Erika Bornman says she was 21 when Erlo Stegen put a "curse" on her life after she left KwaSizabantu.

A spontaneous, chatty and vivacious blonde little girl when the family was introduced to the mission, she walked out a shadow of the person she was when she arrived there 13 years earlier, she says. 

Marietjie Bothma makes a living from making people feel good. She gets a crowd going at the events she hosts, and made TV audiences laugh as the indecisive blonde who speaks fluent Zulu in a King Pie ad.

But she carries heavy emotional baggage which has been with her since she was a little girl, adopted into a family which introduced her to KwaSizabantu.

It's been 20 years since her adoptive mother and the mission turned its back on her. In those two decades, she has eight times attempted suicide.

In the sugarcane fields of the Stegen family farm, Chantal Engelbrecht says she was raped by a fellow mission member before she had even turned 16.

Over 30 years after the first attack, she reported her ordeal to the police in 2019.

More than 20 years had passed when alleged child rape victim Nelda* built up the courage to report the crime committed against her when she was only five.

She had reported it before – to the KwaSizabantu leadership, she says – 10 years after she was sodomised by a man who was known to prey on little girls.

A Bible verse was read to Amanda* after she was allegedly raped and sexually assaulted at KwaSizabantu.

The attack on her was called a "spiritual hiding". The only treatment she received after a pipe was used to attack her further, was counselling.

Now 30, she arrived at KwaSizabantu in 2012. She was 22 years old and keen to be a missionary; eager to work with children, specifically.

"I always thought that I would live there until I died. Instead, I had to start over in my old age."

Gert de Vries and his wife Delia joined in 1994 after hearing of the mission at the church that they attended.

They had no intention of living there full time, but hoped to expand their knowledge and understanding of the Bible.

"But it is a utopia," De Vries recalls.

"The people were so friendly. The services at first felt like they were meant just for me. This place felt like such a blessing."

"Every time I said I wanted to go, I was told the devil was talking to me."

Tyronne Reyneke lived in a hostel with a group of other men. They would sit outside and listen to a broadcast audio service, where they were preached "nonsense".

"It was bizarre, like the evils of television and that women may only wear skirts. Sometimes I would sit there and think: 'Really?'"

What is a cult or a sect and what are the 'worrying signs'?

An expert says there are "tell-tale signs" of alleged cultism at KwaSizabantu Mission, an allegation founder Reverend Erlo Stegen had 20 years ago vehemently denied.

'A smear campaign' - KwaSizabantu's response to raft of allegations

A smear campaign – this is what KwaSizabantu Mission has labelled allegations levelled against it.

KwaSizabantu to appoint review panel, wants those behind 'vicious allegations' brought to book

The KwaSizabantu Mission says it is engaging with law enforcement to bring to book those involved in "vicious allegations" .