NYONGANE – On Easter Mondy, while Christians from all walks of life travelled back from various places of worship after Easter, a church and a pastor’s house were broken into.
The pastor and members of Nyongane Alliance Church on the outskirts of Hazyview, were stunned to find that their church and the mission house had been broken into and items worth thousands of rand stolen just a day after their return from the Easter celebration held in Emalahleni.
According to Past Simon Mdluli, the suspects tampered with the garage door and apparently crawled in beneath the door into the house.
They ransacked the house while the pastor and his family were fast asleep and stole all the family’s food and groceries, clothes and a credit card.
As if that was not enough, the suspects proceeded to the church building where they apparently broke open the locks and stole a sound system worth R15 000.
The following morning Mdluli and his family as well as church members, were stunned when they discovered the break-in. They reported the matter to the Hazyview Police Station.
Mdluli alleged that the suspects used the credit card for petrol to the value of R4 000 from different filling stations around Mbombela.
“My credit card has no pin code and was used to buy petrol at several filling stations, until suspicious petrol attendants asked the suspects about their petrol spree when they came to fill up for a second time at a certain garage in White River. That was when they fled and left the card behind,” he explained.
The filling station then notified the bank about the use of the card and Mdluli was contacted by the bank after investigating the matter.
The man of God has since offered a reward of R2 000 to anyone with information that could assist the police in the recovery of the church equipment and his clothes.
This newspaper also learnt that this was the second break-in in a week at the pastor’s house. A case of house robbery was opened by Hazyview police but no arrests had been made so far.
