Nazareth Tertiary Students Association (NATESA) is students’ society based in South Africa’s tertiary institutions, and affiliate with Nazareth Baptist Church (NBC) EBuhleni Home. Its membership comprised of tertiary students in every field of study and those who have graduated are still part of NATESA and are regarded as alumni, and therefore have no age restriction or gender bias. Its mission is
to be the religious organization that through education and leadership, holistically address economical, socio-political and religious needs of the Nazareth communities. NATESA was formally launched in 1999 and presented to the late Leader of the Church, Prophet M.V Shembe who approved its existence. Nazareth Baptist Church (NBC) is a unique and indigenous African religion that stems out from purely African teachings and philosophies of Prophet Isaiah Shembe. It is generally accepted that the NBC was formed in 10 March 1910, and has a membership of +7 million currently. It’s currently the only African initiated church that values African Heritage and Culture and perfectly intermingle it with spiritual desire and satisfaction. Background
At the very early stage of the formation of the association, the NBC members who happened to be in the Institutions of higher learning were using respective names for their branches for instance: Manaso (MUT), NBCSS (UniZulu), etc. The names were different but structures were serving one ideology. After several engagements between Nazareth students of that time, the formation of a unitary association emanated and was called NATESA. That initiative was endorsed and blessed by Inkosi YamaNazaretha uThingolwenkosazana. All those institution based names were to be changed to NATESA in order to formalize and resuscitate unity, solidity of purpose, pursuit of homogenous objectives and clarify one vision.
