PASTOR (40) A FORM V PUPIL AT NKWENE

BUSELENI – A 40-year-old man doubles as a high school pupil and a pastor in his own church.

Sonnyboy Xaba from Buseleni in the Shiselweni region is a pupil at Nkwene High School during the week and takes to the pulpit on Sunday at his church called Christ Cares Kingdom Ambassadors in the area.

He is a full-time pupil in the school and was at Form IV in 2013. The Investigations Desk has established that Xaba is the third eldest among the teachers in the school. His age is double that of his fellow classmates.
Pastor Xaba is famous among pupils, teachers and the community at large and unlike other pupils, who are called by their first names in the school; he is referred to as umfundisi.
He formed the church in January 2014 after breaking away from the Nkwene Free evangelical Church, he said in an interview.

Degree

Xaba said he possessed a degree in Theology, a qualification he attained from a bible school at New Haven in the Shiselweni region in 2011.
He said the college was affiliated to a university in Zimbabwe. He said he intended to pursue a course in church administration, but was hindered by the fact that he had not done well in school.

He said he completed high school in 1995 at Madwaleni High School in Transkei, South Africa.
He said after completing matric, he was employed in the Platinum mines as a surface miner for four years. He said he was born again while working in the mines and received a calling to minister the word of God.

In 2000, Xaba said he returned to the country and stayed with a pastor at Simunye and later went to stay at Mahlangatsha. He said after about four years of living under trying conditions, he was sponsored to study Theology.
He said he completed his bible studies in 2011.

However, Xaba does not like to have his high school life at 40 years publicised. When questioned about it he was at first reluctant to share why he decided to go back to school.
He, at first, said his church used to visit Nkwene School to preach. However, he later changed tune and said he was only upgrading a few subjects to enable him to pursue his dream course in church administration.

“Ngicela siyibeke eceleni lendzaba yekutsi ngihle ngiya esikolweni ngoba kunyenti lokungeke kuhambe kahle,” loosely translated as, ‘may we not address the issue that I regularly attend classes because a lot may be affected.’

Xaba said he considered it embarrassing that a person of his age was still attending school. He said the residents might not understand how he had become a church leader when he was still attending classes.

He said he feared that many people would not understand how he came to ministering the word of God and being a pupil and would construe it as lack of direction.

“Unless people get close to me, they won’t understand what really made me make the decision to go back to high school. I discovered that education is key when one wants to make it in life. When I completed my degree in Theology, I wanted to pursue two other courses, one of which is church administration and another whose name skips my mind now. But I found that my grades would not allow me to study those courses,” Xaba said.

He said not all people were happy to see him making efforts to proceed in life. 
Asked how he was managing to juggle between school work and church activities, Xaba said members of his church were very understanding and supportive.

He said, in fact, his desire to acquire better results in school had encouraged a number of his church members to study. He said some enrolled at AMADI and the Institute of Development Institute (IDM).

Membership

He said his church has a membership of close to 40 Christians mostly made up of women. He said there were about 10 women, three males and at least 25 youths as well as Sunday school.

One of the teachers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Xaba was likely to be the third eldest among the teachers at Nkwene High School. He said the ages of a number of the teachers averaged 35 years.

When Xaba was visited on Tuesday, he was found to have skipped school to attend a church meeting in preparation for the construction of his church’s building.

Again, on Friday, he was found asleep in his one room rented flat. He said he was tired and decided against going to school.
“Today, (Friday) I did not go to school because I was exhausted. Later on the day I went to the church site to clear an area where we will be making cement blocks for the church. In any case, this was a study week as we are preparing for examinations now, so I did not lose much. Ngigangile kepha ngalokulova,” Xaba said.

Nkwene High School Head teacher Jabulile Hlophe confirmed that Xaba was a full-time pupil at the school.
She, however, did not want to comment on the pupil’s pastoral activities. She first wanted to know where the journalist got hold of the story.
“I do not want to comment about that because we only have a pupil here. We do not have a pastor, but we admitted a pupil. If he is a pastor, that happens in his church.

He is treated just like all the pupils here and is expected to behave likewise,” Hlophe said.
She said she was not aware that Xaba sometimes skipped school to attend to church activities.

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