doing God’s work. What’s there to say? Let others talk about me.”
Her powerful influence over her followers is manifest as they file through her office-cum-prayer room one by one. They are seeking a personal audience and have come in search of a miracle.
MaMofokeng is one of a brace of female leaders to emerge at the head of the breakway apostolic Zionist and Ethiopian church movements, which are pulling in black worshippers hungry for an indigenous, healing, confessing and praying style of Christianity they can connect with.
Starting your own church can be big business. The Holy Jerusalem ministry stands on a huge plot, together with a manse and what could pass for office blocks. Arriving at the church, MaMofokeng steps from a chauffeur-driven 4X4. The founder of her church is another woman. Her mother, Rose Letawana, started it in the late 1960s and now runs large ministries in Cape Town and KwaNdebele.
Like a plant sending out runners, its two-year bible school courses have fostered a host of other woman-led churches. They include Pastor Joyce Mthembu’s Fivefold Outreach Ministries in Pimville, Pastor Thandi Sithole’s Vukukhanye Jerusalem in Chiawelo, The Holy Jerusalem Church in Katlegong, led by Beauty Masina, and Holy Jerusalem in Leondale, led by Pastor Lindi Mkhwanazi.
MaMofokeng’s oddly titled Tyrannous Bible School — allegedly named after the hall where St Paul taught his followers — draws would-be evangelists from all over the country.
Like MaMofokeng, Puree Baloyi, who runs the St John’s Church in Fourways, is riding the crest of a wave. A qualified nursing sister, she defected from the Presbyterians to the St John’s Church when she met her husband. The two then hived off their own splinter group, which also has a branch at Hartbeesfontein.
Her followers are domestic workers, gardeners and people from the nearby squatter camps, Zevenfontein and Diepsloot. ”Spiritual healing” is again the drawcard and her church hall, which can accommodate 400 worshippers, is constantly packed.
But why women? An obvious point made by Bishop Kenosi Mofokeng of the African Progressive Baptist Church in Walkerville is that many mainstream churches bar woman ministers. ”It’s only the mainstream churches that can’t countenance woman priests,” she said. ”But God chooses who he wants to work with him, man or woman.”
Jolly and grey-haired, Kenosi has no fewer than nine bishoprics under her belt. She guffaws when she recalls the ridicule she suffered as the only woman student at the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice in the Eastern Cape, jointly established by mainstream churches with white male priests as lecturers. ”They told me I’d never make a priest and would have to go back where I came from, to the independent African churches.”
Church leadership offers livelihood and entrepreneurial possibilities to smart township women for whom other avenues might be closed. Constant splits and start-ups suggest a kind of holy free enterprise, reminiscent of the small business sector. Kenosi’s mentor was Bishop Mother Christinah Nku, who broke away from the Apostolic Faith Mission Church to establish the St John’s Church in Evaton, near Vereeniging.
In some cases, the churches are run as family businesses. Kenosi’s co-leader is her husband, Archbishop Ndumiso Ngada, who heads the United Independent Believers in Christ Church and runs the Spiritual Churches Research and Theological Training Institute in Walkerville.
”We started the school to educate priests and lay preachers without formal education. These are people who are led by the Holy Spirit, an idea the established churches shun. We teach them theology, administration and bookkeeping, and how to defend themselves and their faith from people who despise them.”
Deputy president of the South African Council of Churches Thabisile Msezane said the absence of bureau-cracy in the independent churches worked in favour of women with leadership skills. ”They start a church from nothing, and can then apply for social grants from the government to feed the hungry. The community then takes them seriously.”