Mandela met the devil while on Robben Island

CLAIMS that Nelson Mandela had meetings with the devil on Robben Island when he was a prisoner don't even deserve credence, said the Nelson Mandela Foundation yesterday.

One of the seven brothers from Angel Ministries in Ngcobo, Eastern Cape, claimed that the devil was at work in schools because of meetings Mandela and the devil had while Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island.

Speaking to Sowetan, Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said that authorities needed to intervene when such irresponsible claims were made.

"Children have the right to education, and by saying such things [that children should leave schools], Mancoba is playing with these children's futures."

Last month, social workers removed 21 children from the Angel Ministries compound in Ngcobo. The children were denied the right to education.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said that a case of defeating the ends of justice was going forward against the church.

Angel Ministries was established in 1986 by Siphiwo Mancoba. But strangely, his seven sons yesterday told the commission investigating the abuse of people's belief systems that they had created their parents. "We created our father and mother. We are angels and they have the spirit of angels," said Banele Mancoba.

He said when they descended from Heaven, they created their father, who would then become the earthly founder of the church.

"We gave our father instructions to declare and pronounce the word of God on Earth. We told him that we would be born of him in the flesh."

He said his father followed instructions and established the church. Their father died on April 13 last year.

The SA Council of Churches declined to comment on the matter yesterday, saying it did not attend the hearings.