"Talking about the Big Boss is a dangerous move sir, and no one is going to talk in this entire village."
That is how frightened residents of Quzini Village outside Qonce in the Eastern Cape responded when asked about a local traditional healer doubling as a church leader, whose arrest on sexual offence charges made headlines recently.
The Hawks arrested the 52-year-old founder of a church on 13 November alongside his 37-year-old assistant for sexual assault and human trafficking.
The apostle and his assistant stand accused of recruiting and preying on vulnerable women and girls brought to the church for healing.
Church members travel from across the country seeking spiritual, mental, and physical healing and spend days, months, or even years staying at the apostle's compound.
News24 can reveal that some of his patients are school-going children.
Teenagers who play for his soccer club refused to talk to News24 when stopped on the way from a midday practice on Friday.
The team also stays in his well-secured compound, which stands out from the other houses in the dusty Quzini Village.
The gates of the property were locked when News24 visited.
The church building and a cluster of other houses that accommodate his patients are on the same grounds as his double-storey house.
