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JERICHO FACTIONS WILL MERGE ONE DAY - SENIOR MEMBER

06/03/2023 08:38:00 Sibusiso Zwane

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RICHARD’S BAY, SOUTH AFRICA – One day, the Jericho Church, which was founded by Melika Vilakati, will merge.

This was said by senior members of the Vilakati family and the church during the cleansing ceremony for Jericho Church members under Archbishop Bhekibandla Vilakati. The cleansing ceremony was held jointly with the archbishop’s 44th birthday celebration in the Indian Ocean in Richard’s Bay, South Africa over the weekend. During the all-night prayer on Saturday, three senior members of the Vilakati family were asked to share with members the background of the archbishop, who was celebrating his 44th birthday. First to speak was the mother of the Archbishop, Busisiwe Vilakati (LaNtshalintshali), who related to the congregants that when she was nine months pregnant, the founder of the church went to the mountains to pray.
She shared that it was when her husband was in the mountains praying that she experienced labour pains.

She said her husband also had a vision that their son (archbishop) would be born with two teeth. Busisiwe went on to state that when her husband retuned from the mountains, the first thing she asked her was whether their son was ok and she answered to the affirmative. She narrated that her husband then put his fingers inside Bhekibandla’s mouth and felt the teeth in his jaws and he asked her why she did not tell him about this. However, later on she said Melika told her that he knew that their son would be born with teeth. After that, she said from time to time, Melika would come and tell her visions he had about Bhekibandla. She said at times, he saw him in a vision walking at sea shores and in another, he saw something like copper coming from the sky and entered to him through his nose and went straight to his mind. She said when telling her the visions, Melika would ask her to pray harder because their son was special and had a huge secret from the Lord.

She said when it was time for him to go to pre-school, his father refused and said he should not go to school. “However, I took him to school by force because I was concerned how he would survive if he does not go to school,” Busisiwe said. She said when he was doing Grade III, his father told her to take him out of school to her sister’s home at Ndlotane. Later on she said Melika told her to take him to Gege, where he (Melika) also grew up so that he could go through what he went through when growing up – looking after livestock in the mountains. She said Melika said this after seeing Bhekibandla in a vision, sitting on top of a rock in the mountains. After a while, she said Melika saw Bhekibandla changing and becoming a rock.
Later on, she said they asked to take him back to school and he failed, yet he was intelligent. She said Melika had to slaughter a white chicken and do a little ceremony to appease the angels and after that, he passed until he finished school. “Melika told us that our son was not supposed to go to school because not all angels will visit him once he was educated,” the archbishop’s mother said.

Thereafter, Busisiwe sent a stern warning to the archbishop and the church members. She said following what she witnessed and told about him, he should respect the church. In turn, she said the church should also respect him. “You are the Joshua of the church.” Respect the church and it will lift you,” the archbishop’s mother said to his son. After that, a senior member of the Vilakati family, Samuel, who was close to the late Melika, said when Bhekibandla was schooling at Ngcoseni Primary School, he was the chairman of the school committee.
He said one day Melika ordered him to take his son out of school and when he went to report same to the head teacher, he refused and said the boy was intelligent. However, he advised him to listen to what his father was saying.

He also narrated how Melika would see visions about his son and reacted by doing things which seemed to affect his life, like taking him out of school to look after livestock. On the same note, a senior member of the church, Jerome Dlamini, who was Melika’s driver, shared his story which was similar to that of the two other speakers. He said Melika never beat Bhekibandla and would be angry when he heard him crying. On another note, he said before Melika died, he told him that he had a vision of him in Heaven. Dlamini said in the vision, Melika told him that he saw the church being divided into two factions.

Vision

However, he said later on in the vision, Melika said he saw one leader being anointed as the rightful one and the church merged and was united. “He said this happened after the chosen leader had spent quality time praying in an ocean,” Dlamini said. He added that according to Melika, in his vision, the merging of the church happened when African countries were no longer colonised by the European colonists. In that regard, the elders of the church said they were optimistic that soon the church would merge. Their argument was that everything that the founder of the church saw in a vision or said used to happen. It is worth noting that after the death of the founder of the church, there was a dispute on who should lead it between his sons Bhekibandla and Khanyakwezwe. The dispute went on for a while until the authorities of the country ruled that the duo should lead their factions. Currently, the Jericho Church, which was founded by the late Melika, has two factions; one is under Archbishop Bhekibandla and the other is led by Bishop Khanyakwezwe.