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MBABANE – Trouble never ends for the Dlangeni St Joseph’s Christian Church in Zion, which was broken into last Sunday and wiring cables worth E20 000 stolen.
The lighting system was also vandalised. In December, the area’s umphakatsi locked the church structure and kept the keys, following the theft of 50 chairs.
This has left the church members, who are already divided, blaming one another on who might be behind the theft.
The church is divided into two factions following a long standing dispute.
Also forming part of the waring factions are leaders of the church as well as children of the late Archbishop Shishane, who founded the house of God in 1943.
Derrick Mavuso, the Chairperson of one of the factions, said they had suspects on who might have committed the offence. Mavuso stated that they realised that there was a breakin on Sunday evening when they were from attending church.
He said after the umphakatsi locked the church structure, they now prayed outside, near the church.
Investigations
Mavuso said they realised that the church was broken into and when they did further investigations, they were shocked to notice that the wiring had been removed. “We need to start afresh in wiring the church structure,” Mavuso said.
Mavuso stated that police were slow in responding to the matter to resolve the differences. He said to date, the issue of the chairs had not been resolved and now the break-in. He said the matter was reported to the police on Monday, but they had not yet arrived to assess the damages incurred.
Maswazi Gama, who is the church’s General Secretary and member of the breakaway faction, stated that it had been a while since they visited the church. Gama said while he was at his home, he saw a car belonging to Mavuso by the church structure.
He said he was, however, informed by the police about the break-in when he had gone to inquire about the matter involving chairs that were stolen.
“More often, they were the ones who were seen around the church structure and not us,” he claimed.
Gama said they were last at the church in December. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati requested to be called today as the information was not readily available.