JPMD (Facebook)
Two Johannesburg Metro Police (JMPD) officers were injured on Sunday when they responded to a complaint of excessive noise at a church in Midway, Soweto.
JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minaar says officers arrived at the church where the service was being attended by about 2 000 people.
South Africa was still under adjusted Level 3 lockdown regulations on Sunday which strictly limits the number of people allowed at religious gatherings.
Minnaar says five of their officers responded to the scene where they were met by angry male churchgoers who surrounded them and started pounding their vehicles.
He says the churchgoers were aggressive and officers used pepper fog to disperse the crowd before calling for backup.
Minnaar says once backup arrived, rubber bullets were used to disperse the crowd.
He says one officer and two church members were injured and were taken to hospital for treatment.
The pastor and several of his congregants were arrested and will appear in court soon on charges of assault, public violence, malicious damage to property and contravention of the Disaster Management Act.
