The attack may have been motivated by a feud between church members, the police said.
South African police said five people were dead and more than 40 were arrested after an early-morning hostage crisis at a church near Johannesburg.
A statement said the police and the military who responded to reports of a shooting at the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Zuurbekom found four people “shot and burned to death in a car” and a security guard shot in another car.