{"id":4580,"date":"2023-04-11T12:17:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T12:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/hundreds-of-south-africans\/"},"modified":"2023-04-11T12:23:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T12:23:16","slug":"hundreds-of-south-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/hundreds-of-south-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of South Africans tie the knot in Easter mass wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carien du Plessis and Siyabonga Sishi<\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – More than 800 couples walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in South Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The International Pentecost Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and the church says are authorised by the Bible.<\/p>\n

Its mass nuptials take place three times a year \u2013 at Easter, in December, and also during the celebrations in September of the church’s founding in 1962.<\/p>\n

Lebogile Mamatela, 38, a government employee who became the second wife to the father of her child on Sunday, told Reuters after the ceremony: “It\u2019s a special day, I am very happy. I really, really appreciate this moment of being part of the Mahluku family. It\u2019s a great feeling.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ditopa, 37, said her husband’s second marriage was “fulfilling what God has created for us, fulfilling the scripture that says women will be leaning towards one man”.<\/p>\n

Current wives wore colourful attire to the ceremony at the International Pentecost Holiness Church’s Jerusalem congregation, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Johannesburg. First-time brides wore traditional white dresses. <\/p>\n

The celebrations were a respite from a long-standing row over the leadership of the church, which has a membership of around three million, making it one of the biggest congregations in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The succession battle between three brothers began after the death in 2016 of the church\u2019s leader, Glayton Modise. <\/p>\n

In 2020 five people were killed in a shooting at another congregation of the church, but a court last year dismissed the case against the 42 accused.<\/p>\n

Security was tight at Sunday’s ceremony, which was policed by armed guards and metal detectors were used to screen the congregation.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Siyabonga Sishi; writing by Carien du Plessis; editing by Barbara Lewis)<\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806F-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806H-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806G-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806E-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806I-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carien du Plessis and Siyabonga Sishi JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – More than 800 couples walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in South Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Pentecost Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and the church says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1222],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-4580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-world-news","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3806F-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4580\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}