The High Court in Johannesburg has dismissed an application by controversial Pastor Bishop Bafana Zondo and his church Rivers of Living Waters Ministry to interdict the CRL commission from holding public hearings into allegations of sexual assault at the church.
On behalf of Zondo, Advocate Ishmael Semenya argued that the commission did not act within its rights when it held publicly broadcast hearings last month into the allegations against him and the church, and that the allegations that emerged put Zondo’s life in danger. “… the commission can decide to hold the testimony in camera so all of the harm that my learned friend has brought to court today can be avoided by applying to the commission who will make a decision,” argued Advocate Duncan Stubbs on behalf of the CRL.
“I am further satisfied that the applicants have in any event not established a clear right. The applicants based their clear right on the constitutional right to dignity, privacy, thought, belief and opinion: The rights on which they rely are rights that is shared by everyone in the Republic. It is not sufficient for the applicants to assert merely that they have these rights,” she added.