Big split in the UAAC?

Almost a year after the leader of the United African Apostolic Church (UAAC), Archbishop Elias Miriri, passed away, cracks indicating a possible split are already showing in the church.

The church - founded by the late Paulos Matsea Miriri in 1912, with more than 1,5 million current church members and which has Pentecostal origins - is now facing strong divisions that are set to tear it apart.

The ugly signs of conflict in the church manifested last week, when a group led by some members of the Miriri family interdicted in the Thohoyandou High Court a group believed to be comprised mostly of the old guard and general membership that had worked with the late Archbishop Miriri.

The applicants have accused the other parties of spreading a false rumour that the planned annual general conference had been called off.

The case was postponed to Tuesday, 10 September 2019. On the day, the court premises resembled a church setting, with members of the church in their different church uniforms singing and dancing to the drums that are characteristic of the Zionist Church, while the elders filled the court to capacity.

At the end of the session and deliberations by the legal representatives of the feuding parties, Judge Francis Kganyago reserved judgement for Wednesday.

On Wednesday, in a judgement that lasted less than 30 minutes, Kganyago dismissed the application, saying the application was not urgent as the applicants had known about the misunderstanding and had waited until the conference was near.

This was good news for the hundreds of members who purport to be the genuine 'children' of the late archbishop.

The situation outside court became electric when the announcement was made that the application had been thrown out of court. Addressing the congregants, church chairman Rev Solomon Nelufhangani said the court had vindicated them. "We are happy that this has come to an end. For us, the 'children' of the archbishop, there is no conference as we are still mourning. We are still going to sit down and decide on a date next year to hold the conference.”

On behalf of the Miriri family, attorney Moses Miriri said the fact that their application was thrown out did not mean that the conference was off. “We accept the verdict and that we brought the application late, but all along we have been trying to solve this issue amicably. However, that did not happen, and we were left with no option but to turn to the courts.”

He added that the verdict did not have any effect on the conference that was to take place from 17 to 22 of September 2019 and they were going ahead with it. “We have invited the president of South Africa and the deputy president of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Date:13 September 2019

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

Read: 4226