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Doing God’s work turns ugly as controversial former bestie pastors squabble over reputation.
Charismatic man of the cloth Jacob Dube, popularly known as Jay Israel, has flouted a court order by refusing to render an apology for accusing his former best friend and self-proclaimed spiritual leader Moosa Mohlala of selling to his congregants water that has been used to wash corpses.
Mohlala subsequently sought a warrant of arrest from the Johannesburg High Court on June 10, citing that, despite obtaining an order from the same court early last month, Dube was unwilling to retract statements published on his Facebook page on May 17.
Dube posts videos online under the banner of Jay Israel Official and, according to his Facebook account, he has 86 000 followers on this platform and 200 000 on YouTube.
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According to court papers, Dube’s statements accused Mohlala of performing rituals.
“Mohlala uses mortuary water used to wash dead bodies! I said it before and bumped into an article where someone is explaining in depth what the mortuary water is used for.
“Now do you see the reason you are stuck in that church and you can’t leave even when you have seen the light and truth?” Dube wrote.
In his court papers, the leader of Shekainah Healing Ministries International, which has congregations across South Africa, with the largest branch in Soweto, argued that the statements harmed his reputation and hindered his business interests, as associates saw him as a scam artist.
“As a result of the respondent’s reckless behaviour, business associates, family, friends and followers who used to value the applicant have lost confidence in him, and this has led to serious damage as he has lost sponsors and business associates as a result.
Mohlala asked the court to send a strong message to Dube for ignoring the court order: “The defamatory posts still exist on his timeline; still injure the reputation of the applicant; and [his] noncompliance with the court order reduces the honourable court’s order to a mere mute document.
“If a strong message is not sent to the respondent, he may never understand or learn that actions have consequences and that the courts’ decisions are binding.”
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Mohlala said he was met with fierce resistance from Dube, who has shown no interest in retracting his statements.
“To the extent necessary, it is evident that the publication of the defamatory statements concerned the applicant as they refer to him by his full name.
“The fact that the statements were published on Facebook, a widespread social network with huge coverage, proves that the respondent intended for a lot of people to view the statements which he [knows] are unlawful as he never supplemented his statements with conclusive proof and/or verification to that effect.”
Dube gained popularity through videos on social media in which he critiques pastors and churches that he considers to be dubious.
In November 2020, he featured controversial YouTube channel Owamie Entertainment, discussing the prevalence of cults with author and socialite Jackie Phamotse.
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“The respondent is very much aware that, once you publish a statement on Facebook, not only do people view the post, but they also share and forward it to other people, thereby influencing other people to make unjust opinions on the applicant, without hearing his side.”
When called for a comment, Dube was unmoved by Mohlala’s court application.
Dube said:
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