Pastor finds dead body in makeshift coffin outside his church

A pastor in Westbury, Johannesburg, got the shock of his life when he woke up on Thursday to find a dead body in a makeshift coffin outside of his church.

Asian body found outside the church

Pastor Stanton from the Pentecostal Holiness Church found the body of an Asian man whose legs had been broken to fit inside the coffin.

ALSO READ: Westbury residents take to the streets to protest joblessness, marginalisation

According to Stanton, it appeared that the man was murdered somewhere else and dumped near his church.

ALSO READ: Westbury can’t be another Cape Flats

“This is sad. This is heartbreaking because we do not know whose family this is. People are doing funny things,” he said.

ACDP councilor Ronald Harris told The Citizen there were suspicions that the man was part of an Asian gang feud.

“We are still not sure who he is but we are told that there are gangster fights between Pakistani and Bangladeshi spaza owners. There is some kind of war among these guys,” Harris said.

Harris said he was not pleased that the body was left lying on the road for several hours, despite police being informed of it from the morning.

“School children discovered this and now people keep passing there. There is already water coming from the body and it’s flowing out of the box”.

Harris said the place where the body was put was also next to an illegal dumping site.

“This is bad. What does this say about us as a community, and us as a people of Westbury?”

Harris said some of the community members offered prayers not far from where the body was found.

“We have to hold hands and pray against these things,” he said.