South Africa: Group to sue self-styled prophet

Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 28

The BBC has reported that a group of funeral directors in South Africa have said that they will sue a self-styled prophet who claims to have resurrected a dead man.

A viral video of Pastor Alph Lukau shows him shouting “rise up” to a man lying down in a coffin who then jerks upright to cheers from worshippers. The video has also gone viral in Nagaland.

The funeral companies told the BBC that they were manipulated into being involved.

The spectacle, seen outside Pastor Lukau’s church near Johannesburg, has been ridiculed and condemned by many.

“There are no such things as miracles,” the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities told South Africa’s national broadcaster. “They are made up to try to get money from the hopelessness of our people.”

Three funeral companies who said they were manipulated by the “scheme” are now taking legal action for damage to their reputation, reported the BBC today.

Pastor Lukau’s church, Alleluia Ministries International, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The Sowetan news site reported that the church has since backtracked on its resurrection claim, saying the “dead” man was in fact “already alive” when he was brought to the premises in Kramerville.

Pastor Lukau had only “completed a miracle that God had already started,” Alleluia International Ministries was quoted by The Sowetan as saying.
The BBC’s Milton Nkosi said the video has sparked a national debate on fake pastors and had been widely condemned by established religious groups.

However some South Africans have taken to social media with the hashtag #ResurrectionChallenge to see the funny side.

It is the latest high-profile row over religious leaders in the country who make extraordinary claims to their congregations.

Last year, informed the BBC, 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.

from The Morung Express
via The Morung Express