THE ‘Garden of Eden’ twins arrested last week for walking in public naked are college educated middle-aged women who call their father by his first name, insisting their real father is in HEAVEN.
They also sleep for just three hours a day – sticking to a strict code of their religious cult which emphasises cleanliness and hard work.
Patience and Memory Ncube, 45, left the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 2004 to join the Davidic Kingdom of Heaven sect -- deserting their spouses, children and employment after a “calling to serve God”.
In an interview published over the weekend, the twins’ family revealed how Patience, a British-trained nurse, returned from England and “converted” Memory – who was employed as an administrative clerk by the Bulawayo City Council.
The twins’ father, retired headmaster, Regis Ncube, said their strange behaviour was “the work of the devil”.
Ncube said: “Ever since they started this religion, they have behaved this way. At first they were putting on shorts and sleeveless tops but one day they woke up in their undergarments only.
“I have tried to convince them to put on clothes, but they respond by quoting the Bible to me. They are also recruiting some of my grandchildren, but I am praying hard — day and night — for them to return to SDA.”
Mother of three, Patience, and mother of one, Memory, are Ncube’s second set of twins. He has seven other children currently in the UK.
“They are my children and the second pair of my twins,” Ncube told the Herald. “My children are not mad; this is the work of the devil. My children are possessed by evil spirits. Psychiatric tests have shown that they are normal.”
The twins, currently detained by police in their home district of Zhombe, served time at Khami Prison after they were arrested in 2006.
After their release, Ncube said, they went missing but were later located by police in a bush – on the verge of starvation with some children they had recruited.
The twins say they are recreating the Biblical Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve are said to have existed in a state of nudity but “felt no shame before each other”.
In their beliefs, the twins now call their father and mother by their first names.
Ncube said: “They say they have no surname because heaven has no place for earthly names.”
He said his children get visits from OTHER cult members from nearby Kwekwe, and they pray together.
The twins sleep just three hours per day, spending the rest of the time working in their garden, fetching water and cleaning the yard, “intermittently singing melodiously and dancing into their dreamland of Eden”, the Herald said.
The paper added: “As they perform their various domestic chores, they also carry bags of sand and stone and five-litre containers filled with soil to demonstrate their strength and resilience.
“Not surprisingly, their shoulders are now heavily scarred from carrying the heavy loads.”
Reeling off scriptures, Patience said the foundation of their religion was Old Testament teachings which they “strictly followed”.
She said: “This is a serious calling to the work of God. We live like Adam and Eve did. Any man who feels lust for us because of our semi-nakedness is evil. We seek holiness. Our father and mother have accepted us as we are and we are very normal people. When Jesus comes, some of you will be found on the wrong side."
Does the Bible advocate for people to go around semi-naked? It's all in the scripture, insists Patience.
She said: “Our life is centred on Genesis 2 verse 25, Ezekiel 37 verse 24, Isaiah 20 verses 2-4 and Isaiah 27 verses 2 and 3. Anyone who reads that will understand our actions.”
Genesis 2:25 — “Now, both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame before each other.”
Ezekiel: 37:24 — “. . . My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my judgments, respect my laws and praise them...”
Isaiah 20: 2-4 — “. . . at that time Yahweh spoke through Isaiah, son of Amoz and said, ‘Go, undo the sackcloth round your waist and take the sandals off your feet.’ And he did so, walked about, naked and barefoot. Yahweh then said as my servant Isaiah has been walking about naked and barefoot for the last three years as a sign and portent for Egypt and Kush, so the King of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old naked and barefoot, their buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt.”
Isaiah 27: 2-3 — “That day, sing of the splendid vineyard! I, Yahweh, am its guardian, from time to time, I water it so that no harm befalls it, I guard it night and day.”
The twins are expected in court this week. They face a fine or alternatively six months in prison if found guilty of public indecency.