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INLSA<\/p>\n
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CLAIMS that the late Nazareth Church leader Vimbeni Shembe verbally nominated his successor were a fabrication, the Durban High Court heard today. <\/p>\n
This was the testimony of Zwelabantu Buthelezi, who was the leader’s lawyer at the time of his death. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe Vimbeni would never make a verbal nomination because he had also been challenged by people who did not want him to lead the church when he came into power in 1995,\u201d Buthelezi said. <\/p>\n
The church has approached the court to determine its legitimate leader following the death of Vimbeni, the leader of its largest faction. <\/p>\n
According to a will presented by Buthelezi at Vimbeni’s funeral on April 3, he chose his cousin Vela Shembe to be his successor. <\/p>\n
However, the church’s senior leaders expressed their preference for his son Mduduzi. <\/p>\n
Today, Rajesh Choudree SC, read an affidavit by Mduduzi in court, claiming that Vimbeni nominated him verbally on more than one occasion. <\/p>\n
The verbal nomination was reportedly communicated to Chief Mqoqi, a prominent church member and traditional leader. <\/p>\n
Mduduzi said: \u201cThe first time Vimbeni spoke of his successor was on 2 September 2010. He told Chief Mqoqi Ngcobo that he wanted me to be the leader of the Shembe Church if he were to pass away.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mduduzi stated that the late leader told Ngcobo on January 10, 2011 that he was sick and could die at anytime. <\/p>\n
According to the affidavit, Vimbeni told Ngcobo that he wanted Mduduzi to be his successor. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn March 5, the late leader repeated his wish to Ngcobo. He wanted me to be his successor,\u201d Mduduzi said in his affidavit. <\/p>\n
Buthelezi disputed this. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was fabricated,\u201d he told the court. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf this was the case, Ngcobo would have told the congregation when he made the announcement that the late leader had told him the name of his successor.\u201d <\/p>\n
Buthelezi said that when Ngcobo announced the leader at the funeral, he told the congregation that he was making the appointment as a leader and because he had a right to do so. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have never phoned me on April 1 to find out the name of the person nominated by Vimbeni 1\/8in his will 3\/8,\u201d said Buthelezi. <\/p>\n
The matter continues. – Sapa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA CLAIMS that the late Nazareth Church leader Vimbeni Shembe verbally nominated his successor were a fabrication, the Durban High Court heard today. This was the testimony of Zwelabantu Buthelezi, who was the leader’s lawyer at the time of his death. \u201cHe Vimbeni would never make a verbal nomination because he had also been challenged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-5515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban-2","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}