It was a historic Sunday at Nzhelele two weeks ago at the headquarters of the United African Apostolic Church. Among the 11 people baptized by Archbishop Elias Miriri that day in the Nzhelele river at Ha-Mavhungu were two local white residents.
Ms Angie Roos and her son Adrian, who stay just outside Musina, were among the church members who volunteered for the baptising ceremony.
They explained that strange things had recently started to happen at their game farm. "We found a pot full of strange living organisms that change shape basically when we look at them," they said. According to them it seemed as if the pot had brought a curse upon the farm. The game and cattle started to die and people started avoiding them.
"We had a lot of customers who used to come for hunting, but since the pot was found … customers stopped coming. We endured it for a long time, until we decided to find divine intervention," said Angie.
"The United African Apostolic Church's archbishop Elias Mureri came to our rescue and cast the evil spirit out," she said. She and her son then decided to have themselves baptised. Angie added that shortly after that her husband had been offered a job in Nigeria. "With divine intervention, things will return to normal," she said.
Archbishop Mureri said that he would like to see the Roos family enjoy life like any other SA citizens. "The Roos family are now members of the UAAC and they will get their uniforms soon. They will dance with the others when we play our African drum during the church services," said Mureri.
The nearest branch of the UAAC is in Musina, so the Roos family can attend church services there and won't need to travel to Nzhelele every Sunday. "There is no black and white, all people are the children of God," said Mureri.
The secretary general of the UAAC, Emmanuel Ramudzuli, said the Roos family was not the first from the white community to join the African Church. He said there was another white farmer who was farming on the side of Ratombo near Levubu who had joined the UAAC some two years ago.
The UAAC is one of the biggest churches in the South Africa and has branches in many African countries, such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana.
Chief Livhuwani "Nkhiphitheni" Matsila, the director of the Matsila Community Development Trust, promised Angie Roos that he would consider working with her husband on the issue of farming. "We are organizing and we will see how best the Matsila Community Development Trust can work with the Roos family in agriculture and job creation," he said.