Pretoria South Africa – (PTG) A Pentecostal Church in South Africa has been ordered to pay transgender woman Karabo Ndlovu R600 000 ($49,000 US) for forcing her to strip in a bathroom to prove that she was “a real woman”.

In addition, Ga-Rankuwa Equality Court Magistrate Ryan van Rooyen ordered the International Pentecost Holiness Church to pay Karabo Ndlovu’s legal costs and the most senior person in the church hierarchy to personally tender an unconditional apology “in writing and verbal” before the end of October.

It took 6 years for justice to be served.

The church didn’t have legal representation or show up for previous court dates.

In 2015 Church members forced Ndlovu, a post-op transgender woman, into a public restroom and ordered her to disrobe after she became engaged. Upon learning of the attack her betrothed ended their engagement according to News 24.

Ndlovu, in her complaint, said she joined the Tweefontein G congregation in 2013, a year after she underwent gender reassignment surgery.

The Magistrate said while ruling “This was in a church setting where people should feel safe and cared for and, dare I say, loved. There was no willingness from the respondent (the church) to engage on the matter after the incident, which no doubt added insult to injury.”

The International Pentecost Holiness Church, founded in North Carolina, broke from the Methodist Church and the Baptist denominations in 1960 to practice ‘Baptism by Fire” and spread their version of an angry, vengeful god around the world.

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