By Andre Viljoen, Gateway News.
Thousands of people joined a national march to the Union Buildings, Pretoria today to protest against what they believe is an unconstitutional attempt by the CRL Rights Commission to usher in government control of churches.
At the Union Buildings the organisers of the march, the South African Church Defenders — a movement on a mission to unite Christians in defending religious freedom — handed a memorandum to a representative of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, in which they accuse the president of failing to do his job by allowing Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, who he appointd to chair the CRL, to “go against one of the fundamental bills of the Constitution which is to promote the freedom of religion”.
On Thursday last week the CRL launched a Section 22 Committee to develop a “self-regulatory” framework and code of conduct for the religious community which they will present to Parliament.
The Citizen reports that addressing a crowd gathered at Marabastad at the start of the march, Trumpet City Ministries’ Reverend Mbavhalelo V Netshitangani condemned the committee, saying that churches should not be governed by “nonbelievers”.
“If you have a big chair in government, it does not give you authority over the Kingdom of God. There is one King in the Kingdom. There is one high priest in the Kingdom, and his name is Jesus.
“This Section 22 committee is a bogus committee,” he said.