One of the boys who was allegedly sexually abused by the Arise and Shine church leader opened up about the ordeal to his grandmother in 2019.
Image: Phathu Luvhengo/TimesLIVE
The high court in Johannesburg on Wednesday heard how a teenage boy was allegedly lured from his church to the Arise and Shine Church by pastor Benjamin Dingiso who is now accused of sexually abusing him.
The boy's former pastor, Musa Mondli Jele, told the court he had regarded Dingiso as “his spiritual father”, adding that they met at Bible College in 2005.
He told the court that they used to travel together in his vehicle as Dingiso didn't have a car at the time. Their drives would include talks on life.
Speaking about one of the eight boys who now accuse Dingiso of a list of sexual crimes, Jele said he knew the victim as he used to attend his church.
“We used to worship with him and I could see he was eager to learn about religion,” he said.
At some time in 2017 or 2018 he asked the boy to learn how to play a keyboard and paid for his lessons.
In the Easter of 2019, Jele with his congregation went to worship at Arise and Shine Church. It was during this visit that the boy reportedly received a prophecy from pastor Dingiso.
Jele said he only learnt of the prophecy in August — which was months later. The boy reportedly said he wanted to join Arise and Shine.
“I told one of his grandmothers and she told me that the boy was already spending time with other boys from Arise and Shine church,” he said.
The boy left his church and joined Arise and Shine but red flags were raised when the boy's grandmother called Jele and made mention of a “massage”.
Jele with his wife, who is a social worker, met the boy with the grandmother. It was at this time that his wife told the boy that if he was being abused and he wanted to speak to social workers or report to police she was willing to help him.
“My wife interjected during the conversation. She informed [the victim] that if there was any type of abuse, he could open up and talk to her. She was even willing to go to social workers elsewhere or to the school authorities to assist him after she had told him that he was still a minor,” he said.
He testified that the boy said he was fine and that when it came to prophecies there are “sacrifices that needed to be done”.
"Your wife gets information about massage and later she said to [the boy] if you want help please come to me or go to the police. He doesn't take up the offer and years later goes to the police and social workers. Then there is an arrest.Judge Makume
He said the boy cried after his wife told him that if he didn't want to open up, she would inform his parents about what the grandmother had called them for.
The court asked Jele if he didn't think that his wife, as a trained professional social worker, detected something was wrong with the minor child.
“To me, it didn't mean anything. The only thing was that [the victim] had called us and after we arrived he didn't want to tell us why he was looking for us,” he said.
Jele said eventually, after the boy had made up his mind, he went to the police and they sent him to social workers. Then Dingiso was arrested.
Jele said he didn't know what he could say because he felt like it wasn't his space as the boy said he was fine.
But judge Motsamai Makume quizzed Jele further.
“Your wife gets information about a massage and later she said to [the boy] if you want help please come to me or go to the police. He doesn't take up the offer and years later, he goes to the police and social workers and then there is an arrest. It looks like your wife foresaw that there was something wrong. That is what I am saying. Your wife suspected that something was going wrong, that is why she mentioned the police and the word abuse,” said Makume.
Jele said he couldn't comment about what his wife could have seen.
Dingiso, 51, faces 31 counts of rape, sexual grooming of children, sexual assault and attempted rape of several boys who were part of his church between 2019 and 2021.
It was alleged he claimed to have encountered several church members — including these boys — whom he had to spiritually and emotionally counsel.
The case was postponed to November 10 for the state and the defence to file heads of argument.
TimesLIVE