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Celimpilo Malinga was 15 years old when she was excommunicated.
- Celimpilo Malinga was the second witness to testify before the CRL Commission hearing on the allegations of abuse in KwaSizabantu.
- She described how she was suddenly expelled from the mission at the age of 15 for a minor offense – talking to a child.
- He explained that, by speaking, he hoped that the mission could reform itself and “live in the truth.”
Upon her arrival at the KwaSizabantu Mission, Celimpilo Malinga felt a change in her family and herself.
“Things don’t change drastically, they change slowly but surely,” he said.
She remembered how the mission slowly took her and her family away from their loved ones.
Malinga intervened in a hearing held by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission).
The commission launched an investigation into KwaSizabantu after a News24 post detailing allegations of human rights abuse at the mission, including sexual assault, physical and emotional abuse, as well as financial crimes.
Malinga was the second witness to speak to the commission about her experiences on the mission.
He said his family was told they would be “corrupted” by others outside of the mission.
“Little by little they were taking us away from what we knew: extended family and friends. So even if we go home, we will not associate with family in general,” Malinga said.
However, she added that her life really changed when she “misbehaved” and was expelled from the mission.
When she was 15 years old, her father disowned her and expelled her from KwaSizabantu.
“ME [didn’t know] first thing in the world, “he said.
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On the mission, Malinga said, they weren’t taught about the outside world; for example, sexual reproduction was not taught – “but we know that if you talk to a boy, you are going to get pregnant.”
“KwaSizabantu wants to keep them blindfolded, because they themselves are God,” Malinga told the commission.
She explained that, in 1991, a mission employee gave her a chocolate and she was almost immediately accused of “seeing” the employee, which was against mission rules.
She was later expelled from KwaSizabantu, but not before her father hit her with a sand-laden pipe.
Upon leaving the mission, Malinga recalled:
He was destined to sleep on the street. I left early, I left my parents still in consultation with the church elders in the hope that… my dad would pity me and take me home because no one could see what he did. I had been beaten and my legs were swollen. It seemed like I had been burned with [hot] Water.
Malinga collapsed in front of the commission. She recalled walking in the scorching sun, her legs covered in scars, and described how she got her first period on the same day.
She would eventually move from house to house, hoping to stay away from her father and his anger.
“The mission will never apologize for anything. I shouldn’t even expect the mission to say sorry, but I need to find a way to move forward,” Malinga said.
“Over the years, I had found myself [children from the mission] complaining about that and the other things that had happened to them, and I realized that this was never going to end.
“There will always be another Celimpilo, who will not be as lucky as me, who will be lost to the world.”
Malinga explained that she was concerned about speaking out, but was motivated by those still living on the mission.
“The worst is the worst, KwaSizabantu collapses and collapses with many lies, but it is still standing and other lives are collapsing.”
He said that while it was not his intention to collapse KSB, he believed that “if KwaSizabantu is still alive, he should continue to live in the truth.”
Malinga’s testimony continues.
