The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, was asked to review and set aside the report regarding the allegations of malpractice and the invasion of religious rights of members or congregants of the KwaSizabantu Church (KSB) in KwaZulu-Natal.
This followed the 2023 findings of the CRL Rights Commission on its investigation, in which it did not make specific findings on these complaints. Five affected parties now asked for the report to be set aside.
The applicants include Erika Bornman, who spent most of her childhood years living at the mission in KwaZulu-Natal, and who wrote the book Mission of Malice, as well as Pastor Martin Frische, who once had many encounters with the mission.
The investigation and subsequent release of the report in July 2023 followed an investigation conducted by the commission during 2020 and 2022 into alleged malpractices, cult activities, and unbiblical and unchristian teachings at and by the interdenominational KSB.
The applicants also asked the court for an order declaring the report to be unlawful and in conflict with the Constitution. According to the applicants, the report fails to meet the standard required of a report produced by a Chapter 9 institution.
Its task, they said is to protect religious individuals and religious minorities – including children – and to do so without fear, favour, and without prejudice in every important respect.
The applicants submitted in their court papers that the commission failed to conduct the investigation with an open and enquiring mind. According to them, it failed to honour and execute its mandate, failed and refused to consider all available evidence, and followed a flawed procedure from the onset and throughout.
The Commission has recommended that the religious institution apologise to its former members. However, it could not make specific findings on the specific allegations and advised those affected to lodge criminal cases.
The commission, in the review application, raised a number of technical defences, which include the non-joinder of certain parties, the legal standing by the applicants to bring the application, and their “failure” to exhaust internal remedies.
It also argued that the matter is not ripe for hearing as there are no allegations of ongoing infringement of religious rights. It further contended that its findings were rational, that it met the objectives of the CRL Act, and the steps taken to arrive at them were rationally related to the purpose of the inquiry.
The applicants, however, submit that the investigation amounted to the absence of honest disclosure of the true facts, which it said was a deliberate effort to mislead the applicants and victims.
According to the applicants, during the commission’s investigation into the conduct of KSB, numerous witnesses came forward to provide their testimonies and share their experiences. They included former members of the mission, children, individuals who had close connections to KSB, and others who had knowledge of the operations and practices within the organization.
The applicants said the commission was repeatedly invited to consider the evidence of about 70 witnesses, the majority of whom had been children when they allegedly suffered the abuse inflicted upon them but wish to remain anonymous. The commission, they said, did not even react to the offer to tender this evidence.
The court was meanwhile asked to not deal with the merits of the application at this stage, as the applicants raised issues in law, such as the late filing of documents by the commission, which the applicants want the court to discard. The court has reserved judgment on these aspects, whereafter the main application will follow at a later date.