Popular Katlehong church burnt to ashes

yes I am here Michelle and in fact from the time that we last spoke and we know that the district commissioner Major General satle is now on the scene and she is going to brief us just briefly in terms of what has transpired here and I'm going to ask the first question um District commissioner we have seen quite a lot of events taking place over the two days first what is the police stance in all of this okay thank you very much uh I should think the incident started yesterday H and it was around the custody of the kids h both parties from the mother's side and from The Father's Side fighting for the kids and the mother is diseased so um the the father went to the school and he wanted to take the children from the school and the grandmother of the diseased mother was also there and then there was some fighting in the school uh uh where I think as everyone saw the video footage of the school H where Pastor Boro was also part of that incident in the school so uh as the police uh we immediately established a team a team of investigators after we received the video footage and uh through the investigation we were able to arrest four suspects now what you see here today is that um what I gather from the VIS Paul Commander is that uh the school kids here in katong went to the police station and they were not happy with the arrest of suspects that we arrested in relation to the incident of the video footage of yesterday so they demanded that those suspects must be released while the viso commander was trying to explain to them the processes then there's another group that came off and then they banned the church if you could just explain to US District commissioner are you able to tell us who are these people that were arrested safe to say that there is four suspects that are arrested H but the investigation is still on and we are not ruling out further arrests because the detectives are busy h taking statements as we speak and hence I'm saying that there will be more arrests made my name is from we are told that has not been arrested and we are told that police are treating him special why is m not been arrested by now H as I've indicated the investigation is still on H the detectives are busy with the investigation and I've just mentioned that we cannot rule out more arrests he was SE hangas why we are not we have not arrested him there's evidence clear evidence showing him inside the school promises having weapons he has not been arrested why yeah remember as police we investigate to arrest now as I'm explaining that H it does not mean that he he won't be arrested the detectives are currently busy they on the ground as we speak and uh as I've said further arrest will be made what is the difference between him and his body guard did you understand the body guard was arrested because he was carrying a gun and him caring a panga what is the difference there in terms of the we understand that the the body guard was arrested who was caring a gun was one of the people who was arrested but not in B I'm saying what is the difference between him carrying a panga and a bodyguard ping a fire especially because they both weapons okay there there is no there's definitely no difference because H the in terms of the fire firearm act we've got the right to arrest the the security guard again in terms of the Pang it is a dangerous weapon and we also have a right to arrest but as I've indicated uh the investigation is still on and soon arrest will be made further arrest will be made but the the the pastor the well-known Pastor wasn't your premises last night why was then the uncle arrested but not him who was in your premises last night the uncle you mean the four suspects that were arrested um I should think I need [Music] EV news what particular charges are they facing the charges that have been H registered against the the set suspects it's intimidation it's a h non-compliance in terms of the firearm act and dangerous weapon and also assault because the station Commander was also assaulted in the process uh I have a question can you see from the Sunday Times uh community members are saying that Bor has a very special relationship with police he's enjoyed a lot of protection do the police I understand that you're investigating and the investigation needs to run its cause but do you not fear that this adds F to that fire that you guys are protecting him by not arresting him because he was seen with those pangas it's not a matter of you still establishing that he was seen but yet he still remains a free man yeah I am I am aware I am aware that H he was seen in the video everyone has has seen that video footage but as I explained in terms of our processes remember when we arrest a person it just doesn't end up there the person has to go through the process of court and now when you go through the process of Court you need to be able to link The Suspect with a with a crime that has taken place hence I am saying we are still busy with the investigation and soon we will be making more arrests and where are the children at the moment H as I was informed the children at the moment I are with the grandmother the maternal grandmother yes so the grandmother is not arrested then no it's the grandmother from The Father's Side who has been arrested no no so sorry there perhaps just kindly explain that to us a bit further cuz it's sort of shortening as we as we go could you kindly make us understand where are the children currently yeah I was informed by the station Commander that the children are with the with with the with the mother with the mother of the of the of the father Yes the wife yes all right but and and I want to ask this because we saw in the video where there was a panga that was wed around and there was a person that even ducked in the video is that not enough evidence no it is enough and part of the arrests are in relation to that I think as I've indicated there's one suspect arrested for intimidation there's one suspect arrested for assault there's one suspect arrested in line with the firearm act because we have seen in the video there was some kind of a firearm which was and then there's also a suspect who was arrested for dangerous weapon and of p as I said we are still busy with investigation further arrest will be made I can assure the community H the team is on the ground led by the deputy provincial Commissioner of H detective services and uh soon an arrest will be reported and what about what happened here are you going to be making any arrests over the burning of his church of course crime has been committed Asen it's called Asen so it is crime and uh the docket has been registered and investigation obviously will un will unfold and those that were found to be part of the burning of the church will be arrested accordingly and and I want to ask again yesterday when we were here at night the the people that were outside the church that were there for the maternal side of the children kept saying that they felt that um the pastor was getting preferential treatment they even went as far as alluding that he was sitting with the commissioner whilst the other person was cuffed why was there a different act compared to the two people that were in in in your premises yesterday ER the station Commander H I think she was at the station when the whole thing unfolded so the two parties were at the station and the station Commander was trying to intervene because this is a matter of a children's custody and I must also indicate that actually there's a case coming in in September where both parties will go to court in relation to the custody of the children so there there's no special treatment which was given to Boro both parties were there at the police station both from the the diseased mother site as well as from past Boro site and what about police presence I mean this Burning happened a few meters from the police station are you guys going to maintain a presence until the situation comes down definitely we have our po h on site right now we will be monitoring the place and uh there obviously there will be more visibility to ensure that there's no further damages with the investigations that are currently ongoing um when can we maybe expect more arrests cuz we already know that four people will be appearing tomorrow but when then will the other ones be arrested well I cannot divulge on that because the team as I said they're C currently on the ground as soon as the arrest is made I think it will be communicated accordingly but Major General are you aware that this is is a public interest that is why we hear most of these media houses we are so concerned and want to know exactly maybe when as she just asked now my colleague that when are we expecting this don't you think it has to be as soon as we expected exactly H we take this very serious H I think even the videos that we're circulating we take them very serious that is why immediately we established a team so that they can go on the ground and ensure the arrest but I am assuring the community further arrest will be made as we speak the team is on the ground under the leadership of the Deputy provincial Commissioner of detective services and just about the team what does this team um in who are the people that are in the team if you can tell us more about them H as I've said the deputy provincial Commissioner of detectives is leading the team and there is a detectives because it's a matter of detectives have to have to go on the ground get statements and obviously the downloading of the videos and so on so the team on its own it's a detectives if I may put it generally it is a team of detectives thank you very much for speaking to us um Michelle a team of detectives are on the ground investigating the matter that's what we're hearing from um the district commissioner she's saying that more arrest they can't rule out more arrest why this is mainly because they feel that a lot has occurred in the area between that time and now so they saying that they will also be investigating aen which is the burning of the tent we can already spot um the Department of Education that is also on the ground Steve mabona he's been saying that he's going to be on the ground from this morning so we're going to try and move towards him so we can get more information to what is happening but let's talk about what the district commissioner is telling us the district commissioner continues to explain to us that people people must be rest assured that there will be more investigations that will take place