Ngcobo Police Killings

Last updated

Mthatha - South Africa Mthatha - South Africa (2417720015).jpg
Mthatha - South Africa

The Ngcobo Police Killings took place on 21 February 2018; five police officers and an off-duty soldier were shot and killed by armed gunmen, who stormed into a police station in the small town of Ngcobo, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Three days later, police authorities traced the suspects to a local church called the Seven Angels Ministry, a compound the local authorities soon learned doubled as an isolationist cult that encouraged underage girls to have sex with the church leaders as a tribute to God. The police raid resulted in a shootout, killing seven people within the compound, some of whom the police believed to have orchestrated the shooting at the local precinct three days earlier. [1]

Contents

Seven Angels Ministry

The church was established in 1986 by Siphiwo Mancoba in Umzimkhulu, Kwazulu Natal. It was initially called Angel Ministry, an acronym for All Nations God's Evangelical Lamp Ministry. [2] Mancoba recorded most of his teachings, distributing them among his subordinates. They were then tasked with spreading his "word" from village to village, thus creating a recruitment system which encouraged people to come to him for salvation. [2]

Shortly after his death in April 2015, his seven sons refused to succeed him as leaders of his church, choosing instead to breakaway and form Seven Angels Ministry, which would be led by their mother. [3] The church was for the most part closed off to the general public. Education and paid work outside of the church were believed to be doctrines of devil worship. [4] Members of the ministry were required to relinquish all of their cars, money and properties as gifts to the "Angel Brothers" if they wish to join the congregation. [5]

Police Killings

It is believed that the church was experiencing financial strain, as they struggled to house and feed the many congregants that lived within the church's compound. [6] Police believed this was the prime motivator for the events that occurred on 21 February. Unknown attackers at the time walked into the Ngcobo Police Station and opened fire. Three police officers were killed instantly, with an off-duty soldier shot dead. The gunmen had earlier killed two additional police officers at a location 60 km from the police station. [6] The attackers took off with a police van and ten firearms, weapons that were used to rob a Capitec Bank ATM not far from the police station.

Police Response

On 23 February 2018 the SAPS accompanied the Hawks and the National Intervention Unit and Tactical Response. They infiltrated the Seven Angels Ministry compound after receiving a tip-off about the whereabouts of the firearms used in the Ngcobo Police Shooting. [1] A shootout between police officials and the suspects left seven people within the compound dead, three of whom were Mancoba brothers. [7] More than ten arrests were made that day, with four of the suspects being directly linked to the shootout that occurred days earlier at the police station. [8] Young girls and women were rescued from the compound. [1]

Sex Cult

In the days following the arrests made at Seven Angels Ministry, more than 40 women and young girls whom authorities believed were sex slaves for the Mancoba brothers were taken in for questioning. [5] A majority of the women rescued from the compound were under the age of 25, with some being as young as 12 years old. [9] Children were also not allowed to have birth certificates. [5] Despite all of them being married, the Mancoba brothers considered the many other women in the compound as their wives too; satisfying the brothers sexually was seen as a service to God. [9] The majority of the women who were questioned about the cult were not forthcoming with information to authorities; and even after the shootout with police officials, they demanded to return to Seven Angels. [5]

Commission of Inquiry

The Seven Angels Ministry had already been under investigation since 2016 by the Commission for Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL), for breach of ethics. [5] Currently in South Africa, there is no legislation to self-regulate newly formed religious bodies. Appearing before the commission in 2016, Banele Mancoba, the leader of the church, explained their purpose as a being of divine intervention on earthly matters; it consisted of seven representatives. [9] While the investigation into Seven Angels Ministry was private at the time, the chairperson of the CRL, Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, did forward recommendations to a parliamentary portfolio committee to expedite actions against the Mancoba brothers, but they were rejected. The portfolio committee made its own recommendations to the CRL, that it should convene a national consultative conference to engage all religious bodies. The parliamentary portfolio committee sent these recommendations on the same day the Ngcobo killings took place. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Meshoe</span> South African politician

Kenneth Rasalabe Joseph Meshoe is a South African evangelist, politician, reverend and teacher. He has been serving as the inaugural leader of the African Christian Democratic Party, a Christian democratic political party, since 1993. He became a Member of Parliament in 1994 and has since been re-elected five times. He is one of the longest-serving MPs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in Saudi Arabia</span>

Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shootout</span> Combat between two parties using firearms

A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in South Africa</span> Overview of crime in South Africa

Crime in South Africa includes all violent and non-violent crimes that take place in the country of South Africa, or otherwise within its jurisdiction. When compared to other countries South Africa has notably high rates of violent crime and has a reputation for consistently having one of the highest murder rates in the world. The country also experiences high rates of organised crime relative to other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ace Magashule</span> South African politician and activist

Elias Sekgobelo "Ace" Magashule is a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who served as the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's governing party, between December 2017 and his suspension on 3 May 2021. He served as the Premier of the Free State, one of South Africa's nine provinces, from 2009 until 2018, and was known to be influential in the ANC of his home province.

<i>The Hunt with John Walsh</i> American television series

The Hunt with John Walsh is an American investigation/documentary series that debuted on CNN on July 13, 2014. The series is hosted by John Walsh. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015, and the third season premiered on June 19, 2016. The fourth season premiered on CNN's sister station, HLN, on July 23, 2017. A successor to the show, In Pursuit with John Walsh was announced in early 2018. It premiered in January 2019 on Investigation Discovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FeesMustFall</span> 2015–2016 student movement in South Africa

#FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. Protests started at the University of Witwatersrand and spread to the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University before rapidly spreading to other universities across the country. Although initially enjoying significant public support the protest movement started to lose public sympathy when the protests started turning violent.

The Van Breda murders were the killings of three family members and serious injury of another on 27 January 2015 at a golf estate in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa. After a year and a half of investigations by the South African Police Service, the family's youngest son, Henri Christo van Breda, surrendered to police in June 2016 and was released on bail the next day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 South African general election</span>

General elections were held in South Africa on 8 May 2019 to elect a new President, National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. These were the sixth elections held since the end of apartheid in 1994 and determined who would become the next President of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Winde</span> 8th Premier of the Western Cape (born 1965)

Alan Richard Winde is a South African politician and businessman. He is the 8th and current Premier of the Western Cape, having held the position since 2019. He has been a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since 1999 and belongs to the Democratic Alliance.

Westbury is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in the province of Gauteng. It is situated west of the Johannesburg CBD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sindisiwe Chikunga</span> South African politician (born 1958)

Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga is a South African politician who is serving as the Minister of Transport since March 2023. A member of the African National Congress, she has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2004. Chikunga had previously served as Deputy Minister of Transport twice, from 2012 to 2019 and again from 2021 to 2023, and as Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration from 2019 until 2021. She is a midwife by profession.

Mcebo Dlamini is a Swazi-born South African politician who was one of the prominent leaders of the #FeesMustFall protests in South Africa which led to a conversation on the introduction of free tertiary education for the poor, mainly black students, in the country.

The 2019 Johannesburg riots occurred in the South African city of Johannesburg from 1–5 September 2019, leading to the deaths of at least seven people. The riots were xenophobic in nature, targeting foreign nationals from other African countries. Retaliatory actions by rioters in other African nations was taken against South African brands. The South African Institute of Race Relations stated that the riots were similar in nature and origin to the 2008 xenophobic riots that also occurred in Johannesburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenmarket Square refugee sit-in</span>

The Greenmarket Square refugee sit-in was a sit-in protest by a group of refugees for the purpose of getting relocated to a country outside of South Africa in response to xenophobia in the country. It lasted from 8 October 2019 when protestors first occupied the Waldorf Arcade to 2 April 2020 when the last group of protestors were evicted from the Central Methodist Mission church. The protestors demanded that UNHCR assist them with being relocated to a third country outside of South Africa and other than their country of origin. At its height the protest grew to include about 624 protestors, including 65 undocumented refugees, according to a lawyer for the South African Department of Home Affairs.

Sibusiso Macdonald Kula is a South African politician who was elected to the South African parliament at the 2019 general election as a representative of the African National Congress.

The Mount Ayliff Christmas Day Massacre, also known as the Mount Ayliff Killings, was a mass shooting which occurred on the morning of 25 December 2020. It took place in the village of Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and resulted in the death of between seven and nine people. At least six people were reported injured in the attack. It was reported that most of the dead were from the nearby village of Nokhatshile.

Dumisani Masilela, was a South African actor, musician and former soccer player. As an actor, he is best known for the role in the television serial Rhythm City.

The 2020 Phala Phala Robbery or Cyril Ramaphosa Farm Burglary or Farmgate Scandal was a burglary of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's private Phala Phala game farm near Bela-Bela, Limpopo, South Africa. The incident occurred on 9 February 2020 in which an indeterminate amount of cash was stolen. Arthur Fraser, an ally of former President Jacob Zuma alleged that around 4 million US dollars of undeclared foreign currency had been stolen. However, subsequent reports indicated that the amount stolen was $580 000 Ramaphosa denied any wrongdoing, and sought judicial review of a report by a panel appointed by the South African Parliament released in 2022 that accused him of "serious misconduct". Opposition parties and MPs have slammed investigations into the source of the cash, and have accused the South African Reserve Bank of a providing claptrap report and systemic coverup. The Democratic Alliance intends to pursue the courts to further investigate the matter.

On 9 July 2022, a mass shooting occurred at the Samukelisiwe tavern at Sweetwaters in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The shooting left four people dead and eight others injured.

References