Bartholomew's Notes

Swazi Pastor Justice Dlamini of the Mbabane Worship Centre has explained how God will deal with a couple of journalists who he thinks have damaged his reputation:

Dlamini shocked a church gathering, which also included Cabinet Ministers, when he declared from the pulpit that he was praying for the death of two journalists, “Times of Swaziland” Managing Editor Martin Dlamini and reporter Nhlanhla Mathunjwa, whom he claims wrote badly about him.

…This followed a story published by the “Times” of February 27, 2007, in which the pastor was said to have been involved a squabble over a church vehicle with one of his subordinate pastors.

Pastor Dlamini claimed the story lowered his dignity and said he has prayed to God to remove the two journalists from the face of the earth “to teach the media a lesson”. He said this would also be a lesson to other journalists not to write ‘badly’ about church ministers.

The reports that caused the pastor to curse the two journalists can be seen here. A taster:

The businessman caught in the crossfire of a wrangle over a car between Worship Centre’s Pastor Justice Dlamini and departed Pastor Ndumiso Dlamini has come out to clarify that he did not give the vehicle to Pastor Justice, but to Ndumiso without any conditions attached. This effectively settles whatever confusion there was that the car belongs to Pastor Ndumiso.

The businessman, Abner Shongwe, said he presented the car as an offering to the church in the first place.

Shongwe said he gave the car to Pastor Ndumiso to use until he decided to leave Christianity, not until he left Justice’s church, Worship Centre.

Shongwe added:

“I never thought that this time the offering I thought I had secretly given to God would end up in papers in this manner…”

This is a bit of a turnaround for Pastor Justice, who in 2003 was trying to resurrect a journalist. The Swaziland Times reported at the time:

Despite the embarrassment that he has been subjected to, controversial pastor Justice Dlamini insists that deceased former editor of the Times Sunday Vusie Ginindza will rise from the dead. The pastor, without being specific, maintained that the miracle he had promised the Ginindza family would be fullfilled when Vusie finally rises from the dead. Dlamini said people should not persecute him because he believes that God can raise people from the dead but should have faith in His word. “It is not me who will say when and how Vusie will rise from the dead but it  was my responsibility to go there and pray as he (God) had ordered me to. “I cannot also tell his family not to bury him and wait for the miracle,” he said. The pastor acknowledged the fact the public will label him as being insane because of his actions. To that he said, it was not a problem to him that he was publicly embarrassed because he was serving God as he had been told to.”

(Ginindza, by the way, appears to have been a much-commended writer. He died aged 35)

Although Pastor Justice now wants prying journalists dead, he was himself the victim of an attempt to suppress free speech back in 2002:

The Swaziland Royal Police, acting on a court order on Thursday, 2002 invaded ‘Channel S’, the only privately owned television station in the country, and confiscated a video tape containing a sermon that has been termed by the Swazi government as “threatening the foundations of the kingdom”.

According to local sources the footage was of a sermon broadcast nationally and regionally (Southern African Development Community – SADC) on Friday, 6 September 2002, in which pastor Justice Dlamini of the Swaziland Association of Christian Ministries (SACM) suggested that some of the cultural practices in the country are “ungodly”. Mr Dlamini was referring to the “Incwala”, an annual cultural celebration.

…During the Incwala, tens of thousands of Swazis in traditional attire converge on the Queen Mother’s village, and petition the national ancestral spirits to endow the king with wisdom, and the nation with good rains and fortune.

…[The Media Institute of Southern Africa] further reported that Mr Dlamini has since suffered harassment by policy makers in the country, ostensibly in the name of protecting culture and the monarchy.

Pastor Justice has also ;spoken out against condoms, which he believes to be “full of holes”.

One enthusiast of the pastor is Swazi businessman Bongani Mashwama:

Mashwama’s long route to success was detailed out at the dinner graced by Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mabili Dlamini who was representing the PM Themba Dlamini as well as the Economic Planning Minister. The BNM Director urged participants at the dinner to put God first in whatever they engaged in for their businesses to succeed.

Quoting from the Holy Book, Mashwama said he had to start in very humble beginnings, preaching in hospitals and other areas after his resignation from SEB before the Lord assisted him open the consultancy engineering business in 2002. He paid glowing tribute to Pastor Justice Dlamini of the Mbabane Worship Centre whom he said taught him business principles and unveiled to him the secret of success.

Luckily for us, though, Dlamini spilt some of the secret to the Swazi Observer in December:

According to pastor Justice Dlamini people fail to receive their miracles form God because they do not know how to position themselves for the miracles.

“It is after when people do not position themselves where the devil then take advantage,” he said.

The pastor added that things never materialise for people, not because God fails but because they fail to meet God’s terms.

“God is a God of principles and his principles should not be violated. If God’s principles are violated there is no way people can receive blessings and miracles,” Dlamini said.

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