NGOVHELA - The well-known leader of Revival Apostolic Christian Church (RACC) in Venda, was saved by a sympathetic church member, when he was about to be arrested for not paying a traffic fine.

On May 20, 1999, Bishop Harry Mmbangiseni Ratshitanga, also employed in the Department of Health and Welfare, was given a R400 fine for driving a departmental vehicle that did not have a clearance certificate. He was, however, in possession of a letter from the regional director, confirming that the department was responsible for the vehicle.

The letter bears the signature of the Regional Director, GR Matodzi. This letter allows the Bishop to drive the vehicle without a disc. He was delivering tablets to psychiatric patients at their homes.

Last Sunday, the church service was disrupted and delayed for two hours after traffic officers, Dan Nembambula and Rasivhaga visited the church in the morning and issued a warrant of arrest for Ratshitanga. The Bishop, who did not have enough cash, became frustrated when officers refused to take a cheque. His arrest was only withdrawn after a sympathetic female church member rushed home, about three kilometers from the church to collect the cash needed.

Meanwhile, Ratshitanga a founder and director of RACC, told Mirror this week that he was angry against the Department of Health and traffic officers who disrupted the church service for two hours.

"My dignity and that of the church were destroyed. Why did they come on Sunday during the church service? Did they want to prove that the Pastor is not faithful and to disrupt the service? The issue of the government vehicle not having a license disc belong to the transport department. As an officer, I am not responsible for the administration of government vehicles, or their roadworthiness or to pay tickets related to missing discs," said an angry Bishop.

The Bishop said he wrote letters to the MEC for Transport, Dr Tshenuwani Farisani, and the head of traffic at Thohoyandou, Mr LJ Mulaudzi. He said that he was considering taking legal steps against both departments and the two officers who disrupted the church service.

Farisani confirmed that he received a letter from Ratshitanga on Wednesday. He said he was still investigating what went wrong in the whole process. "The letter I received complained about the visit and disruption of the church. The bottom line is that no car is allowed to drive without a roadworthy certificate. No one, even the MEC of Transport can authorize that a car can be driven without a permit," said Farisani. He said he would respond directly to the Bishop after completing his investigations.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for health, Mr Aluwani Netsianda, said that the department "finds it regrettable that our official has been treated in the manner in which he was. We believe that it is just an administrative error that we will certainly look into. This problem has been there before. As of now, all our vehicles are registered. It is only that this is an issue that took place before intervention by both MEC's. We are apologising to both Tshilidzini Hospital and the official concerned," said Netsianda.