Church bishop must serve life sentence for grooming, raping teenager over two years, says judge

A church bishop attempted to appeal against a life sentence, but the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, turned down his application. Picture: File

A church bishop attempted to appeal against a life sentence, but the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, turned down his application. Picture: File

Published Nov 25, 2022

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Pretoria - A church bishop will have to serve a life sentence in jail for first grooming and later repeatedly raping the teenage daughter of one of his flock over a period of two years.

He had attempted to appeal against this conviction and sentence, but the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, turned down his application.

In 2017, Mzikayise Ndaba was sentenced to life in the Springs Regional Court. He vehemently denied the charges and claimed that the then 15-year-old was a willing participant.

The complainant testified that she lived with her grandmother and family in a small house. During 2013 or 2014 she and her mother joined a church in the area where Ndaba, 50, was the bishop of the church.

Services were conducted three days a week and took place after working hours, when it was dark. The bishop used to assist congregants who did not have transport by driving them home, and this included the complainant and her mother.

Her mother had been unemployed, but after joining the church, her fortunes changed and she got a job with the assistance of a preacher.

On her 15th birthday, Ndaba fetched the complainant and a friend and took them out to a local fast food outlet for a meal to celebrate. A week later, he asked her mother that she and her friend be allowed to go to his home for the weekend to clean it. The bishop was not married.

The mother, who believed in her bishop, agreed. The teenager and her friend were led to a guest bedroom where they would both stay.

Later, after everyone had gone to sleep, she was woken up by Ndaba and asked to accompany him to his bedroom. Her friend remained asleep in the guest room.

She followed him, and upon reaching the bedroom, he then undressed her and raped her.

Her evidence was that she had been scared and in pain, but had been prevented from crying out. The rape was her first sexual encounter.

When he was finished, he had told her that he loved her, but that she should not tell anyone what had happened.

According to the teenager, Ndaba told her it would not help if she told anyone because he knew policemen and judges, and besides, “no one would believe her over him – a bishop”.

He also told her that he would place a curse upon her and her family.

She said that for two years thereafter, she would go to Ndaba’s home on weekends. During that time, he bought her gifts and what had occurred on the first night then took place fairly regularly.

At some stage she became friendly with a young man who was also a pastor at the church. She said Ndaba had reacted badly to this and had beaten and threatened her over it.

Rumours among the congregants at the church resulted in her mother asking her if she knew anything about the bishop sleeping with young girls – something which she denied.

Her mother had told her that she was no longer allowed to go to the bishop’s house.

She later told her family that she would be staying overnight with a friend at a female pastor’s home. When her mother had called to speak to her, she was told that she was not there. Her worried family went to her school the next day to find her.

The teenager testified that she had been called to the principal’s office and after being questioned as to her whereabouts, she told them she had been at the bishop’s house. She then told them about the sexual activities.

The bishop was subsequently arrested.

He testified that he was told the teenager was 16, and that she was the one who had initiated the relationship.

Judge Anthony Millar said given her age and the evidence, it was evident that there was no “true consent”.

Given the prevalence of this type of crime and the seriousness with which it was viewed, a life imprisonment sentence was appropriate, the judge said in refusing Ndaba’s application for leave to appeal.

Pretoria News