ARCHBISHOP DIES WHILE PREACHING AT FUNERAL

NCABANENI – Hundreds of mourners watched in shock as a well-known clergyman collapsed and died at a funeral he was presiding over.
The uncommon incident left the community of Ncabaneni, in the outskirts of Mankayane, traumatised.

Archbishop Solomon Zakhele Hlatjwako (50) collapsed on the pulpit, while leading a sermon at a well attended funeral on Sunday,, shortly after 5am.
Mourners had gathered at a Maseko homestead around the area for the funeral of the mother of another cleric at the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (CCAC) in Zion (Genezareth), where Hlatjwako was a leader.

The clergyman had been singing and dancing with other mourners inside a tent pitched at the family compound throughout the vigil, showing no signs of ill-health.
At around 3am, he took to the podium to mark the beginning of the morning service preceding the actual burial. Witnesses said everything went well and people who had been wandering around the family compound began flocking into the tent as the presiding pastor led the proceedings.

It was reported that at around 5am, the man of God reportedly read a few scriptures and began preaching the Word of God, as expected of a presiding pastor. But to everyone’s surprise, he suddenly collapsed a few minutes into the sermon.
Shocked mourners rushed to give him first aid as his shaken wife also watched in disbelief.

Efforts by church members to resuscitate him outside the tent, where they had taken him in a bid to expose him to fresh air, proved futile.
A witness said everybody in attendance was taken aback by the unfolding events, as the man of God appeared very well throughout the vigil and at the beginning of the main service.

 Funeral

A church member who was also at the funeral described the incident as a terrible tragedy.
“It is a first of its kind in my history of attending funerals. I had never seen anything like that; everybody was shocked,” remarked the church member. It was not immediately clear how the clergyman suddenly fell ill, but church members realised that he needed hospital attention after he failed to regain consciousness.

He was rushed to the Mankayane Government Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by a medical doctor. There was no immediate report from the health facility on the actual cause of death.

A church member, who accompanied mourners to the hospital, including the cleric’s wife, said when they arrived at the health facility it was already too late because his body had no pulse by then.

An elder brother to the man of God, Dumisani Hlatjwako, confirmed that he died while presiding over a funeral at Ncabaneni.
“We received a call from his church members when it all happened. We rushed to the hospital, where a doctor also confirmed the sad news,” he lamented.

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