Gory 'entertainment'

2003-06-24 20:20

Umtata - Eight bodies were exhumed from shallow graves inside church premises at the Mandela Park informal settlement outside Umtata on Tuesday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that the exhumation took nearly six hours and attracted nearly 1 000 onlookers.

Superintendent Nondumiso Jafta said the exhumation followed allegations by a mother of a woman who was staying at the compound that she had been informed that her daughter had died and had already been buried without her (the mother) being notified of her death.

Twelve church elders were arrested last Thursday and have since been granted bail of R300 each. They are due to be back in the Umtata magistrate's court on Friday.

Police allegedly got three of the accused men to point out the graves.

All the bodies were wrapped up in blankets and were partly decomposed.

The elders have been charged with concealing the deaths and defeating ends of justice.

The chief of the area, Jonas Ndzambule, said two properties belonging to the church would be dug up by bulldozers to established whether were there any more bodies.

- SAPA