Lerato Makombe, a pastor in the Cape Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has sued the organisation.
This followed her allegations of constructive dismissal, mental health abuse, and sexual discrimination.
According to Makombe, who is a member of the Cape Conference, she started working there in 2014 as a ministerial intern before being appointed pastor.
Her monthly gross pay, she informed the court, was between R21 368 and R25119.68.
Despite being informed in July 2016 that she would be relocating to Queenstown, Makombe contested the decision, citing operational challenges and the city’s notorious anti-women ministry.
Psychotherapy intervention
Nevertheless, in November 2016, she moved to Queenstown after being told that she would face insubordination charges if she did not transfer.
“Upon arrival in Queenstown, the congregants made it clear that they did not want a female pastor,” said Makombe, adding that she reported the matter to her employer.
She requested and received an interim injunction from the Queenstown magistrate’s court in 2017, which ordered the employer to stop subjecting her to degrading and threatening situations while she was working.
During that period, she was receiving psychotherapy intervention from a clinical psychologist.
Makombe reported work-related stressors during this intervention, and she was scheduled for a ten-day sick leave. She kept getting treatment after being released from the hospital.
She was seen by psychiatrists, social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists, and nurses before being referred to a specialist psychiatrist.
Along with panic and anxiety attacks, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
Humiliated on WhatsApp groups
After the church’s leadership moved her to George, Makombe expressed concerns about the safety of the accommodation she could afford.
The employer agreed to help pay for her accommodation so she could afford safe housing.
Following Makombe’s introduction to the George congregation, the employer received complaints from church members who did not agree with a female pastor, which went against their biblical and religious beliefs.
According to Makombe, the elders and members of the George congregation were antagonistic and humiliated her on WhatsApp groups.
Additionally, she asserted that the church prohibited her from carrying out specific pastoral responsibilities that they believed were exclusive to male pastors.
Emotional and psychological anguish
She resigned in 2020, citing mental and emotional distress.
“I hereby tender my letter of resignation as a pastor of the Cape Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” she wrote.
“Since the commencement of my employment in January 2014, my employment relationship with the conference has caused me much emotional and psychological anguish, and as such, I strongly feel that continuing under the employment of the conference will severely jeopardise my wellbeing.”
Makombe was constructively dismissed, according to Tapiwa Gandidze, acting judge of the Cape Town Labour Court, and the dismissal was unjust.
“The Cape Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church is ordered to pay Lerato Makombe compensation equivalent to 12 months’ salary, hence [R21 368 x 12 = R256 416].
