Daily Sun (September 18 2014) - FOR MANY years people have flocked to TB Joshua's church for spiritual guidance.
In only a few horror seconds, the church's six-storey guesthouse collapsed, killing at least 67 South Africans.
AND PEOPLE ARE BLAMING THE CHURCH!
"Perhaps if we had had early access to the place we would have been able to save more lives," said Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Authority in Nigeria.
He said the church didn't co-operate with emergency workers.
"For the first three days of the incident, the church people were very hostile and prevented rescue officials from gaining access to the site. It was only after the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, threatened to close down the church that we were allowed to work."
There was shock at the news that at least 67 South Africans had died in the guesthouse which belongs to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, the church of internationally renowned evangelist TB Joshua.
Early investigations reportedly show that floors were added to the building without proper foundations being put in place, causing the collapse.
A ray of light in the tragedy is the miracle escape of an Eastern Cape woman, Daphne Mkungwana (65), who lay trapped under the rubble for 21 hours.
Daily Sun spoke to her son, Simphiwe Ntlabati (43), shortly after Daphne arrived at East London Airport on Wednesday.
Simphiwe said his mother was traumatised and in shock following the accident.
"My mother said she was in the building when the walls started falling around her, and then there was total darkness," he said.
"My mother lost everything. Good Samaritans gave her clothes. She is wearing a Nigerian outfit."
Simphiwe said his mother told him there was a plane flying over the building.
"Then there was a loud blast and the walls started falling apart," he said.
She left the country on Tuesday last week to revive her Christian faith at the Nigerian preacher and televangelist TB Joshua's church.
"She had been talking about Joshua for a long time before she went to visit his church," he said.
He didn't know how his Daphne, the mother of five adult children, got home.
Her daughters prevented her from speaking to the People's Paper.
"Our mother is fine and we are happy she survived but she is in shock," said daughter Asinako Mkungwana.
) SABC journalist Vuyani Green (44), who is based in Cape Town, lost his cousin in the tragedy.
Thomas Matsila (44), a father of three children, travelled with his wife to the church.
His wife was outside the church when it collapsed.
"Thomas and I were very close. He is the child of my mother's younger sister. On Thursday when he arrived in Nigeria he sent pictures on WhatsApp. He seemed very excited. He phoned me. I didn't know it was the last time I would ever speak to him," said Green.
) Thousands of people from across the world flock to the church with its promises of miracles and prophecies from Joshua, a high school dropout referred to as either "The Prophet" or "The Man of God".
Joshua, who claims to have raised the dead and to have predicted the Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane crash and Boston marathon bombings, has considerable power in Nigeria and beyond.
Top-level politicians and even heads of state are among his flock, including Malawi's former president Joyce Banda, who called him her "spiritual father".
) Meanwhile, a Nigerian official on Wednesday said 70 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a collapsed church building in Lagos, but remain unidentified, questioning President Jacob Zuma's statement that 67 of the victims had come from South Africa.
Zuma said on Tuesday night that at least 67 of his compatriots had died in Friday's accident at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria, describing it as one of the worst tragedies in his country's recent history.
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