Six people have reportedly died in South Africa after a cleric, Prophet Rufus Phala, allegedly gave his members Jik, a household bleach, to drink as a sign of faith.

Reports from the country say four others are in critical conditions.

Police are investigating the incident.

Prophet Phala, who is a pastor at AK Spiritual Christian Church, Makgodu, Limpopo, had members of the church drinking the bleach to get healed.

The Pastor who noted that drinking the bleach was harmful, also claimed he has been getting WhatsApp messages from people who say they have been healed by obeying his command of drinking the bleach.

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“I know Dettol is harmful, but God instructed me to use it. I was the first one to drink it,” the pastor said.

Few months ago, another South African Pastor sparked outrage after encouraging worshipers at his church to drink deadly rat poison.

Pastor Light Monyeki told worshipers at the Grace Living Hope Ministries to drink from a bottle of water laced with noxious Rattex to ‘nourish their bodies’ and ‘heal their sickness’.

After the pastor took a sip from the bottom, ‘a multitude of congregants voluntarily ran to the front to have a drink of the deadly poison’, the church claimed.

WuzupNaija also recalls that another South African self-styled prophet was jailed for four years and fined for spraying his followers in the face with insecticide as a supposed cure for an illness.

Pastor Lethebo Rabalago was found guilty by a court in the northwest town of Limpopo of five charges of grievous assault and contravening chemicals laws.

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He used “Doom”, a household insecticide on his followers, earning the sobriquet “Prophet of Doom”.