South Africa- A Church belonging to a controversial local preacher, Pastor Mboro, was Tueseday torched by angry community members after he took part in a gang which was arrested for intimidating teachers with machetes and guns.
News24 reports that the church, known as Incredible Happenings, located just behind the Katlehong North police station, was also looted shortly before it was set alight.
Several pupils in school uniforms were seen running from the burning church, and law enforcement officers were present but did not intervene.
Pastor Mboro real name, Paseka Motsoeneng, was reportedly among four people who were arrested after a group of knife-wielding men intimidated teachers at a Katlehong school on Monday.
According to the Gauteng education department, in a series of shocking videos that have gone viral on social media, Motsoeneng is seen wielding machetes and threatening to attack teachers on the school premises.
Gauteng provincial education MEC Matome Chiloane, said:
Disturbingly, another man is seen grabbing two learners, who were caught in the crossfire of this violent ordeal, while another is wielding an assault rifle.
The department said that there had been a conflict between two families over the custody of boy learners enrolled at the school, in Grade RR and Grade 2.
It is alleged that the mother of the children passed away in April this year, leading to a dispute between the paternal and maternal sides of the family.
On Monday, the children’s father and the maternal grandmother, who is the alleged guardian of the children, met with the principal separately.
During the meeting, the grandmother reportedly told the principal that a conflict had occurred during a meeting held over the past weekend at the house of the paternal grandfather, that is Pastor Mboro. Reads the statement from the department:
Following this, the deputy principal and some staff members refused to release the children without the grandmother’s permission. This led to the pastor arriving at the school with bodyguards and weapons.
The incident unfolded on Monday afternoon after school when the father of the children came to fetch them, accompanied by two men, one of them being the pastor — who was armed with two pangas while the other carried an assault rifle.
Teachers, acting on the alleged instructions from the grandmother, tried to prevent the father from leaving the school premises with the children.
In response, the pastor brandished a panga threateningly at the teachers, allowing the father to leave with the children.
Explaining himself in the audio recording during a conversation between himself, the police, a ward councillor and the school staff at Katlehong North police station, Mboro said his son had gone to the school to pick up his children but was blocked by teachers.
He also alleged the teachers locked up and beat his son up. He said:
They were throwing stones at my son and while they were kicking him, I ran to fetch the panga.
If you know that your child is locked up and is being beaten, you go fetch a panga because you don’t want your son to use a firearm because once you use a firearm there will be a pointing case. I am ready to die for my son.
Gauteng police spokesperson, Colonel Noxolo Kweza, confirmed that the four were expected to appear in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court soon. Said Kweza:
They are facing a variety of charges including assault, handling a firearm recklessly that could endanger lives and property, rendering security services while not registered, malicious damage to property and intimidation.
Kweza said the replica firearm and the pangas have since been confiscated.
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