A noise complaint turned things into havoc
The church sees this as unfair and unjustifiable persecution of the church by the city Johannesburg council through the JMPD.
On February 28, Pastor Mukhuba, leader of Unity Fellowship church (UBN) was arrested by Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD). The arrest took place as the JMPD was responding to a noise complaint that was reported by the church’s neighbors.
The video of the pastor’s arrest was making rounds on the internet. The clip was posted on Twitter; it shows the woman of God being put in the back of a police van.
She was charged with attacking an officer, malicious damage to property, public violence, and contravention of the disaster management act.
Violence erupted after the JMPD claimed that they were attacked by a group of what they call “aggressive churchgoers”. Allegedly the group “thumped” onto the JMPD patrol vehicles, officers then had to use pepper spray on them and called for backup.
The church congregants say otherwise they claim that the JMPD came into their church and fired shots. The church is in an industrial area in Midway, Soweto. Ever since it began, the neighbors have always complained about the noise levels.
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”Officers have been constantly attending to noise complaints received from the surrounding community about the church,” said the JMPD’s Xolani Fihla.
Many congregants were badly injured on this occasion, “we are facing a crisis of police brutality in this country where police continue to use excessive force against an unarmed peaceful citizen,” said Mukhuba.
The woman of God appeared for the second time at the Protea magistrate court. In her first appearance, her husband had this to say, “This is not just an attack on Pastor Mukhuba, it’s an attack on Christianity. If you look at how the ANC government has dealt with the churches, it has always been unfair even before COVID-19,” said Professor Theophilus Mukhuba the Pastor’s husband.
The church sees this as unfair and unjustifiable persecution of the church by the city Johannesburg council through the JMPD. To justify this claim on March 6 just a week after the brutal attack, the JMPD went back with two water cannons, a helicopter, more than 30 vehicles, and many heavily armed officers under the pretext of coming to check if the church was complying with COVID regulations, according to the UBN media statement.
“It is deplorable the police can just storm the church, a sanctuary of God, damage property, steal church property and illegally confiscate church property without a court order,” she concluded.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has started an investigation on the officers that were reported for police brutality. The pastor will be pleading not guilty to all the charges against her. Her next court appearance is on May 6.
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