Pretoria - The South African government will not support the planned civil claim against Nigerian TB Joshua and his Synagogue Church of All Nations, as families prepare to spend Christmas still waiting for the mortal remains of their loved ones.
In a written parliamentary reply, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says the government can only provide consular support to the families.
The minister was responding to a question from DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa, who asked whether the government would support the planned civil claim by family members of at least eight South African citizens who were killed in the collapse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria.
Mokgalapa asked whether her department would assist them in the “legal processes should the claim proceed; and the reasons for not supporting and assisting them with the civil claims”.
The minister responded: “No, the government can only provide support in the form of consular assistance. In terms of Customary international law and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, the State will not interfere in or attempt to influence the judicial processes relating to a South African national in another state.”
The remains of 11 South Africans have still not returned, three months after they died in the church collapse.
On September 12, a guest house of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos collapsed killing more than 100 people.
Thanduxolo Doro, whose sister Vathiswa Madikiza was one of 84 South Africans who were killed, started a website in memory of his sister soon after the event.
He called on families to join him in instituting a civil claim against Joshua. “I am making an earnest call to action by the government to check if obligations under peremptory norms of general international law have not been breached by Nigeria,” states Doro on his website called www.tbjoshuamustaccountfordeaths.co.za.
Doro also calls on the legal fraternity “to avail their pro bono service on behalf of the affected families and bereaved families to join me in instituting a civil claim against the honourable Mr TB Joshua”.
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said last week the work to identify the remaining 11 who died continued and the government “is intensifying efforts to (bring them) home without undue delay”.
Political Bureau