{"id":2124,"date":"2014-09-26T09:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T09:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2014-09-26T09:55:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T09:55:09","slug":"safrican-victims-relations-set-to-sue-tb-joshua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2124","title":{"rendered":"S\u2019African victims\u2019 relations set to sue TB Joshua"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"South<\/a>
South African President, Mr Jacob Zuma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two South Africans who lost relatives when a church hostel in Lagos collapsed have told the BBC<\/em> they intend to sue the General Overseer of Synagogue Church of All Nations, Pastor Temitope Joshua.<\/p>\n

The BBC<\/em> reported that the two men, who both lost sisters in the collapse, were appealing for more families to come together in bringing a case against the preacher.<\/p>\n

At least 115 people, including 84 South Africans, died when the multi-storey building fell down on September 12.<\/p>\n

The authorities said it had more floors than its foundation could hold.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Joshua announced plans to travel to South Africa to visit the families of the deceased.<\/p>\n

Officials suspect the foundations were not suitable for extra floors to be added to the building<\/p>\n

Emergency workers alleged they were prevented from participating in the rescue, only gaining full access to the site on Sunday afternoon. But Joshua had denied these accusations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that some families are afraid to take on someone who purports to be God\u2019s messenger and I don\u2019t blame them but I will do this,\u201d Thanduxolo Doro, whose sister died in the Lagos collapse said.<\/p>\n

Thanduxolo Doro and Mpho Molebatsi waited at Johannesburg\u2019s OR Tambo airport for days after the collapse for news of their sisters, who had been visiting SCOAN.<\/p>\n

Both families had last heard from their relatives hours before the collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not that the building collapsed, rather what was done after the collapse \u2013 we didn\u2019t get any news from the church,\u201d Doro, whose sister Vathiswa Madikiza died, told the BBC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I contacted them they wouldn\u2019t tell me anything. We saw reports that emergency workers were denied access initially, access that could have saved lives. The actions of the church after the incident are very telling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an open letter published in South Africa\u2019s Star newspaper, Doro called on more families to sue Joshua.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to do this for her. Even if I stand alone, I am determined to see that something is done,\u201d he told the BBC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that some families are afraid to take on someone who purports to be God\u2019s messenger and I don\u2019t blame them but I will do this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Doro said he was informed by South African officials about his sister\u2019s death this week, but had to wait for the results of the DNA tests before her body could be repatriated for burial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two South Africans who lost relatives when a church hostel in Lagos collapsed have told the BBC they intend to sue the General Overseer of Synagogue Church of All Nations, Pastor Temitope Joshua. The BBC reported that the two men, who both lost sisters in the collapse, were appealing for more families to come together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/South-African-President-Mr-Jacob-Zuma-360x225.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-yg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions\/2126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}