The mother of a 21-year-old man who stabbed his eight-month-old daughter on Valentine's Day said her son was trying to obey the instructions of his church.
As a result, she says she is so upset with the church that she would like to see it destroyed and the pastor arrested.
The man has been arrested for the stabbing and is in police custody but his mother, Mathabo Liphaphang, 42, said she didn't want his name published because then the church, which doesn't know his real name, would go visit him in prison.
And Liphaphang said she did not want her son to have any dealings with the church whatsoever.
Liphaphang, who lives in Du Noon, said her son returned from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in Doornbach on Saturday February 13 while the entire family was sitting in the lounge.
She said he asked if he could take his daughter to the shop to buy her chips.
But when he had not returned that evening, she went to the police to open a missing persons' case.
She said police combed the township that evening but did not find her son and her grand daughter, and they promised to return the next day to collect photographs for distribution.
But on Monday morning Liphaphang said she was awakened by a baby crying in her back yard.
There she found her grand daughter lying in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed in the shoulder.
Paramedics took her to the Red Cross Children's Hospital where she was admitted and spent thee days before being discharged, she said.
Meanwhile, her son gave himself up to the police.
She said when she visited him at the police station, he told her that his church had requested him to bring to the church the hair and blood of someone he loved, which was why he had stabbed his daughter.
She said her son joined the UCKG in September last year but stopped attending services in December. When she asked him why, he told her at the time that the church has asked that he bring a sacrifice to God.
She offered to give him money for the church but he told her money was not what they wanted.
He started attending church services again in the weeks before he stabbed his daughter.
She her son had told her that during church sermons they were shown movies of snakes and "of people drinking blood".
"If I had my way I would stop this church from operating and have the pastors arrested," she said.
Milnerton Police Warrant Officer Daphne Dell confirmed the mans arrest and said they had opened a docket of attempted murder.
Assistant pastor at the UCKG Ndoxy Hadebe confirmed that he had seen Liphaphang's son attend church services but said what he had told his mother was all "lies".
"The boy is full of demons we need to pray for him." said Hadebe.
He said he had tried to visit the family following the stabbing but was refused entry into the house.
"I need to pray for him. I'm looking for him," said Ndoxy.
Comments Post a comment
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), an international church which bases all its teachings and evangelical outreach initiatives on Biblical principles, is shocked by the blatant untruths about the UCKG in this report. The church is grateful for this opportunity to present its point of view and to correct the misconceptions created by such articles.
The Church would never advocate breaking any of the Godly guidelines for living which are contained in Biblical teaching and detailed in the 10 commandments, so the statement that the Church instructed Mathabo Liphaphangs son (or anyone else) to sacrifice anyone, is preposterous and untrue.
The church to which the article refers in Doornbach is an informal prayer group which does not meet regularly. It is involved in special outreach programmes to the community. Mr Ndoxy Hadebe is not an assistant pastor of the church. He is a volunteer and is not authorised to speak on behalf of the church. UCKG pastors refer all media enquires to the leadership of the church.
The comment that the father of Mathabo Liphaphangs granddaughter was shown movies of snakes and of people drinking blood would never have taken place at any UCKG event.
Bishop Marcelo Pires, the head of the UCKG evangelical outreach in South Africa and host of TV programmes, the Workers Prayer on TV1 and Wake up in Faith on eTV, strongly condemns the inaccuracies in the report saying that the journalist is welcome to contact the church leadership for factual comments to ensure balanced and accurate reporting.
Story ends
Issued on behalf of the UCKG Public Relations Department By: NB Communications 011 444 5531 Contact: Nicola Balderson 083 377 9407 Melanie Yap 083 534 3156
28 February 2011
I started to attend the Universal Church in or around 1994. At the time I didn't know anything practical about God i.e. I only knew theory about God though I was a very active member of the church I was attending. I got to know many things in the church i.e. who I am in God, why we need to live for God, honouring God, the Holy Spirit, etc.
Later on I became an assistant and continued to know more. Others I got to know by observing the behaviour/conduct of my Pastors, buying books and cassettes, asking questions where I didn't understand and even requesting clarity when attacks were made against the church. There are still some things that I don't agree with because I don't understand why they are done but that cannot make me to go around and start telling lies. I need to know the reason behind everything before I can attack or be against anything. God said " My people suffer for lack of knowledge". I stopped attending the church when I got a job very far from the nearest town where I could continue with the services.
Many things have been said about the church which are totally lies e.g. satanism. The kingdom divided against itself shall not stand. At this moment I know that in order to understand the church more a person realy needs to know about spirituality e.g. the meaning of " a person is a spirit, lives in a body and has a soul." I found out that what is taught in church is too deep for a human mind to comprehend but God with His mercy always comes through.
I am grateful for what I came to know now because of the foundation I had from Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
According to my little knowledge/understanding of the church, nothing like that ever happened and I am looking forward to fellowshipping with them again.
God bless you all.