Pastor Rabalago claims afflicted church members have been delivered after being sprayed with the insecticide. In photos circulating on social media, he was seen spraying the insecticide directly into the eyes and various body parts of his congregants.
South Africa’s Pastor who sprays Insecticide on ‘believers’ for healing to be jailed
A self-styled South African pastor who sprayed his followers with Doom insecticide and claims it heals all kinds of infirmities has been found guilty of assault, local media report.
Lethebo Rabalago – widely known as the Doom Pastor, always said when he spoke to Doom insecticide, it changes from insecticide to a supernatural healing substance, capable of healing cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Local media reports the pastor sprayed his church members with the insecticide right into their faces.
He has been also found guilty of contravening the Agricultural Stock Remedies Act, a court ruling said.
Rabalago claims the insect repellent he used in 2016 could heal cancer and HIV.
A sentence is yet to be handed down after the verdict by Mookgopong Magistrates Court in Limpopo province.
On Friday, magistrate Frans Mahodi told the court the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that the five people who laid assault charges were violated, South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC reports.
The magistrate said the fact that the complainants “were sprayed on their faces with Doom makes this offence [the] worst of its kind”.
He also revealed some of them had suffered “detrimental side effects… like coughing for more than seven months” after the incident.
Rabalago – who run the Mount Zion General Assembly – was arrested after it emerged he had used the product to “cure” his followers of various ailments in 2016.
At the time, he told the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko in Johannesburg he had sprayed the face of one woman because she had an eye infection and claimed the woman was “just fine because she believed in the power of God”.
Rabalago’s case had been delayed on a number of occasions, most recently when his lawyer forgot his glasses.
South Africa has seen a wave of incidents where church members have been subjected to unorthodox rituals which purportedly healed them of various ailments.
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