Prophet Paseka Mboro Motsoeneng and other faith leaders have lambasted the commission responsible for religious and cultural groups for accusing some pastors of attention seeking.

Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva‚ chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) last week expressed disappointment at recent acts by pastors which have included making congregants eat snakes‚ braids‚ paper‚ rocks and dirt‚ spraying insect killer over them and making them strip naked in the name of healing.

“We believe that these pastors are competing among themselves. They want publicity. They want media attention and want to promote their churches at the expense of other people‚” she said.

Responding to the criticism on Monday‚ Mboro said: “We just receive threats from the commission. Pastors receive no support from the government yet they want to regulate us‚ we don’t have land‚ get medical aids or anything from the government to sustain ourselves. The poor pastors who haven’t no knowledge on book keeping and financial management have been tarnished any ripped apart‚ in a mission to fight brothers in Christ.”

He added “There are many scandals in Islamic religion‚ Hindu‚ Roman Catholic Church and many other churches‚ yet no one is making a fuss about them. You can search the Internet and see for yourself. We are terrorised because the pastors in South Africa are cowards‚ they are afraid of dying for the religion. Sangoma’s perform mysterious mutilations that are never questioned.”

Prophet Samuel Radebe of the Revelation Church of God also criticised the commission for its stance.

“We know the commission does not seek unity as it claims. The commission is lying‚ it does not want us to work together. All it does is get us arrested and harassed‚” he charged.