Police whisk away cult 'leader'
2003-06-27 19:41
Umtata - Eastern Cape police rescued religious cult members from an angry mob baying for their blood outside the Umtata District Court on Friday.
The incident occurred minutes after the investigator officer, Detective-Inspector Bongani Ntanjana, urged magistrate Molden Hower to keep the accused in custody because police feared for their lives should they be granted bail.
All accused were loaded in police Inyalas and dropped off outside town.
Three bakkies belonging to cult members that were parked in front of the court were also driven away by the police after the mob threatened to vandalise them.
A middle-aged woman in her 50s was besieged by a chanting crowd following claims that she was one of the most senior
members of the cult.
She was whisked away from the scene in a police van.
During the bail application hearing the accused conceded that their lives were in danger and would not be able to return to the compound.
Three senior members of the cult appeared in court on Friday in connection with the discovery of eight bodies exhumed from shallow graves in a church compound this week.
They were granted bail of R500 each.
- SAPA