The Umtata District Court on Monday granted 12 people, who were arrested in connection with the discovery of eight shallow graves inside a church compound in the area, bail of R300 each.
The bodies of the deceased would be exhumed on Tuesday after an exhumation order had been obtained, SAPS Superintendent Nondumiso Jafta said.
Vegetables such as spinach and cabbage were already growing on top of some of the graves. The court ordered that the 12 should not set foot anywhere near the compound, currently under police guard. The court postponed the case to Friday.
The group was arrested last week on Friday after the police discovered the shallow graves in a church compound in the Mandela informal settlement near Umtata in the Eastern Cape.
A number of people had been staying at the compound and worshipping, claiming that they were awaiting the return of Jesus Christ.
It is thought the worshippers, including young children, might have fasted for a number of days as part of the ritual, Superintendent Nondumiso Jafta said on Friday. She said the police would bring charges of concealment of deaths and defeating the ends of justice against the arrested men.
Investigating officer Inspector Bongani Ntanjana together with the Mandela informal settlement Chief Jonas Ndzambule told the court they feared for the lives of the accused should they be released on bail.
The two witnesses said there were already threats within the community of setting the compound alight. Ntanjana said it came to the police’s attention last week
Thursday that there were graves in the compound after a relative of one of the children came to see her child who was supposed to be at school, but was told her child died early this year and had already been buried.
Ntanjana said according to the information supplied to them by the accused, some of the dead came from Matatiele, Tsolo, around Umtata and as far afield as Cookhouse in the Western Cape.
he court heard that the church, which Ndzambule said it had no name, surfaced in 1998. Earlier reports were that no one was allowed to leave the compound except the church elders, some of whom were teachers at schools around Umtata. Children were barred from attending school.
According to the state, the accused would be charged for concealing the deaths of these people.
Those who received bail are Bazil Lingani, Vuyani Lengetya, Bulelani Silwana, Sipho Damfana, David Lingani, Mongezi Sonjica, Zukile Fiphaza, Odwa Mbuqe, Welcome Dukuza, Sisonke Nokhwali, Vuyo Mvuleni and Sitywinelo Dukuza. – Sapa