Altercations between Korean missionaries and youth members from an arts and culture group in Wallacedene have halted a community soup kitchen and children’s church.
The dispute with ensuing criminal cases and a protection order revolves around the use and control of a building that was financed and built on City land in Wallacedene by Durbanville missionary Joseph Lee at a cost of R200 000 in 2018.
According to Lee, he gained permission from the City to build the structure where he established his mission under the auspices of Kraai4theatre. At the time, he says he permitted the theatre group to use the venue for rehearsal purposes.
On the contrary, Benny Sonwabo Mpandle from the Imbiza theatre group claims that the building was in fact donated to them to be used for cultural activities and not for a youth mission centre.
The centre was constructed between May and December in 2018 after the City of Cape Town granted permission for its erection and temporary use of the land. Since then the building has been operated as a soup kitchen, children’s ministry and a youth theatre until trouble started brewing this year.
The criminal investigation springs from two incidents – one in May and the other in August – whereby according to Lee, Mpandle and another member of Imbiza occupied the centre, changed the locks and prevented the missionaries from entering the building.
“On 14 May Benny, accompanied by another youth, came to the centre where volunteers were busy operating the soup kitchen. He grabbed the keys from the caretaker.
After hearing about this, I rushed there and asked for the keys back but they refused to give them to me and blocked me from entering the building by pushing me away.
My wife told them that they can’t control us or stop us from entering our own building and said she would get in through the windows if she must, after which she proceeded to break two windows (with an axe),” says Lee.
Following this incident, Mpandle opened a case of assault and malicious damage of property against Lee and his wife Rebecca. Lee, who has been a missionary in Wallacedene since 2004, vehemently denies this. “We did not assault anybody as we were accused of doing. Our good names, reputation and ministry have been slandered by these untrue accusations,” he says.
On 26 May Lee left for a visit to Korea to tend to his ill father and returned to South Africa on 28 July.
Dragged out of centre
Shortly after his return, Rebecca visited the centre to drop off ingredients for the soup kitchen where according to Lee she was accosted by Mpandle after she tried to take a video of the centre.
“He grabbed her, took her phone and dragged her out of the centre, threatening her multiple times saying she would get hurt if she comes to the centre again,” Lee stated in an affidavit to police to obtain an urgent protection order afterwards.
He furthermore stated: “Benny posted slander and defamatory stories to various groups on social media which caused many people to threaten us, saying they can find us at any time.”
In a witness statement to police, a member of the community (whose identity is being protected) wrote that he witnessed Mpandle taking the keys from the caretaker on the day in question (in May), refusing to give it back.
“I don’t know of anybody that got hurt in the incident. The children love pastor Lee,” the witness stated.
“We have fed many children over the years and taught them about the Bible. I can’t believe what has happened to our mission,” he told TygerBurger last week.
Start a church
Mpandle denies any allegations of wrongdoing or assault.
“Pastor Lee and his wife came to the centre in May, broke into it and vandalised it with a golf stick and an axe. When she (Lee’s wife) came back in August she took a video of me without my permission.
I asked her to leave and to delete the video she took of me, but I never dragged her out of the building,” he says. According to Mpandle, the centre was donated to the youth theatre group in 2018 by a group of Korean Christians.
“They donated the money to Lee to build the Kraai4theatre centre for us to use as a theatre. Lee asked us if he could use the centre as a soup kitchen to which we agreed, but now he wants to change the name to Shalom Youth ministries and start a church,” says Mpandle
“We don’t want a Korean church here in Wallacedene and we want Pastor Lee to leave Kraaifontein,” Mpandle told TygerBurger.
However, community leader Mluleki Thomsana (Faku) from the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) on Monday told TygerBurger “that the pastor won’t be going anywhere”.
“Following meetings with both parties we came to the conclusion and have sufficient proof that the structure was in fact built by pastor Lee and belongs to pastor Lee as he financed it.
There seems to be many misunderstandings but Benny could not provide any proof that the centre was donated to the theatre group. He was not honest about everything he said or put out on social media,” says Thomsana.
Thomsana says he has reason to believe that Mpandle was acting alone and not in the interest of the entire theatre group, who has extended an apology to the Lee.
“We also met with the community who made it clear to us that pastor Lee is a good samaritan and has done much for the Wallacedene community, handing out thousands of food parcels during the pandemic.
The community wants him to stay and continue his mission. Henceforth, we will be the guard dogs and mediators in this situation and will also be approaching the subcouncil in the matter,” says Thomsana.
“But it is now up to pastor Lee to decide whether he wants to stay there or up and go.”
TygerBurger established that the structure on the City owned land, albeit with permission, was built illegally as no building plans were handed in, neither was permission granted to extend the use of the land beyond 2018.
“Council reserves the right to make the final call,” says Subcouncil 2 chair Marian Nieuwoudt says.
Lee says he will have to consider the safety of staff and volunteers before they return to Wallacedene. “We want to carry on for the sake of the children but on condition that the community can provide us security,” he says.
