South African Pastors Welcome T.B. Joshua's N750,000 Donation

Pastors in South Africa have welcomed the pledge by founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations, T.B. Joshua, to donate the sum of N750,000 to families of victims of his church building collapse.

The chairman of the Mahikeng Ministers Fellowship (MMF) made the statement on Saturday.

“Mahikeng Ministers Fellowship has welcomed the donation of over R4-million announced by the Synagogue Church of All Nations to assist families of victims of the church building collapse in Nigeria meet funeral expenses...,” chairman of MMF Zandisile Mpame said in a statement.

“The announcement of aid to the families that lost their loved ones during the tragic incident does not come as a surprise to those of us in the church who are familiar with Prophet TB Joshua's global humanitarian and philanthropic activities which have contributed over US200 million over the years towards various causes to alleviate the plight of those in need, ” the International News reports.

On Friday SCOAN released a statement saying a  N750,000 donation would be paid towards funeral expenses of each family of the victims of the church building collapse.

The church's spokesman Kirsten Nematandani said they had done a full audit of each family's financial needs and assisted with various household expenses as many of the deceased were breadwinners.

He said household expenses varied from rent money to school fees and groceries. It is believed 85 people from South Africa were among those killed when a multi-storey guesthouse attached to the church, run by Joshua, collapsed in Lagos on September 12.

On Thursday, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe announced that DNA samples of the 116 victims had arrived at a laboratory in South Africa for analysis.

The DNA process was in the hands of the Nigerian authorities, who had appointed a laboratory in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, to do the analysis.