A senior Durban pastor who was fired for asking members of his congregation to make “financial sacrifices” to him has launched a legal challenge to his dismissal, denying any wrong- doing.
The dispute between Pastor Mxolisi Justice Myeni and the city centre-based Universal Church of the Kingdom of God – which worldwide is said to have more than 13 million members – has emerged in an application in the Durban High Court in which the church is seeking to evict Myeni from a flat it leases.
Myeni refuses to go, saying the labour dispute is before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and therefore the eviction application is premature.
In an affidavit before Judge Rashid Vahed yesterday, local church leader, Bishop Flavio Nasimento, said Myeni, who was the pastor at the Clairwood church, was not an employee but “a servant rendering voluntary devotional assistance”.
He said in return for this the church provided an allowance and accommodation.
Myeni stayed in a furnished city centre flat and was paid a stipend of R3 750 a fortnight.
Nasimento said Myeni was not entitled to any other personal benefit from church members and, according to the church’s rules, he was not allowed to use his name, or that of the church, to borrow or acquire money or gifts.
There is no contract between Myeni and the church.
But in December it came to the church’s attention that he had asked certain members to make “financial sacrifices” to him in the form of cash and payments into his personal bank account.
“I confronted him on December 20. He admitted to asking for and taking money. He tried to justify it by alleging financial need,” Nasimento said. “He has abused his position. The financial board (of the church) resolved to terminate his pastorship.”
However, Myeni had refused to sign the letter of termination and had “obstinately” refused to leave the flat. “He has not attended church, nor rendered his services… his mother-in-law, also a member of the church, has said she has accommodation for him, his wife and child but he refuses to take up this opportunity. We have appointed a new pastor who needs the accommodation,” the bishop said.
Myeni, in his opposing affidavit, denies any wrongdoing and he also denies ever admitting to the bishop that he had done anything wrong.
He also insists that he is a church employee and, as such, has lodged an unfair dismissal case with the CCMA.
He says the matter is part-heard and set to resume in March.
“I do not accept the termination of my services. And I have a continued right of accommodation (until the matter is resolved). The appointment of another pastor was premature,” he says.
The case was adjourned until next week and Myeni was ordered to allow the sheriff into the flat to take an inventory of the contents and interdicted from disposing of any of them.
