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WATCH: Man cut off his hands by the pastor for stealing from church.

Dumisani had his hands chopped off with a panga after he was accused of stealing from a church in Kwa-Guqa in Emalahleni. A pastor and his son have been arrested, according to Sowetan LIVE.

“I begged him to at least leave me with one hand, but he said my friends must see what happens to people that steal from him.”

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These are the words of the man who, two weeks ago in Mpumalanga, had both of his hands cut off.After being discharged from the hospital last week, 29-year-old Dumisani Mahlangu acknowledged to Sowetan that he was a thief.

However, Mahlangu said he had nothing to do with the crime he was accused of on March 20 when he had his hands chopped off in Vosman, Emalahleni, allegedly by a local pastor after he was accused of stealing from a church.

Apostle Solomon Mhlanga, 58, and his 20-year-old son Enoch appeared in the Emalahleni magistrate’s court on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

The local Community Policing Forum (CPF) reported that drug addicts were stealing steel hardware to resell at scrapyards in order to support their addiction.Mahlangu claimed that when he was passing the Kwa-Guqa church, he was ambushed by a gang of armed men who beat him and accused him of robbing them of their property.

“I was going to my friend’s house around 7am. I took a short cut and I walked through the church yard. Four men approached me, accusing me of stealing. As I tried to run away, I heard several gunshots, and they told me to stop or else they will shoot me. They assaulted me with sticks and fists,” he said.

“The pastor’s son phoned the pastor. I heard him saying, ‘dad, we found Dumisani’. The pastor came and was driving a van, followed by his wife in a car. When he arrived he assaulted me and tied my hands and feet with a rope. They put me in the back of the van and we drove to a secluded area in Kromdraai.”

“I did not know what they were going to do to me. They put my hand on the tree branch. I screamed when I saw the pastor with a panga and I begged him not to kill me.The men held me down while the pastor chopped off my hands,” said Mahlangu, who said he begged the pastor to at least leave him with one hand.

“I walked to the main road and as they were driving out of the woods, I asked them to call an ambulance for me but one of them said no, indoda ifela empini. I got help from people who were cutting wood not far away, but they were also scared to come close to me because they could see I don’t have hands. They phoned security officers from a nearby mine. The security drove me to a clinic in Kwa-Guqa.”

Mahlangu claimed that despite his reputation as a drug user and thief in the neighborhood, he has never taken anything from the church. “Yes, I acknowledge that I have stolen in the past to pay for drugs, but I have never done so from a church. Nothing was found on me by them.”