Mass wedding held over Easter Sunday

GAUTENG – Hundreds of brides walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in South Africa since the Covid pandemic. The International Pentecost Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and the church says are authorised by the Bible.

Its mass nuptials take place three times a year at Easter, in December, and also during the celebrations in September of the church’s founding in 1962. Lebogile Mamatela, 38, a government employee who became the second wife to the father of her child on Sunday, told Reuters after the ceremony: ‘It’s a special day, I am very happy. I really, really appreciate this moment of being part of the Mahluku family. It’s a great feeling.’