Purity Nomthandazo Malinga

Purity Nomthandazo Malinga (born 1958) is a South African Methodist bishop and the 100th Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA). Malinga was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1988, the fourth woman to be ordained in her denomination. In 1999, she became the first woman to be elected as a bishop in the MCSA, and served nine years as the bishop for the Natal Coastal region. She later became director of the MCSA's Education for Ministry and Mission Unit, which holds responsibility for overseeing theological education within the denomination. She is the first woman to become presiding bishop for the MCSA; she was elected to that position in 2019, succeeding Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa. The MCSA is the largest mainline Protestant denomination in Southern Africa and includes churches in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa.

With encouragement from a local pastor, Reverend Raymond Khumalo, Malinga then decided to pursue ordained ministry in the Methodist church. Women had recently been allowed to present themselves as candidates for ordination. In 1981, she was accepted as a provisional candidate. From 1982 to 1983, she served as a minister-in-training in KaBhokweni.

From 1983 to 1986, she studied at the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa, known as FEDSEM. FEDSEM was an ecumenical seminary that prepared students, primarily from Anglican, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, for the ministry. During the apartheid era, education in South Africa was widely segregated by race, and black students formed the majority of the student body at FEDSEM, although some colored and white students attended. The school was known for fostering both an ecumenical spirit among the students, and an awareness of social justice issues. At the time that Malinga attended, there were few women students, and all from the Methodist Church. After completing her studies at FEDSEM, Malinga spent a year in ministry at Ohlelo-Nkandla.

In 1988, Malinga was ordained, becoming only the fourth woman to be ordained in Methodist Church of Southern Africa. After completing her degree, she returned to South Africa, where she became a lecturer in New Testament at FEDSEM. However, the school closed that same year. She then became the head of the education department for the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. She continued teaching, both at the Theological Education by Extension College in Johannesburg, and at Kilnerton Methodist College in Pretoria. She succeeded Bishop Ziphokuhle Siwa, who served as the 99th presiding bishop.

On 5 June 2021, St Stithian's College, a Methodist College near Johannesburg, renamed one of its main gates in her honor, naming it the Bishop Malinga Gate.