It is a pastor disaster at the Janet Bourhill Institute in Bonteheuwel, which has been occupied by more than 14 families and foreign nationals who claim they have been dealing with a “corrupt and pervert pastor”.
It is alleged that Pastor William ‘Willie’ Delaney, who is a commissioner of oaths, has been sexually abusing children and receiving rent from tenants but not paying the utility bills.
All this came to light when the water and electricity of the building was cut off in November, leaving the mense high and dry and in the dark ever since.
Sumaya Mobara said the pastor made himself a trustee of the institute with papers which have been stamped and signed by him.
“In 2015 I was looking for a place to stay and we paid R2 400 a month rent to Pastor Willie, along with about 12 other families,” she explained.
“Last year on November 9, we were without water and electricity and we had a meeting with him to ask if we can’t pay for the utilities ourselves.
“He blocked us but when we went to the council, we found out that he is not even the owner of the place.
“We do not know who is the legal heir of the Janet Bourhill Institute and we have been fined R300 000 by Eskom because Delaney had someone bypass the electricity.
“It is a disaster; my child is on an oxygen machine and I can’t plug it in, we need to constantly ask the neighbours for assistance and it’s not nice.”
Delaney first appeared in the Daily Voice in 2016 for allegedly grooming vulnerable women to marry foreigners in order for them to gain South African citizenship.
The women were allegedly offered money, and in return he married them “in toilets, on the street, at the back of shops and in restaurants”.
“After we got married, I received a R500 upfront and every month after that a R300,” one of the alleged victims told the Daily Voice.
“After the scam was done, me and this husband of mine parted ways.”
At the time, Delaney’s only comment was: “The people making these allegations against me must come up with proof.”
On Tuesday, a drug addict who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed he was paid by Delaney to “get him children”.
“I am a drug addict and the pastor would pay us to vandalise the property and assign us to get kids for him that he could use.
“He would tell us what child he likes and we would get them.”
The tenants alleged that they have caught the pastor on multiple occasions taking children into his office on the property, and “coming out with his pants open”.
Meanwhile, Ahbram Stevens from the God Faith Mission Church said they purchased part of the land on which the institution is located from Delaney, and paid R300 000 into a Standard Bank Trust account.
He said they wanted to erect a church but found out they can’t get a deed of sale as Delaney was not the legal owner.
When the Voice approached Delaney at his Bonteheuwel home on Tuesday, he denied all the allegations and said: “As a man of God I will not keep myself up with Philistines.”
He added that there are two trustees for the Janet Bourhill Institute and referred questions to a Candice Swanepoel.
When asked for a contact number, he said his phone battery died but that he would get back to us.
His daughter later came outside and said: “My dad will not come out, you should leave.”
marsha.dean@inl.co.za