Pretoria - Kgalaleo Tlhoaele dreams of being a journalist but she became the story on Sunday when she was chased down by zealous congregants of the End Times Disciples Ministries in Soshanguve determined to eat her hair extensions.
Pretoria News photographs of the 22-year-old journalism student at the Tshwane University of Technology being brought to her knees as a young man eats imaginary food from her hair weave have been posted worldwide, and the story of the strange antics of the church’s pastors have caused a stir online.
Tlhoaele and seven fellow second-year journalism students at TUT were on an assignment at the church on Sunday, awaiting the arrival of EFF members.
The church is led by Penuel Mnguni. He is known for making his congregation eat anything from grass and leaves to paper, and live rodents and snakes.
Tlhoaele’s task was to make short videos of events as they unfolded at the church.
Suddenly she found herself in the story as the group chased her down. She tore her jeans and hurt her knee as she tried to get free and the terror in her face is clear in the photos.
“I got to the church in the morning for the Sunday service, and everything was quiet. Only when the pastor’s car drove in, did members of the church start falling on the ground, presumably reacting to his presence. The entire thing was like watching people playing a game of ‘Simon Says’, in that whatever the pastor pointed at, church members would run towards and eat.
“I stood with other journalists watching them when the pastor suddenly raised his hand over my head and said ‘food’. Then they came running towards me. I tried to run away but one of them jumped on me and started biting off my hair.
“Thankfully the pastor shouted ‘sleep’ and he let go of me and fell to the ground, as if they were hypnotised,” said Tlhoaele.
Speaking from her home in Ga-Rankuwa, she said she had only had the weave done the day before, but when she got home she took it out as it was covered in saliva.
Her mother, Louisa Tlhoaele, said she was devastated when she saw her daughter on television and on the front page of the newspaper (Pretoria News) after the incident.
“My daughter always said she would be on television or newspapers, but I never imagined it would be for something this horrible.
After she called her mother to tell her what had happened, Tlhoaele didn’t go straight home. She went back with her classmates to file her story.
Her mother is so impressed with her dedication to the job that she said she would support her all the more to realise her dream of being a journalist.
The church achieved notoriety when it emerged that its young pastor, Mnguni, employed unorthodox ways to encourage worshippers to believe, including getting them to eat grass, ants, mice, and other items.
The EFF lambasted his “devilish” conduct. Party spokesman in Gauteng, Ntobeng Ntobeng, said they went to the church to support the community, which was already fed-up with the prophet’s antics.
“We did come with rats and snakes for him to eat, but he ran away, and his deputy continued with the antics too,” said Ntobeng. The community then took it upon themselves to dismantle the church’s tent and burn it down.
“He (the pastor) and anyone else who takes advantage of poor communities should know such behaviour will not be tolerated when there is a fighter (EFF supporter) nearby,” said Ntobeng.
Tlhoaele said she was disappointed that police officers who were present keeping an eye on the looming confrontation between EFF members and congregants did nothing to help her during the attack.
“They casually followed us in their car and advised me to go and report the matter at the Akasia police station.
“But I don’t want to open a case; it would be too much effort going back and forth to the courts,” said Tlhoaele who added that everything happened so fast and unexpectedly.
Pretoria News