(Johannesburg) Several people have been arrested in South Africa after a small group led by a preacher attacked a school with machetes and forcibly took his grandchildren, police said, sparking outrage and the burning of his church on Tuesday.
Police have arrested five people after a video emerged showing Pentecostal pastor Paseka “Mboro” Motsoeneng, leader of the Church of Incredible Happenings, threatening staff at Katlehong Primary School, southeast of Johannesburg, on Monday and taking away young children.
The pastor is leading a small group of men with machetes, another holding what appears to be a rifle.
Provincial authorities said the children he abducted were his grandchildren, the subject of a custody battle after their mother died.
Police initially arrested four people, but not Motsoeneng, for intimidation and violence.
Students, apparently angered by what appeared to be preferential treatment for the pastor, then marched on Motsoeneng Church in protest. The church, housed under a large marquee, was set on fire and then looted.
Police later arrested a fifth person, but would not say whether it was Motsoeneng.
A replica firearm and the machetes used in the attack were confiscated. Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said on X that she was “absolutely outraged by this attack on our schools, our staff and our students.”
“No one, absolutely no one, should be entering schools with weapons, disrupting teaching and learning time and terrorizing children,” she added.
Motsoeneng, a self-proclaimed prophet and televangelist known for his love of luxury cars, is said to have thousands of followers in South Africa. He claims to perform miracles and once claimed to have visited heaven, taking pictures of himself.