WATCH: Families share pain of losing loved ones in KZN #ChurchCollapse

Published Apr 21, 2019

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Durban - WHILE most churches around the world commemorated Easter Friday, the day Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, there was no formal service at the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Empangeni.

In this church, in an area called Dlangubo, a wall collapsed in a storm late on Thursday night, killing 12 women and a child.

For decades, the people of the area had prayed on this piece of land. In 2000 building began and the structure was completed in 2007.

But even before the building was up, Christians from Empangeni and the surrounding areas would arrive on the eve of the Easter weekend for the annual Passover prayer. They would spend the weekend at the church, praying in what is one of the most holy periods in the Christian calendar.

On Thursday afternoon Lina Langa, 38, wished her mother, Alter Langa ,71, well as her mother left for the church. Little did she know it would be the final goodbye she said to her.

13 worshippers lost their lives at the Pentecostal Holiness Church in northern KZN when a church wall collapsed. Video: Leon Lestrade/African News Agency(ANA)

Langa’s two daughters, 12 and 13, went with her mother. She did not go because she had to work. She is employed as a security guard and had planned to join her mother and daughters on Sunday when she got time off from work.

“I was at work when my 13-year-old daughter called me at about 11pm crying hysterically. All she could say was ugogo ugogo (grandmother). I managed to calm my daughter down and was able to find out that something had happened to my mother.

“I left work immediately and when I got to the scene, it was still raining. I could see there were ambulances and police cars, but all I could think about was my children having to see the lifeless body of their grandmother.”

Langa said her mother had already been declared dead. While she was sleeping she had been hit on the head by fragments of the wall which had collapsed.

Langa described her mother as the glue that kept the family together.

“I do not know what I am going to do without my mother and I have to find someone to look after my children since I work night shifts,” she said.

Bongeni Ngema, 34 was also struggling to come to terms with the death of a mother.

“Nothing could have prepared me for this day. I am the fourth of seven siblings and our mother was our peace, our champion. My three remaining siblings and I work in Durban and our children stay in Esikhawini with our mother. Now, the children will have no one to take care of them and prepare them for school when we are at work,” he said.

“Indeed, God has forsaken us,” he said. Ngema said his mother loved going to church and that the church was her place of refuge.

“I am still processing how something like this could happen in a place she loved going to,” he said.

Reverend Phiwayinkosi Sibiya of the Pentecostal Holiness Church said the women slept separately from the men.

“This incident happened as congregants were preparing to rest for the night. A large part of the front wall collapsed, causing the traumatic disaster,” he said.

“It is even more devastating that the majority of the deceased are women and a child of 13 years.”

Sibiya said they had tried to call the police. However, there was no cellphone reception network in the area and eventually someone drove to the police station to raise the alarm.

Minister of Labour Mildred Oliphant, who is also a member of the church, visited the church on Friday. She said 11 people had been taken to the Ngwelezana clinic for minor treatment and five, who were critically injured, were admitted to Ngwelezana hospital.

“We understand from the preliminary reports that this area experienced inclement weather conditions with heavy rainfall and violent storms,” Oliphant said.

She said the government would work with the church and the families in an effort to mitigate the impact of this disaster.

“It is heartbreaking that Easter commenced with such a catastrophe.”

Several other government officials visited the church and the survivors, including Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Zweli Mkhize, KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo and Mdudzuzi Mhlomgo, the mayor of uMhlathuze.

Mkhize said: “We believe that the doctors have done their best to help the surviving victims to recover and further tests are being done to establish the level of injuries.”

Sunday Tribune

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