There is a very good reason why justice should not be left to a mob, but to the relevant authorities. This fact became apparent once again this week after the alleged thief who was beaten up by a mob last week, making the front page of Mirror in the process, was found not to be a thief at all, but a pastor who had been wrongfully accused.

Pastor Thomas Nelushi, the man featured on this newspaper’s front page last week, was accused of stealing a handbag by a number of men who chased him down and beat him up. The incident took place near the taxi rank in Burger Street in Louis Trichardt last Saturday. The accusers left him badly beaten, saying that he was a habitual criminal who often snatched handbags from unsuspecting women in town.

It came out this week that the “criminal” was in actual fact a respected member of the Amazing Grace Church at Madombidzha, acting as a junior pastor there.

After seeing his photo in the newspaper, congregants and other members of the community started making enquiries about the incident, as they found it hard to believe the accusations levelled at the pastor. As soon as the enquiries started coming in, Mirror decided to investigate the matter to determine the truth.

Upon visiting his home on Wednesday, a different picture emerged. The pastor intimated that he was the victim of a plot by the thugs who wanted to rob him of his money. Asked how the incident occurred, Nelushi said that the incident took place at about 16:00 while he was coming from work. “I was passing by Tasty Snacks restaurant and I was thirsty as I had had a busy day at work. So I went into the restaurant to buy a cold drink. When I was on my way out of the restaurant, I saw four men coming towards me. They started harassing me and when I asked them what they were doing and what they wanted from me, they only said ‘We have found him today.’”

“Then they took my wallet, which contained R250, and my cell phone. One of them tripped me and I fell to the ground. I heard them say ‘vimba…vimba.’ The next thing I knew, a mob of people started to attack me. I started bleeding and people kept on beating me up. This went on until I was given a chance to explain who I was and what exactly had transpired,” he said.He is fairly certain that the men were drunk at the time.

He added that while he was still being beaten up, there was a lady who was claiming that he had snatched her handbag. He knew that the woman was lying. “Then those four thugs who had beaten me up disappeared. While I was lying on the ground, another man approached and helped me up. By that time, the police appeared at the scene, but only promised to investigate the matter. So far, they have not even opened a case,” said Nelushi.

During the visit to Nelushi’s home at Magau village in the Sinthumule area, the pastor’s mother expressed her shock and dismay at the accusations levelled at her son. Community members depicted him as a man of God who will never cause any harm to anybody. People who know him well refuse to believe that he can be guilty of committing such a crime. Members of his congregation were stunned at the turn of events. They rallied around him and, with some pastors of other churches in surrounding areas, were praying for him at the time of Mirror’s visit.

The headman of Magau Village, William Sinthumule, also expressed his disbelief that the pastor could be guilty of such an act. “I have known him for a long time, since he was young. I cannot believe he would do such a thing,” he said to some bystanders.

According to some of the bystanders who witnessed the incident, they recognised some of the perpetrators as coming from the same village as Nelushi. They refused to reveal their names as they are afraid of reprisals by the thugs.