Mzansi Reacts to ZCC Distancing Itself From Fatal Hammanskraal Ritual Which Left 5 Men Dead

• Five men drowned at a dam in Stinkwater, Hammanskraal while they were performing church ritual
• The deceased aged 31 to 51 are believed to be members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) which suspended all its activities due to Covid19
• The ZCC is reported to have distanced itself to the event saying it advised members on many occasions to stop going to rivers to pray

Five men were reported to have drowned during a religious ritual in Hammanskraal. The men are said to have been members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC).

Police confirmed the incident and fatalities and shed light that water at a dam in Stinkwater swept away the five men – aged 31 to 51 – while they were performing their sacred ceremony on 12 January.

Read also

Lily Mine: 1 000 days since families of trapped workers have been camping outside site, netizens have questions

Police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Sello said:

“Four bodies were recovered by the SAPS Search and Rescue Unit on 13 January 2022 and the fifth body was recovered on 15 January 2022.”

IOL reported that the five were among eight men who had gone to the dam. They are said to have been naked, had held hands, and the water pressure had risen, sweeping them off their feet and overpowering them.

In response to the alarming Hammanskraal incident, the ZCC church is reported to have distanced itself from event.

Reports state that the church suspended all its activities in response to the declaration of a State of Disaster in March 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The churches’ spokesperson Ephraim Mafetsa said the leader of the church had advised members on many occasions to desist from going to rivers and mountains to pray. The church did however, extend its condolences to the families and friends of those who died.

Read also

Learners mourn the death of deputy principal who was gunned down outside school

"We pray to God that these families are comforted and strengthened as they deal with their loss," Mafetsa added reported in News24.

South African’s took to social media to share their take on the matter.

Edward Manqoba said:

“You cannot call a group of people who practice rituals a church. Nowhere in the Bible does it describe Christ's followers performing any rituals whatsoever.”

Mapholi Alex Thiambiwi

“I don’t know if ZCC perform so called rituals...but I think there was performing their own rituals not church rituals because the church doesn't do such a thing.’

John Smith responded:

“Of course they will do that now or say that people must take responsibility for their own selves, trying to escape criminal action?”

Langalibalele Mhlanganyelwa Khully Sibeko wrote”

“The church is correct, we no longer go to church and awaiting a go ahead from the Head office to open churches, and we don't perform any rituals by the rivers, whoever is responsible must be hold responsible not the church.”

Read also

Self proclaimed Zim ‘prophet’ offers young SA citizens R2 million for bible verse challenge

Pule Maitshotlo said:

“I am with ZCC members here...the cult (church) is yet to open to so those ones performed the rituals without consent of the cult (church).”

Baptism drowns 2 people in Free State

Briefly News previously reported that On 22 December a 21-year-old priest in Bothaville took a few members of his congregation to a river outside Kroonstad so that they could be baptised.

Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, a spokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS), said that a woman of 41 years and the young priest were washed away while he was baptising her.

Makhele said that their corpses were discovered several kilometres from the scene of the baptism. He added that churches should avoid activities that involved large bodies of water as the increased water level could have fatal consequences, News24 reports.

Source: Briefly News