A group of so-called "strange people" descended on Vhembe district, after they were last seen in the district on November 2011, telling people to stop living in Babylon and to start following the “Path of Jehovah”.

This time around, the 10 members, who were noticed camping at the bird sanctuary park near the information centre last week, wore identical gowns in place of the unfamiliar sisal attire. This reporter spent at least two hours with them at the camping site on Thursday evening. “We had to wear the previous grass clothes because we were in a real fasting period (ukuzila), where we preached Jehovah's Word to the Babylonians,” said Levi Mdali.

Levi indicated that they no longer told people to stop sinning and start doing what the group was doing. “Those who fear evil and evil deeds of this Babylon will only see that we are children of Jehovah and then follow us,” he added. “Babylon is the sinful nature which stands in contrast with doing what is right. We still say that people must follow the Ten Commandments recorded in the Holy Book.”

Levi then changed his tone of voice and started condemning the way people conduct their lives on earth. “Even you, journalist, will never eat from the table of uMdali (Creator) if you continue eating meat,” he said. “Eating fruits will cleanse your body and your mind will become sober again. People must stop doing vat-en-sit kind of relationships.”

Before I could leave for home, since it was getting late, the members reached out their fists to touch mine as a kind of prayer. They said unintelligible words in unison and I could only make out the name 'Jehovah', as they prayed for me. Briefly, I was terrified because I had read about situations where unknown people turned unknowing persons to practices of satanism or else killed them if they refused. The thought of leaving my 10-month-old daughter to grow up without a father in this world horrified me.

I finally managed to get away.

The next morning, while I was rushing to Limpopo Mirror's offices, I bumped into three of the 10 men walking towards the railway station. They were speaking with two police officers from a short distance. “Ro da u dzhia shango uri ri li vhuisele kha Mukalaha (We are here to claim the land so we can give it back to the Old Man),” said Petro Mdali (34), one of those who also came in 2011. The police quickly drove away when they saw me taking pictures.

“We are not satanists as that is how people who refuse to accept the Word of uMdali refer to us,” said Petro. “We saw the story in last month's Daily Sun about two of our members who were nearly stoned to death by the Vosloorus community in Ekurhuleni. We condemn the community's behaviour and failure to accept the Word of uMdali.”

Petro, who can speak almost all the South African official languages fluently, said that they would be travelling throughout the district on foot just to make the sign of uMdali visible here on earth. Then they will go to other provinces.