More than 800 couples walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in South Africa’s largest mass wedding ceremony since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The International Pentecostal Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and which the church says are biblically authorized.
Its mass weddings take place three times a year – at Easter, in December and during celebrations in September, the year the church was founded in 1962.
Lebogile Mamatela, 38, a government employee who became the second wife of her child’s father on Sunday, told Reuters after the ceremony: “It’s a special day, I’m very happy. I really appreciate this moment to be a part of this moment. The Mahluku family. It’s a great feeling.”
Her new husband, Roto Mahluku, 40, joined the church in 1993 and married his first wife Ditopa Mahluku 16 years ago. They have three children.
Ditopa, 37, said her husband’s second marriage was “fulfilling what God created for us, fulfilling the scripture that says women lean toward one man.”
The wives in attendance wore colorful dresses during the ceremony at the Jerusalem congregation of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Johannesburg. First time brides wore traditional white dresses.
The celebrations marked a break from a long-running row over the leadership of the church, which has nearly three million members and is one of South Africa’s largest congregations.
A succession battle between the three brothers began after the death of the church’s leader, Glaton Modise, in 2016.
In 2020, five people were killed in a shooting attack on another congregation of the church, but last year a court dismissed the case against 42 accused.
Security was tightened at Sunday’s event, with a police presence of armed guards and metal detectors used to screen the congregation.
Source: Reuters
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