NGCOBO- One of the leaders of controversial Mancoba Seven Angels Ministries made a brief appearance in court Engcobo Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Ephraim Mancoba who is 23 years old wearing a green jacket, was escorted to the court by heavily armed police.
He has been charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery with aggravating circumstances.
His older brother, 30 year old Banele who is viewed by the police as the mastermind of the attack and robbery, is also a spokesperson for the group, appearing in the same court on Monday on similar charges along with another church member, Siphenathi Maphikwana.
All three will remain in custody until March the 13.
The three suspects are not linked to the murders of five police officers killed and the killing of a former soldier at the Engcobo police station two weeks ago.
One brother of Mancoba family has been charged, Phuthumile 31, with six counts of murder, attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Among the seven suspects killed in a shootout with the police, three were cult leaders known by their followers as the “seven angels.”
The City Press did report on Sunday, the hundred girls rescued at the church are still investigating whether they were trafficked into the cult.
Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson Captain Anelisa Feni told City Press, “There are people who were rescued there who have children. So we want to establish how old they were when they were impregnated. We don’t know whether they are married or what is happening. We found young girls there with children, some of them [girls] underage,” Feni said.
“We want to find out when these girls – even those young women over 18 – got pregnant. Are they married or what? Because under trafficking in persons, we want to find out if there were forced marriages. An underage child can’t marry anyway.”
Photo Credit- SowetanLIVE
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