SOUTH AFRICA
IOL
July 13 2014
By Liam Joyce
Durban – The police are on high alert after the pastor accused of murdering four-year-old Lungisani Ntuli was released from police custody.
The army, and the Public Order Policing unit have been sent to the area after threats were issued by members of the community.
Angry Pongola residents threatened to avenge the murder of the boy after the pastor who was arrested in connection with the crime was released from police custody on Friday.
Lungisani went missing on July 2 and parts of his dismembered body were found last Saturday, in a green shopping bag in a rondavel on the property of St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission church. The child’s torso is still missing.
Residents in Ncotshane village, who spent Friday waiting outside Simdlangetshe Magistrate’s Court for the pastor’s appearance, said they would continue burning public and municipal buildings in the area.
In the past week residents destroyed the church where the body parts were found, the pastor’s home and a resident’s home after they accused her of witchcraft. They also set alight part of the magistrate’s court, destroying a building and van. Not even an intervention by politicians earlier in the week could deter them from violence. …
Mabongi Khuzwayo, a member of St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission church, which was destroyed, defended the pastor, “It can’t be him, I do not believe it at all. Let us just allow the law to sort this out and not destroy things,” she said
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