Durban - A clergyman, who publicly encouraged congregants to defy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s instruction and gather in numbers for their annual Easter festival while the country was on lockdown, appeared briefly in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
He was arrested by police after a month-long manhunt.
Bishop Bheki Ngcobo, of the SA Zionist Church, had allegedly been on the run shortly after he made the worship call to his flock and reasoned that Ramaphosa was not god during a media interview.
Ngcobo was arrested at his Bluff home. He said he had returned from a mountain where he was praying
and fasting for 21 days but after Ramaphosa extended the lockdown, he decided to stay there for another three weeks.
He said he had no clue why he was arrested. He argued that he did not contravene the Disaster Management Act as he was praying alone on a secret mountain.
“I was charged for convening a gathering during the lockdown, which is not true. I still want to know which gathering I convened because I was alone in the mountain,” he said.
Ngcobo said churches should be reopened to seek God’s intervention to fight the disease through prayer.
He argued that MEC’s were allowed to criss-cross provinces, disobeying the lockdown restrictions, while religion was banned.
He claimed police confiscated both his cellphone and a car which was only returned on Thursday. Ngcobo said he would lay a charge against the police for damaging his property.
But before Ngcobo could go inside the court, there was confusion, with officials trying to regulate the crowds after the court was temporarily shut down after a magistrate tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
In line with the government’s plan to curb the spread of the virus, on March 16, Ramaphosa banned mass
gatherings and asked religious leaders
to play an active role in upholding the ban.
Ngcobo, who is also the founding leader of the African Freedom Revolution political party, was tracked and arrested in the Bluff by a team of investigators from the KZN Provincial Task Team, led by warrant officer Bob Pillay.
The bishop was charged with contravening the Disaster Management Act and was held at SAPS Isipingo police station before being released on R3000 bail last Sunday.
During their search for Ngcobo, his family and other leaders in his church told Pillay and his team that he was “praying in the mountains” but did know the location of his prayer place.
Early on in the search for Ngcobo, the investigators were drawn to rural parts of Mahlabathini.
A congregant, early in April, then told the team that Ngcobo lived in the Ndwedwe area and had since moved to the mountains to pray, but couldn’t say exactly where.
A relative of the bishop also told police that he was in the mountains, but she was unable to provide any further information. Information then emerged that the bishop was living in Ulundi, Northern KZN. Police proceeded to the location but he was not there.
The relative of Ngcobo who owned the Ulundi home denied that Ngcobo had visited the home. Instead, the relative told police that a friend of the bishop had parked his car there on behalf of him a day earlier.
The relative said she did not know the name or contact details of the friend, who had driven away in another waiting vehicle.
However, police were able to establish from locals that Ngcobo had been at the home and left a day earlier.
The team were then drawn to Esikhawini and interviewed a pastor who was an office-bearer in Ngcobo’s church.
The pastor confirmed that they were not going ahead with their Easter church programme for April 10, as announced.
That was also confirmed in a Facebook post made by the pastor.
By this time, the investigators had made many calls to Ngcobo’s phone and left messages, but he did not respond to Warrant Officer Pillay and his team.
On April 29, the team travelled to Ulundi once again after they had received information.
Ngcobo was not there.
The relative at the home told police that he was praying in the mountains and would get in touch with police on May 1.
Police also followed a lead to a nearby guest house in Ulundi and other possible places Ngcobo could have visited in the area, but he could not be found.
He was eventually tracked to the Bluff, last Saturday.
Ngcobo has been charged for defeating and obstructing the administration of justice and contravening Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
Magistrate Vanitha Armu postponed the matter to Friday when Ngcobo’s lawyer would be present in court.