Staff ReporterThe embattled General Overseer of Hallelujah Ministries, Pastor Alph Lukau has released a video in which he claimed his person and Hallelujah Ministries International are under vicious attack from a disgruntled journalist.
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Pastor Lukau has been ridiculed for pulling a resurrection stunt outside his church where he was filmed in a live broadcast purporting to resurrect a dead man.
The video of the stunt has gone viral. The video shows Pastor Alph Lukau shouting “rise up” to a man lying down in a coffin who then jerks upright to cheers from worshippers.
The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has commented on this resurrection debacle. Speaking from Cape Town Ramaphosa said.
“We are concerned about this trend that is evolving in our country where pastors or religious leaders of questionable practices have surged to the fore and have started doing things that appear like they are taking advantage of our people.”
“One way of looking at it is that our people need to be aware of the bad intentions of some of these people [pastors],” said Ramaphosa.
The president said it was time to find solutions in conjunction with religious leaders of the country, “because if we [government] just go overboard and start regulating churches and religions, we will have a backlash because faith-based organisations will say government is starting to regulate us”.
“We do not want to interfere with people’s religious beliefs, but we should have a conversation about how we deal with these bogus pastors,” added Ramaphosa.
The Lukau resurrection debacle is the latest high-profile row over religious leaders in the country who make extraordinary claims to their congregations.
Last year, a South African pastor was found guilty of assault for spraying his followers with a household insecticide which he falsely claimed could heal cancer and HIV.
Meanwhile, the man who calls himself Prophet Mboro, announced on Thursday that he would confront pastor Lukau for “bringing Christianity into disrepute”.
In a statement, Mboro said: “No bona fide religious leader, in his right sense of mind and driven by the spirit of our Creator, can attempt to pull such an antic for the sake of quick fame and cameras.”