By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceFISH HOEK, SOUTH AFRICA (ANS) – A 65-year-old prominent radio presenter and founding pastor of a local church has been shot and killed in South Africa. 

A 65-year-old prominent radio presenter and founding pastor of a local church has been shot and killed in South Africa. According to Salem Voice Ministries News Service, Pastor Philip Zanikele Mokson, the founding pastor of Masiphumelele  Baptist Church in Pokele Road, Ocean View was shot and  killed while he was teaching a Bible class at the Church on Monday evening, January 22. Family members including his wife, children, and grandchildren witnessed the event.

SVM News Service says Mokson was a peacemaker who acted as a link between Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool and afflicted communities. He was also featured in a column on page two of the April 16, 2005, print edition of the Biblical Recorder.

The SVM News Service report says Mokson’s attacker, 30 year old Mvusi Dondolo also shot and seriously wounded a 32-year-old woman named Tamara Bemba, who was known to have spurned his romantic advances, despite the efforts of another pastor named Joseph to protect her. Bemba is paralyzed down the left side of her body. After others had left the church, the man reloaded, turned the gun on himself, and took his own life, according to John Thomas, pastor of Fish Hoek Baptist Church and a close friend of Mokson who arrived at the scene soon after the shootings.

Fish Hoek Baptist Church sponsors the work in Masiphumelele, a teeming township of more than 20,000 residents. Residents are predominantly young and poor. As many as 25 percent of them are HIV positive.

The man who shot Mokson had been baptized as a member in late 2006, and the pastor had sought to counsel him during a period of deep depression. The man, also known as Vusi, had attempted suicide at least twice. On one occasion Mokson had discovered him hanging inside the shack where he lived and cut him down.

Others had also counseled Dondolo. Pastor Thomas said Dondolo had apparently asked Bemba to marry him, but she told him she was not interested. “Look, this could have sparked the shooting. We don’t know for sure,” Thomas said.

“Pastor Philip Mokson was a peacemaker and a godly community leader, a committed Christian, who gained the respect of the community. Whenever there was a problem in the community, residents would call him. For He stood as the face of justice, and had a deep caring for his community,” Thomas told SVM News Service.

“He was a founding trustee of Radio CCFM and their Xhosa presenter. In addition, he was a trustee of the Living Hope Community Centre, a health-based NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Masiphumelele, and a member of the Cape Town division of the Baptist Church’s Seminary.”

Pastor Thomas also said: “A relative of a Masiphumelele resident had drowned in the Eastern Cape while Mokson was on holiday in Uitenhage in December, and the pastor had called the resident to offer his condolences. When the family had traveled up to the Eastern Cape, he said, their car rolled and they were injured. Mokson later fetched them at an Eastern Cape hospital and drove them to their relatives’ home in the Eastern Cape. That’s the type of man he was,” said Thomas.

Thomas explained that he had worked with Mokson for 18 years and had known him for 20. “Technically, I’m his boss, but we were more than colleagues — we were great friends,” he added.

“Pastor Philip’s death came as a big shock (to myself) and my department,” Sifiso Mbuyisa, the Director in the Social Dialogue and Human Rights department in the Premier’s office, said on Tuesday.

“He was a key leader in the Masiphumelele community near Ocean View. I remember his great help in dealing with the Somali crisis and the fires. And we worked closely together whenever there was a crisis, ” Sifisco said, adding: “His death is a great loss to the community, his church and to us.”

SVM News says that following the shootings, thousands of township residents surrounded the church building in hushed silence, remaining into the early-morning hours in quiet tribute to the respected and influential pastor, who was considered a leading elder in the community.

Pastor Philip Mokson leaves his wife Minah (65), and his daughters Nolifa (33), and Nomzana (35).

Mokson’s funeral was held in his home town of Uitenhage. A memorial service for Mokson was scheduled for Jan. 27 at the King of Kings Baptist Centre, a multi-pronged ministry center sponsored by Fish Hoek Baptist Church.