Using God’s given-authority for wrong reasons

Members of Prophet Penuel's End Times Disciples Ministries in Soshanguve, Pretoria ate parts of a snake, believing it would become chocolate. Courtesy of The Times

By Ofentse Ramatsetse

I read a rather disturbing article titled “Radical prophet's congregation eat a snake, say it tastes like chocolate,” published by The Times Newspaper on July the 14^th. Astounded by its outraging content, I perused the story to quench my curiosity. But I can't hide the fact that I'm disappointed by the deeds of other Christians.

The article narrates of a self-proclaimed prophet Penuel from Soshanguve, who claims to perform miracles in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This self-proclaimed man of God, whom by God’s given-authority, precipitates an alive snake to taste like chocolate and orders his congregation to eat it.

When journalists probed this ‘miraculous acts’ for confirmation, they found a church’s Facebook post saying and I quote: “We have authority to change everything into anything and it will obey because of our authority”.  Perhaps there’s nothing wrong that statement. As a matter of fact, I respect it because it’s recognised in biblical scriptures.

 The scripture (Genesis 1; 26) affirms the dominion given unto men over all animals of different kinds including living beings that creeps on earth. This scripture confirms our authority as children of the Most High.

Interpretation and execution of God’s Word

Yes, I agree that men have been given dominion over everything, but perhaps we need to question the use of this very dominion we boast about. Is it aligned with God’s intentions? Is it beneficial to all our Christian community? Is it not for selfish purpose?

I once attended a three day conference at Secunda and the guest preacher ministered under the topic: The missing Ingredient. His sermon touched a lot on believers that no longer fear God and honour His word. However, this Limpopo-based pastor said something quite interesting. He said and I quote, “To many Christians, God is just an idea”. Very powerful I thought.

But why does he say this? He has noticed that many believers do not fear God. They do quite despicable things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not honour the Word and its decree. That is why we, as Christians, fail to win more souls in the House of the Lord.

I don’t disagree that it’s not possible to perform miracles, but is it pleasing to God that a self-proclaimed prophet orders congregation to eat an alive snake? Oops! I’m not so sure about that.

Average Christians versus Matured Christians

I once had a chat with a group of tertiary students about average Christians, and one guy said that in this secular society, no modernised Christian should be bamboozled by the deeds of certain prophets. But let’s ask the question, who is an average Christian?

In this context, an average Christian is simply a Christian that believes anything without processing it first. This is someone whom when told to eat grass does it without musing over it. From an epistemological point of view, they believe certain phenomena without critically analysing, testing and verifying them.

Who is a matured Christian? In this context, a matured Christian is someone who does not receive preaching as it is without biblically confirming it. With his spiritual maturity, comes a divine understanding of how things operates in the heavenly realms. The bible says, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7; 15). 

Know what is fruitful to your Spirit as a Christian! There are vultures out to devour you. Pray God for spiritual discerning.       

 

Will Pistorius get away with it?

With Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing currently underway at the Pretoria Magistrate's court, my conscience tells me he won't get away with this. Firstly, his version of story is purely depth-less and fishy. In his affidavit, he's mentioned how the shooting incident erupted and his reaction thereof, which I find really questionable.

The blade-runner claims he was at the balcony (without his prosthetic legs on) when he heard a disturbing noise echoing from the bathroom, according to him, which he assumed it was of intruders.

The paralympian further expands that he went inside the house to locate the commotion - with what? I ask. I thought he said he was without his legs. Oops! The "blade-gunner" took his 9mm pistol and went to the bathroom to see who was inside, and he's found the door locked.

To cut shot the story, the blade-gunner gunned down his girlfriend. Yes, he did! Just like that! Boo-boo-boo! I construed varying reports by different media houses and descending the perpetrator's story. Thus, I have come to recognize there are underlying questions that need thorough inspection.

Ofentse's Observation:

I question Pistorius' reaction to what I call - an "imaginary incident" - which he beautifully crafted in his head. Firstly, if there was a burglar/intruder inside the house, don't you think Reeva could have screamed for help? I mean, there is no way the two can't hear a thug breaking in.

Secondly, why didn't he warm the "intruder" by shooting up the ceiling? Well, I'm told when you have a licensed gun - it's important to first establish if there's an intruder before shooting. Why would you shoot at something you are not certain about?

Thirdly, if it was indeed a mistake, surely he could have fired one or two bullets. Not more than that! has he done that? No! Hey, don't even tell me it was adrenaline that made him react that way. No ways! We are talking about four bullets fired at the victim here.

It's a known factor that the two were romantically involved, but now, think about it, why would Reeva lock the bathroom door if the two share the same bed? Sure we are on the same wavelength now, aren't we?

If you hear a strange noise in your house, could you really inspect the bedroom with the lights off? I mean there's no way you search for something with the lights off. Haikhona! No! I smell something fishy, don't you?

The above-mentioned questions remain hanging. Until I find answers to them, I remain uncertain. I partially concur with Magistrate's court's rule that this murder case was "premeditated".

What should be done?

> Violence is deeply rooted in our society that we even feel insecure in our own houses. Society at large, has huddle together and devise mechanisms that will ensure safety and security. How will be a united nation if we fail address such pressing issues that continue devour our loved children and mothers and society as a whole? I suggest we find local community inhabitants who will guard most threatening community -  24-hour, if needs be.

We could have a forum that will maintain this initiative. In terms of reimbursing them, we can demand R20 from every local household across regions of South Africa.

> Active communication is the key in every facet of life. We need to go back and ascertain the value of community and role-players (members). Our society is gradually becoming an hall full of helpless children. We say we are a proud and united nations yet we don't greet our neighbors in the morning, nor do we assist each other. What happened?

> Community involvement should be re-strengthen and revived across our country. For reasons known to me, i feel we have lost a sense of sharing and love. It's amazing how we pass by the needy without helping or advising them. It's like we have become a man-for-himself kind of society. We have withhold the mentality that "if does not happen to me, then why should i care?"

Is this the kind of a society we want the posterity to live in? actually, the youth and I? Aren't you tired of reading the same disheartening articles about 17-year-old being raped, grannies and little babies - not to mention the every killing of young people who should improve and lead our country? Aowa! No!

Never say never! Don't ever assume that such abhorred incidents won't happen to your family - you never know when it comes.      

I rest my case. God bless Africa!

SAPS address sexual offence issues

Correctional Services prison Wardress, Petunia Mokhotho, at Itireleng Institute for the Disabled addressing the community of Ga-Rankuwa about sexual offences. Picture by: Ofentse Ramatsetse

Ofentse Ramatsetse –

According to SAPS’ Social Crime Prevention Unit, warrant officer Bokaba, young children between the ages of three and eighteen years in the community of Ga-Rankuwa continue to be victims of sexual offences. Rape and sexual harassment are the main offences that affect most of them psychologically and in their studies.

Ga-Rankuwa SAPS’ Social Crime Prevention Unit saw a need to raise sexual awareness in the community of Ga-Rankuwa. They hosted a sexual awareness campaign at Itireleng Institution for the Disabled on Wednesday, 24 October in Ga-Rankuwa, Zone 2.

According to warrant officer Bokaba, the aim of hosting such an event emanates from the previous cases of sexual offences they had, particularly rape cases, which were very high for the past two months.

“The purpose of this project is to address issues of sexual offences, especially rape. I worked on a lot of rape cases in this community, nine to ten of them occurred in October. I had to give away some of the cases to relevant persons,” said Bokaba.

Mmakoša Phetla, a social worker from Rearabilwe Youth and Child Care Centre, said one of the issues that contributed to sexual offences was dysfunctional family relationship.

“Immediately when you have something dysfunctional in the family, the outcome will be dysfunctional as well, in this case, the child.” 

Rekord asked the Life Orientation teacher at Modiri Secondary School, Agnes Kekae, if she thought the reason many young people engage in sexual intercourse was because of curiosity and eagerness to practise what they’ve been taught in class.

“We do not teach learners on how to have or indulge in sex, but we address issues such as rape and other sexual offences with them; hence we’ve come to participate in this awareness so they see the importance of what we teach them in class,” she said.

The event was attended by Ga-Rankuwa Regional court Prosecutor, Regina Songwane; Correctional Services Prison Wardress, Petunia Mokhotho and different schools from around Ga-Rankuwa such as Holele High School, OSHAD School and Modiri Secondary School.

The entertainment was galore with many marvellous performances by Itireleng Band, The Beats and school choir led by Agnes Kekae. 

Journalists use Twitter as a tool to report Marikana massacre

The heart-aching event that unfolded in “Marikana” left many traumatized and pained where numerous miners were shot dead by the police whom many believed they would have protected them. At the vantage point of the story hungry journalists swiftly informed the masses of predicament. Some Journalists were not at the scene yet they managed to unearth factual information pertaining to the event. The three journalists I have chosen went extra mile in tweeting more about developments of story in Marikana.

Verashni Pillay (@verashni), Deputy Editor for Mail & Guardian, tweeted about the situation as it unfolds by even asking from her followers if there is anything they would like to know about the situation in Marikana. Verashni and her team reported live at Marikana as they made live-blog video about the shootings. I think what she left out though is how did the story break out and what led to the shooting of miners. What intrigued me about Verashni is immediately after the story was unfolded; she used twitter as a tool to inform people about the whole situation in Marikana.

People received a lot of information from twitter before stories were written about Marikana massacre. Nickolaus Bauer, SAfm host, on the other hand focused on different angle about President Jacob Zuma’s return from Mozambique where he attended the Summit. Bauer tweeted about Zuma’s shock following the massacre in Marikana. I also think Bauer did not delve deeper into the shooting – he only focused on President Zuma’s return, which I think it’s good reporting because people expected reaction from the President per se.

Hajra Omarjee, eNCA reporter, tweeted about the story in detail as she even went to an extent of tweeting the Youtube link regarding the shootings in Marikana. Hajra Omarjee proved how important twitter is in terms of news reporting. She tweeted about a lot about the shootings in Lonmin since the story was broke out by eNCA. She managed to get enough information regarding the predicament in Marikana – and used it to the benefit of the public by disseminating information to the public. The massacre in Marikana trended first on twitter before going public, which is something many journalists do.

All journalists keep up to technological innovations, particularly new media where news break out on twitter on Facebook.  New Media has become a modern way of disseminating necessary information to the society even the voiceless. It provides a platform wherein citizens and people from walks of life can interact and exchange resourceful ideas in terms of moving forward as a world. All these three journalists i have chosen have covered and tweeted Marikana massacre to their level best, and had fed the society with the most important information they needed to know.  

Citizen Journalism versus Professional journalism

The concept of Citizen Journalism also known as Public or participatory Journalism is based primarily on public citizens playing an active role in the process of accumulating, reporting, analyzing, contributing and/or disseminating news and information across country or globally, for that matter, depending on geographical coverage.

 With the advent of cellular phones and increasing accessibility of technology and internet, Citizen Journalism seems to gain more momentum and its increasing prevalence of news and information worldwide becomes more active. Due to availability of various designs of cellular phones with access to internet and creation of New Media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, Citizen Journalists are more able to report on breaking news more quickly than professional journalists could.

Unregulated Citizen Journalism

As a budding professional journalist, I think Citizen Journalism practice is unregulated and therefore lacks objectivity. First of all, they are not professionally trained to report breaking news. They are not governed nor have they got red-tapes like we professional journalists do – professional journalists adhere to ethical codes for fair, unbiased reporting. It all comes down to professionalism and moral ethics. Many of Citizen Journalists utilize social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook to disseminate news and information.

 Given such a close-eye by government and a number of watchdog entities, it is crystal clear that professional journalists will continue to have their space secured in media industry because of their proper, accurate and fair reporting I suppose to Citizen Journalist out there. It is an undeniable fact that many Citizen Journalist cannot distinguish between newsworthy stories and breaking news compared to trained professional journalists.

 Subjective reporting by Citizen Journalists

As I have already alluded earlier that it is only professional journalists who can clearly distinguish between objective and subjective reporting in regard to this phenomenon. Due to unfamiliarity of ethical codes and the mere fact that Citizen Journalists are not well-trained journalists, undoubtedly proves how subjective reporting becomes prevalent through social networking and other means of communication. Bias reporting continues to be an unknown concept among Citizen Journalists which paints professional journalists in a bad way and as a result, we lose credibility.

Obviously, if there is no balance reporting among Citizen Journalists and professional journalists, which automatically place a greater jeopardy on our society as a whole, many citizens will be ill-informed and most significantly, lack the knowledge of our state government operates.

Amateurish in quality of coverage

It is clear that without proper training and development, your work becomes mediocre and amateurish. Given the fact that Citizen Journalists are “journalists,” but not by profession, clearly indicates the kind of one would expect to see or hear from them. Let’s not shy away from the fact that reporting a balanced story with balanced sources help community make informed decision based on what is presented to them as news or information.

I think professional journalism will subdue given their proficiency and efficiency in reporting. In spite of the existence of Citizen Journalism, professional journalists know how to balance, analyze and report objectively. Their role will be deemed pivotal at all times.   

RESPECT IS EARNED NOT FREELY GIVEN

Ofentse Ramatsetse

Ever thought what it would be like to be led by leaders with the same leadership skills as Nelson Mandela’s? I bet we would not encounter such mediocrity and poor leadership among today's leaders. I despair for the future of our generation for they're only being fed with misleading and derailing information because our leaders preach impertinent gospel. I react to the three conservative police Commissioners who have been booted out of their office because of their engagement in skullduggery activities which are not in sync with protocol of our constitution. Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, Bheki Cele, and Jackie Selebi are few who have been dismissed from office. One may ask, what is wrong with our government?

After some fine-tooth-comb observation, it dwelt in my mind that such a succession of leaders with malfeasances are voted to power by the republic to lead and deliver sufficiently, but fails the nation beyond doubts. Many aspiring politicians and leaders of tomorrow undergo inaccurate paths as they follow the same trails of these leaders. They are not fed with indispensable knowledge that could help shape our country into a righteous direction.

Therefore, it is not by default that many of  South African youth seems to be indolent ( if that’s a suitable word to describe them), to engage their minds in the politics, social, economic and all pressing issues merely because our so-called leaders seem to have plunged themselves into a deep pool of corruption and embezzlement of the state fund. Given the status quo of our government, it is still impertinent to adorn the stakeholders our government with respect because clearly, none of deserves it, let alone our president, philander – JZ! Oops! Did I just called our president a “philander?” Oh, it must have slipped out by mistake. Our president is not philandering; our president is just a womanizer! HaHaHa! Perhaps this sounds much better, huh?!

Fellas, allow me to ventilate some of the values and customs I live under, I grew up in a patriarchal society where men are supposed to lead with integrity and self-respect, not other way round. Question arises then, how do you respect a man with 22 children? Ofentse, shut up! I am sorry, folk! It must have slipped out by mistake again. Back to business, I personally think the practice of polygamy should be considered a crime in our constitution, mind you, it’s my opinion. First question I am asking myself is, what message is our president sending to young people across the country? Does he teach us to spread infants all over the country? Or is it perhaps because he lacks educational background?

 There are tons of prospective employees out there who are full-fledged and willing to work, but they can’t because people who are voted to power to deliver the essential services to the community tend to give themselves big slice of cakes whereas majority of people get crumbs. If these people could only understand how hard it is to wake up every morning to attend classes, sometimes even when we do not feel like, they would certainly understand why we vehemently demand jobs and better life [for all].

I am deeply saddened by many fellow folks who by virtue of unemployment resort to illicit activities in search of a better life. It turns my stomach to see young people with ‘highest qualifications under their beds being domesticated by drug substances. That, in itself proves that there’s a problem with our government regime. Why do we have to study for so many years then become unemployed after?          

‘The world is in your hands’

Ofentse Ramatsetse -

Those who know her would tell of her kind demeanour - how assertive and nonchalant she always appears to be – her cronies and folks see her as a great epitome of successful and devoted young woman to young children – her colleagues love her infatigable effort in making dreams become reality even when she turns sour sometimes. Community members know the good side of her although she sometimes seem teed-off  by effortless, indolent people who don’t demonstrate dedication particularly the organization  of Youth events because that’s where her core love for children is. Priscilla Jabulile Ntuli is a principled woman driven by love and passion for children – and believes that children are future leaders of tomorrow.

Jabulile Ntuli is one person who believes hard work pays more than anything else in the world in spite of challenging predicaments. Ntuli has abhorrence at heart for people who wake up in the morning without a crystal purpose and a course that would help cultivate our nation into better place. She says “the world is in our hands and we should not wait for anyone to better it if we’re relaxed and do nothing about it.” This beautiful young woman with two kids who is not only a mother to them but the entire community of Ga-rankuwa, made it possible and genuine to orphaned children and some community members that she’s capable of making difference first within her community since the “the world is in her hands.”

Ntuli is the reason many children wake up with smile around the community – she restores hope where there is none – and nurture talent and inculcates spirit of humanity and love where it is inadequate. One would think she’s narrowly focused on children-related affairs, but no! She’s politically inclined too and one of African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and African National Congress’ Women League (ANCWL) members in Ga-rankuwa branch. Ntuli sees her role as that of being a catalyst of change to many vulnerable, directionless young people around her community – she imparts her messages through Youth development programmes and engages with tons of young people with divergent social issues.

Asked what she does on daily basis which is considered to be her daily obligations, this is what she had to say: ‘well, (she exclaims) honestly, I do a whole lot of things – I am a busy woman. I am a managing director of the youth organization titled, Phaphamang Project where we deal with all internal and external social and societal issues faced by our fellow brothers and sisters within the community not forgetting young vibrant children who, in most instances, become prone to challenges such as detrimental diseases, juvenile delinquency, illicit activities like selling and smoking drug substances due to insufficient knowledge less imparted to them by elders and parents’. Apart from being the managing director, she’s a motivational speaker, Community Development organizer, Youth empowerment and Development coordinator.

Like any other virtue of success epitomes, she’s had her rough moments combined with breakthroughs that made her become who she is today. Asked if she’s ever encountered pitfalls which tempted her positive attitude, she responds: ‘Yes, I recall the moment when I was still growing my organization [Phaphamang], I had a rough time to put it together simply because I have not had enough support and endorsement from my community as they thought I was one of those conman. As a result, I had to put even extra effort to display in an open, my commitment and intentions of constructing such an entity. Finally, I came to know one of my colleagues through whom I gained lot of recognition, but most importantly, show off my good deeds to my community which earned me their respect and love at once.

 Asked what message she could give to people with same aspirations as hers, she said: “the world is in your hands, do not wait for someone to come and help you, think!” This has become her motto and through it, she gains strength and effort to soldier on despite obstacles she may find herself in – she continues to dazzle many with her charitable work and foresee auspicious curve in her good doings.