MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD DELIVER MEMORANDUM AT RAMAPHOSA’S OFFICE

Thousands of religious people from different denominations across all racial groups delivered a joint memorandum at the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, demanding that he stops undermining churches in South Africa by using the CRL Rights Commission.

Several political parties, civic movements, NGOs and NPOs also joined the march.

The chief organisers of the march was a fledgling organisation called South African Church Defenders, using the battle cry #Defend the Church.

Messages and slogans distributed by the organisation via social media prior to the march read as follows:

“Stop Control of the Church; Remove Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva as CRL Chairperson; Is the ANC Government using CRL to censor churches.”

One of the leaders of the march, Professor Theophilus Mokgopa, told Tshwane Talks that they gathered at the Union Buildings to express their outrage regarding what the government is trying to do; namely using the Cultural Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission, commonly known as CRL, to undermine the Constitution of South Africa.

“President Ramaphosa has an agenda against the Church and he has unleashed CRL Chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva to attack the churches like a dog with rabbis,” bemoaned Mokgopa.

“This country does not belong to the government; it belongs to us the citizens of this country and we are fighting for religious rights that are enshrined in the Constitution of this country,” fumed Mokgopa.

He pointed out that the CRL has a disproportional number of members; seven all in all; who are members of the ZCC as well as the Shembe Church, while other church groupings are not adequately represented in the CRL.

He pointed out that he and his fellow pastors are representing the Charismatic Church.

Pastor Mboro Motshoeneng pointed out that the church is the main institution which resolves problems in society and that it must not be oppressed via organisations like the CRL.

“We are asking CRL Chairperson Xaluva to stop oppressing us and let us practise our religions freely just like sangomas and other traditional leaders practice their faith freely without interference,” said Mboro.

Ivandross Gavin Hunter, who introduced himself as a humanitarian and a Missionary from the USA, told Tshwane Talks at the march that has been working in South Africa for the past three wherein he and his colleagues have been giving out over two hundred thousand meals to different needy communities in South Africa ever since his arrival here in the country.

“If the government starts regulating the churches and the pastors then the government will in the long run start regulating Missionaries as well, and this will make it impossible for Missionaries to come into the country and do their work, as they will be told where to go and hand out humanitarian aid as well as food,” he lamented.

“I am calling upon all the churches in the USA to stand in solidarity with the churches in South Africa and say to the government that it can not regulate the churches,” he emphasised.

An official from Ramaphosa’s office Shonisani Mudau told the protesting religious men and women that the presidency will respond to their grievances within seven days as stipulated in their memorandum.

The outcry by the protesting marchers was sparked by the recent announcement by CRL Chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva that a Section 22 Committee headed by cultural expert Professor Musa Zulu, has been formed with the aim of curbing apparent misconduct and criminal behaviour by religious leaders in South Africa.

The said Section 22 Committee has been described as a peer review mechanism which will oversee the religious) church sector in order “to curb the abuse of those who are vulnerable and restore order in the sector.”

The protestors want Xaluva to be fired as Chairperson of the CRL and also demand that the CRL itself be disbanded and replaced by a new entity.

Copy of Memorandum: