Family to file lawsuit against TB Joshua

THE family of one of the victims of TB Joshua’s Lagos church tragedy has engaged lawyers in Nigeria to file a lawsuit against the church.

This comes as survivors and relatives of those who died when the Synagogue Church of All Nations guesthouse collapsed gathered in Midrand yesterday for the first anniversary of the tragedy.

Luke wa Kalambaie, whose brother, Jean Louis, 36, was among 85 South Africans killed, confirmed that he has briefed lawyers to file a civil suit in Nigeria to help his brother’s widow, Amina, and her two children. His decision to pursue legal action was prompted by the coroner’s rejection of claims that an aircraft seen flying low over the guesthouse had caused the collapse.

The church is applying for a judicial review of the findings.

Wa Kalambaie believes his brother, who died of traumatic asphyxia, could have been saved. He said that according to media reports, emergency workers were blocked by the church from rescuing people.

The church has denied this. Its spokesman in South Africa, Bally Chuene, said the church had hired eight firms to help with rescue operations and had used its own 11 ambulances to transport bodies and victims to mortuaries and hospitals.

Yesterday’s Remembrance Day event at the Gallagher Convention Centre was held in memory of the so-called “Martyrs of Faith”.

In a message to victims’ families, Joshua said: “For those of us who find it difficult to let go, we must realise that their death is an unavoidable call, a call to our heavenly home that no one can disobey. You could write a letter to your loved one . . . feel free to do whatever you want with the letter.”

Speaking ahead of the event, survivor Lindiwe Ndwandwe, 34, a mother of three from Kempton Park, said she had become so terrified of the dark that she slept with the lights on.

She is writing a book on her horrific experience — she lay trapped under the rubble for five days.