A Zimbabwean woman Catherine Ndlovu, who allegedly paid thousands of dollars to visit Nigeria, seeking divine intervention for her hospitalised daughter has been reported as one of the 115 people confirmed to have died after the collapse of a church building owned by the pastor, TB Joshua.The family of the 40 year old has accused TB Joshua and his church for lying to them that their mother was alive only to dash their hopes later.
She left Zimbabwe on September 11, a day after her 19 year-old daughter, Prioress Tshuma, who had suffered from seizures since 2007, was admitted at Mpilo Central Hospital. Believing the seizures were caused by an evil spirit,she came to seek divine intervention from TB Joshua .Hours ours after her arrival in Lagos,she died leaving behind a daughter in hospital..
.Her brother told he South African Chronicle
“we called them (TB Joshua church) every day, asking where my sister was and they said she had boarded a plane back to South Africa and would be back last Sunday.
“We became suspicious when other Zimbabweans who had travelled to Nigeria came back via South Africa and she was not part of the group. It became clear they’d been lying to us and withholding information from us all along.”
Their uncle, Jabulani, was battling with a lot of questions and accused the church of attempting a clumsy cover-up.
“When we heard news of the collapse, we feared the worst. There was no communication from the church until my cousin, who lives in South Africa, called them. They just put up a wall of lies and kept telling us she was safe. It would be only several days later that they confirmed our worst fears,” he said.
But the family’s hope of getting Catherine’s body any time soon were immediately dashed after TB Joshua’s aides asked them to provide a DNA sample for positive identification.
“We don’t even know if that’s true, and our only hope now is that our government can get to the bottom of this. Who knows how many other Zimbabweans have been kept in the dark about their relatives’ fate?”
