Five killed found in shooting in South Africa church
At least five persons were killed and 40 others, including off-duty cops, arrested on Saturday after gunmen stormed a South African church, reportedly over a leadership dispute, the countrywide police commissioner said.
According to a affirmation by South Africa's best cop, General Khehla John Sitole: "Four people were determined shot and burnt to death in a car even while a fifth victim, a security guard, was also fatally shot in his car even though he was apparently going to this complaint."
The unusually violent incident occurred in early stages Saturday when an armed group stormed the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Zuurbekom, on the western outskirts of Johannesburg, "indicating that these were coming to dominate the premises," police said.
The church has already established multiple succession-related clashes which may have been widely reported by neighborhood media since multimillionaire innovator and founder Comforter Glayton Modise died in 2016.
Sitole said police taken care of immediately studies of "shooting and a great alleged hostage condition," and seized more than 34 firearms including five rifles, 16 other guns and 13 pistols.
"I know that the speedy response by the joint security forces offers averted what might have been a more severe bloodstream bath", Sitole said.
More than 40 suspects, including 6 taken up to hospital, were arrested.
They included members of the South African police, the National Defence Force, the Johannesburg Metro Police and the Division of Correctional Services.
Even so Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said that regulations enforcement officers arrested were worshippers that got swept up in the clashes.
"They were arrested within their ability as church members, much less officers," Naidoo told AFP.
The authorities commissioner said authorities are investigating "the likelihood that this attack might have been motivated by a feud between conflicted parties of the church," which can be used to factional struggles.
Local media reported that in Nov 2018, a shoot-away between opposing sides wounded 3 people beyond your church headquarters on Zuurbekom.
In 2017, the warring factions visited courtroom over claims that more than R110 million (US$6.5 million) was missing from church coffers.
Believed to be South Africa's second major church group, it really is estimated to have at least 1.5 million members in line with the financial services group Sanlam. - AFP
