Pastor Mboro mistaken for robber
Pastor and his security detail were mistaken for robbers outside a mall.
A clash involving Ekurhuleni metro police, police officers, armed bodyguards and popular “Prophet Paseka” “Mboro” Motsoeneng caused commotion in Katlehong yesterday when he was mistaken for an armed robber.
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) officers threw their weight around to intimidate Mboro and interrupt his divine moment with the community at a Hlahatsi shopping mall.
In fact, all Mboro was doing was praying for his followers and talking to people screaming for his attention when he stopped at the mall to draw money.
Mboro was surrounded by a crowd, including “nyaope boys” selling iced Take-5s and begging him to pray for their businesses’ success, elated grannies, sick people and workers who wanted to receive blessings.
“I suffer from severe headaches and prophet Mboro touched my head and I believe I am healed,” said 30-year-old Refilwe Chuene. Kabelo Thulo, 25, who sells iced Take-5s, said: “He is hero in this township. He has a good heart, he prays for people and blesses them.”
While the prophet was mingling with the crowd, his two armed bodyguards stood aside watching. That was when a group of armed SA Police Service (Saps) officers, later joined by the EMPD, appeared on the scene claiming they were reacting to a tip-off about an armed robbery.
Soon realising that what was going on was instead Mboro’s intimate moment with the community, a Saps sergeant known as Mazibuko and his team apologised to the prophet. But it didn’t end there.
Suddenly the EMPD’s SS Nkabinde yelled, “I’m Inspector Nkabinde” and set about confiscating the weapons carried openly by Mboro’s two bodyguards.
“I can do this nicely, but because these journalists are here (referring to The Citizen who was interviewing Mboro at the time) I want to teach them a lesson,” he shouted.
Another EMPD officer told The Citizen’s videographer: “Hey, you must switch off this bloody f…ken thing. You cannot take pictures of police with firearms.”
Nkabinde and his EMPD team confiscated the bodyguards’ weapons in the Saps’ officers presence. Mazibuko and his Saps team tried to defuse the situation, telling Mboro and his bodyguards to follow them to the police station to resolve the matter amicably.
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