I Pimped Young Women For Him

Yet another “prophet” has been accused of abusing his congregation. DRUM talks to the woman who witnessed it all and finally decided to speak up.

- Kaizer Ngwenya

FOR years she was the church leader’s right-hand woman, helping him run the church hundreds of congregants flocked to every week.

But Nana Masheya claims she witnessed and was subjected to so much abuse she could no longer keep quiet – and the lid has been lifted on yet another scandal involving a holy man in Mzansi.

Not only does Nana claim to be a victim of abuse, she says she was also used by the self-styled “prophet” to lure female congregants for sex under the pretence of prayer and counselling sessions – for which the women had to pay.

And devotees who hoped that the church-supplied holy water and anointed oils would improve their lot in life were also disappointed to discover they were really just paying for supermarket olive oil and tap water.

Nana (36), who worked as Bishop Tefo Jonas Pitso’s personal assistant for 10 years, alleges she was also “raped several times” by him.

“I asked him if he had forgotten that a bishop is someone near the holiness of Jesus Christ’s heart and he told me he has a human body and can be tempted.”

Nana blew the whistle that led to the arrest of the controversial bishop, who heads Jehovah Shammah International Ministries in Jouberton township in Klerksdorp in the North West.

He faces 12 charges of rape and sexual assault on women now aged between 22 and 36. One of the rape survivors claims she was infected with HIV after she was raped when she was a teenager.

North West police spokesperson lieutenant colonel Adele Myburgh confirms eight women have opened cases against the bishop at the Klerksdorp police station. Pitso (49) handed himself over to the police, Myburgh adds.

NANA is tall and slender and wears designer clothes. The divorced mother of a 10-year-old girl is also streetwise and a persuasive speaker.