The Alliance Defending the Autonomy of Churches in South Africa (Adacsa) has been admitted as a “friend of the Court” (amicus curiae) in the Gaum vs Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) case which poses a threat to the autonomy of the Church and broader religious community in South Africa.

This important case, which is being heard by the Pretoria High Court on August 21, concerns the 2016 reversal by the DRC Synod of its 2015 decision to remove the celibacy requirement for homosexual ministers and to permit its ministers to solemnise same-sex civil unions (should they so choose).

The applicants are alleging that the 2016 decision should be set aside and corrected by the court due to procedural irregularities. They further allege that the DRC’s decision amounts to unfair discrimination against gay and lesbian people and, for this reason, it is unconstitutional and should be set aside and corrected by the Court.

No religious discretion
Adacsa’s application was triggered by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), which has also applied as amicus curiae. The CGE is asking the Court to go even further and to find that no church or religious grouping has any discretion to decide whether or not they solemnise same-sex civil unions/marriages, because to do so would be unfair discrimination from a constitutional point of view.

“We view this intervention by the CGE with deep concern”, said Moss Ntlha, General Secretary of The Evangelical Association of South Africa (Teasa), one of the founder members of Adacsa.

“The position they have adopted potentially challenges the right and ability of each denomination, church or religious grouping to govern their internal affairs according to their own interpretation of their religious doctrine.”

While Adacsa is not adopting a position for, or against, same-sex relationships/marriages, it believes that the CGE’s application represents a severe infringement of the section 15 constitutional right to religious freedom, because it completely undermines the autonomy of the religious community.

Should the court agree with the CGE’s argument, it would effectively mean that churches and religious organisations could be forced to adopt “ideologically biased” doctrinal positions, even if such positions went directly against their religious convictions, beliefs and interpretation of Scripture.

Adacsa recognises that the State can intervene in the affairs of any religious institution to protect vulnerable members from crimes such as physical or sexual abuse of a child, or financial fraud by church officials. However, the constitution guarantees religious institutions a certain degree of institutional autonomy, which is vital to an open, democratic and conscience-honouring society.

The European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) has repeatedly held that “the autonomous existence of religious communities is indispensable for pluralism in a democratic society”.

Likewise, “most democratic nations agree that interfering with religious associations harms, rather than promotes, a democratic society”, says Teresa Conradie of Maphalla Mokate Conradie Inc., who are representing Adacsa in the court application.

“ADACSA is therefore contending that South African law should remain consistent with this position, as well as with the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal’s previous statements to the effect that our courts should not become entangled in determining doctrinal issues, which should fall within the exclusive realm of the Church.”

“Given that the constitution does not recognise a hierarchy of rights and that both sexual orientation and religious freedom have the same status as section 9 ‘equality rights’, where they may appear to be in tension, the Constitutional Court has already stated that the court should seek to accommodate and manage differences of intensely-held world views and lifestyles in a reasonable and fair manner.

The objective of the constitution is to allow different concepts about the nature of human existence to inhabit the same public realm”, says Michael Swain, Executive Director of FOR SA.

“It should never be a ‘winner takes all’ situation where a court suggests that there can be only one acceptable viewpoint with respect to the moral debate regarding the nature of marriage in South Africa.”

The first Eastern Cape MMC — in March this year.

Jeffreys Bay, Kwela’s “Dorp van die Jaar 2018″, is bracing once again for the biggest Christian gathering the Kouga region has ever seen: the Mighty Men Conference Eastern Cape.

The previous conference, held in March 2018 near Humansdorp, was met with much praise from thousands of attendees. The next conference has been confirmed to take place from March 8 to 10 2019 on Farm Mooi Uitsig, just outside of Jeffreys Bay.

Tickets are available online from www.mightymeneasterncape.co.za/tickets. Attendee numbers are expected to increase significantly. As with any event of this scale there is a lot of planning and preparation that needs to be completed in the months running up to “D-day”.

The organisers are relying heavily on the generosity of others in order to be able to host the event and have extended the following invitation: “ We are thankful to the Lord that He has been so faithful in providing for us financially (up to the last cent) for our previous event hosted in 2018. We pray that by His will, our 2019 event will be blessed with the same generosity that was bestowed on us in 2018.

“We know that many men, women and children accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour during this event. We want to thank you for your participation in ensuring that a Godly impartation has been made, which has a generational impact on families right throughout South Africa.

“We are thankful for the opportunity to extend an invitation to you so that you may consider partnering with us in our upcoming event. Our Heavenly Father is directing our ways and we thank you for your consideration to lend your support with the organisation of this godly gathering. We would be grateful if you were to become involved in this community and life-changing event that will take place in the Kouga Area over the next six years”

The Kings Mounted Men were at this year’s event.

Men who have attended previous Mighty Men Conferences, and continue to travel the country to do so, attest to the fact that the experience can’t be explained to someone else, it can only be experienced for oneself.

The Eastern Cape Mighty Men Conference also presents attendees with an opportunity to share their testimonies (or simply listen to testimonies in awe) while seeking the face of God. Guest speakers and live Gospel music entertainment add to an amazing atmosphere throughout the conference.

The weekend will heal, it will inspire and it will affirm your role as man in your most intimate relationship with our God Almighty. Wonderful things happen at Mighty Men Conferences!

If you would like to buy tickets, make a donation or volunteer any assistance, please visit www.mightymeneasterncape.co.za for more info or email info@mightymeneasterncape.co.za. You can keep also keep informed by following the Facebook page www.facebook.com/mightymeneasterncape , which is updated regularly.

Worshipful moments at MMC EC 2018.

PHOTO: Shutterstock.com

Groups concerned about proposals to legalise more pornography have made urgent requests for more time for public comment on the Film and Publications Amendments Bill, and for a parliamentary inquiry into the  effects of pornography, before the bill enters the next stage of parliamentary deliberations.

The Department of Communications has not yet responded to the groups’ requests for the deadline for written submissions on the bill to be extended before it is considered by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), although consideration is being given to a short extension, says Cause for Justice (CFJ) in a statement.

The bill contains certain problematic proposals and was opposed by almost all opposition parties during the public participation process in March. However, due to certain departures from the usual procedure, several amendments were introduced after the completion of the public participation process, giving rise to the need for more public comment says CFJ.

Cause for Justice says it has delivered a list of petitioners who share its concerns on the bill to members of the NCOP, calling on them to reject certain problematic amendments which, among others, propose “legalising more vile and dehumanising types of pornography, and the online distribution of hardcore pornography to adult Internet users”.

“It is well-known that pornography violates the human dignity of its characters by portraying them not as human beings with value in and of themselves, but as objects used (or exploited) for other purposes, such as the sexual stimulation and gratification of a third-party on-looker.

“In addition, a growing body of scientific research is exposing the harmful effects of pornography and recognising it as a public health crisis.

“Therefore, Cause for Justice calls on parliament to conduct an official and thorough investigation and enquiry into the harmful effects of adult pornography on viewers (both adults and children), actors, intimate partner relationships, family stability, and vulnerable groups like women and children (who are most at risk of becoming victims of sexual abuse/violence). This should be done before proceeding with the Bill any further. Should MPs neglect to do so, they will fail the women and children of South Africa.

ACDP MP Cheryllyn Dudley.

The Department of Education will be wasting money if it rushes ahead with its plans to promulgate the policy on home education which is flawed as a result of a failed consultation process, said ACDP MP Cheryllyn Dudley.

There has been a misunderstanding between the DBE and home educators, who in fact did not reject a key DBE discussion document as claimed by the department, but withdrew from the consultation in 2015 when the DBE ignored processes outlined in its own document.

The home educators were in fact positively disposed to to the principles and processes outlined in the document,” Dudley said in an urgent media statement released today.

Call for investigation
She said the ACDP called on DBE Minister Angie Motshekga “to investigate this misunderstanding and to take the time to bridge the gap that exists between themselves and home school educators”, noting that the issue “goes beyond just those who are actively involved in home schooling and is an issue the broader Christian and other religious communities feel very passionately about”.

She said it was expensive to publish a government gazette and would be wasteful to proceed “when it is clear that the department is proceeding on the basis of a fundamental misunderstanding”.

The ACDP also called on the Basic Education Portfolio Committee to address this issue with the department and seriously interrogate the department’s handling of such an obviously important section of society during this review process”, she said.

Dudley, who said the ACDP was facilitated the consultations that took place between the DEB and the home education community in 2014 and 2-15, also criticised a recent DBE media statement released after the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) approved the home education policy last month, despite a last-minute bid by home schooling parents for the policy to first be released to the public for study.

In that statement the DBE said it had engaged in an “extensive and all-encompassing” consultation process over four years, and was aware that “a small grouping is opposed to the policy and has been spamming departmental officials requesting that the policy not be promulgated”.

‘Shocking’ statement
Dudley said: “The department’s admission that they regard the serious efforts of this community to make their voice heard — as spam — is shocking. Parliament is always encouraging people to get involved with the legislative process and it is unacceptable that departments treat these very same people with such disdain when they do participate.

“What they refer to as a ‘small group’ is in fact made up of those most affected by this policy, those who have the most experience in this field and those actually successfully homeschooling their children.”

Gateway News has sent an email to DBE Minister Angie Motshekga, requesting her response to the ACDP call to put a hold on gazetting the policy and to investigate the communication breakdown between the department and the home education community.

FILE PICTURE: Nelisa Sobukwe (left), Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe and family friend Vaida Sokopo during the handover of land for a memorial museum to Robert Sobukwe in Graaff-Reinet. Image: BRIAN WITBOOI/The Herald via Sowetan Live )

Liberation struggle icon Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe — widow of PAC founder Robert Sobukwe — died at her home in Graaff-Reinet at 2am yesterday, aged 91‚ following a long illness.

The Sobukwe family will remember “Mama Sobukwe” for “her humility and the simplicity with which she approached and viewed life”, the family said in a statement released yesterday.

Zondeni Sobukwe, a nurse and resolute anti-apartheid activist who supported her family for decades while her husband was incarcerated and targeted by authorities, was belatedly honoured by the ANC government when she was awarded the Order of Luthuli earlier this year, 40 years after her husband’s death.

Paying tribute to her memory, Rev Jacob Freemantle, Bishop of the Grahamstown District of the Methodist Church of South Africa, said Zondeni “was indeed the mother of prayer who continued to pray even at the time when Father Sobukwe, finally handed himself over to the police after the protest against the dehumanising Pass Laws on 21 March 1960.”

He said: “Mama Sobukhwe was a very committed Methodist Christian who worshiped regularly in the Methodist Church of Graaff-Reinet.

“In the Methodist Church she belonged to Mothers of Prayer Union called Women’s Manyano, a committed group of women who regularly meet, preferably on Thursdays, to intercede for the country’s leaders, the poor, the hungry, the Church, etc.

“Apart from above, her husband was a fully-accredited preacher of the Methodist Church. We have now lost a humble lady of 91 years, a spiritual visionary, a fearless mother of our times who wrote numerous letters challenging the state injustices and corruption. Blessings to such a dear soul.”

Expressing condolences to the Sobukwe family he said: “We continue to pray for the family at this sad time.”

PAC secretary-general Narius Moloto told City Press that although the party was saddened by her death, it was happy and proud of the role that she had played in the liberation movement.

When Robert Sobukwe and Zondeni met in 1949, he was the president of the student representative Council (SRC) at Fort Hare University while she was a trainee nurse at Victoria Hospital in Lovedale. She was expelled from the college for her leadership role in a labour strike that year. The couple married in 1950.

The PAC leader was arrested after he handed himself over for his role in leading nationwide protests against pass laws in 1960. He was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison for incitement, but the government refused to release him after his jail term ended, instead enacting a “Sobukwe Clause” which allowed it to keep him in jail indeterminately.

Considered a threat by the government, he was moved to Robben Island in 1963. There he was kept in solitary confinement to keep him from influencing other prisoners. When his health deteriorated in 1964 the government turned down an application for his release.

After his sudden release from jail in May 1969, he was placed under house arrest in Kimberley. The authorities refused to allow him to go overseas to receive treatment for cancer or to take up lectureships in the United States.

He managed to complete his law degree and started his own practice as a lawyer in Kimberley in 1975. He died of lung cancer in 1978.

Appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1997, Zondeni testified about how authorities had refused her husband access to proper and independent medical examination. She also said that during one of her visits to him on Robben Island he complained that he had been served food that contained broken glass.

According to the statement released by her family yesterday: “Mama Sobukwe fiercely challenged the regime on the unjust conditions surrounding Robert Sobukwe’s incarceration under the draconian Sobukwe Clause” and “remained a backbone for her family and sacrificed her life for freedom and the vision of a liberated Azania (SA)”.

The family said it will release details of the memorial and funeral services once they have been finalised.

Micah Corbett with a young child at Stoney Drift.

Micah Corbett leads a team of young people who are so full of faith that they look for the most difficult cases during their weekly visits to the Frere Hospital in East London — and they see salvations and healing miracles every week.

Most of them had never shared the Gospel or prayed for the sick when they first joined the team, said the young missionary from New Zealand.

“But now it’s their lifestyle. They are complete fireballs who carry radical love,” she said of the young people from various city churches who join her on a weekly outreach to the hospital.

One of the areas in which they are experiencing breakthrough at the moment is in seeing stroke victims healed of paralysis.

In an interview Micah told me that after she encountered God in a very real way in her small hometown in New Zealand, she completed three years of ministry training at Bethel Church in California.

During her third year at Bethel she visited South Africa on a missionary trip.

“I absolutely loved it and saw the most crazy miracles I had ever seen,” she said.

After completing her training she was ready to go anywhere God sent her as a missionary. She had a dream about East London and a mission at Stoney Drift, a squatter camp next to an old rubbish dump.

She knew God was calling her to East London for a season and He also made it clear to her that she should go immediately, depending on Him to support her.

“I literally had enough money for a plane ticket to East London. It was such a fast transition that I did not even know where I was going to stay when I landed,” she said.

She had an idea to help Josh and Rachael Minter who lead Global Mercy Missions which serves the squatter community at Stoney Drift.

“I wanted to lift up their hands like Moses’s hands were lifted in battle — so that they could be victorious in the city. I came very much with a heartbeat to serve. And I thought: ‘If that looks like cleaning toilets, I’ll clean toilets. If it’s changing diapers, I’ll change diapers.”

But she said God was so good to her that within a short time of her arrival in South Africa a lot of her own dreams started to come alive. One of her passions is evangelism and within her first month she was asked by the mission to pioneer various outreaches.

One day while driving in the city with Josh Minster she heard God tell her that He was giving her a big building that they were passing. She asked Josh what the building was and he said it was Frere Hospital, the local provincial hospital.

Frere Hospital, East London, which Micah heard God say He was giving to her.

In obedience to God’s promise about giving her the building, she, together with a few friends, visited the hospital for the first time just before last Christmas — taking candy to give to patients. A friend Ashleigh, who is a nurse, opened doors for her to start ministering at the hospital.

She kept on visiting the hospital week after week with her friends. Friends invited friends and she met new people on the team every week.

The hospital outreach ministry was completely new to most of the people when they first joined the team and she stayed close to newcomers on their first visit to ease them into the ministry.

Four months ago a friend, Carl, who had never shared the Gospel or prayed with sick people joined the team. There were so many newcomers on the team that day that she had to split the team into groups and Carl was put into a group led by somebody who had only done about three hospital outreaches.

Carl’s group prayed for a woman with severe arthritis that had locked her knees so that she could not bend her legs. As they prayed for the woman she was instantly healed and was able to flex her knee joints. It was the first miracle Carl had ever seen and he has joined the team faithfully on Thursdays ever since.

Recently Carl shared the gospel with a hospital patient who had a collapsed lung. He led her to the Lord, taking her through repentance and forgiveness and in the process her lung was healed.

“Most of the people [outreach team members] have got stories of how ‘I had never done this [shared the Gospel and prayed for the sick] and now it’s my lifestyle’.

“And a lot of them go and do it [healing evangelism] in their own communities, which is so amazing.”

She said there were even some people who they had prayed for while they were patients hospital who had joined the outreach team after they recovered.

She believed the anointing for the breakthrough that they were experiencing with the healing of paralysed people, was a result of contending with God for the healing of a young child at Stoney Drift who became paralysed from the neck down as a result of a stroke at the end of last year.

She and a few colleagues at the mission prayed with the young boy, Enzo, now 2¹⁄2, in his shack when they learned of his plight. Nothing happened and they just held him and cried over him.

Thereafter she prayed regularly for Enzo with her home group. Sometimes a few of them would end up on the floor in tears until the early hours of the morning.

“We would cry out:’Jesus this is not okay. This is our community, this is our boy. Obviously if You were in the room, Jesus, this child would be healed .And You are inside of us and You have given us all authority, but we also understand the role we have.’

“So there was just this beautiful heartbreaking fight that was going on — and we saying: ‘God give us authority over strokes, over the paralysed.’ ”

She said they did not see an immediate change in Enzo’s condition but from the following week they started seeing healings of hospital patients who were paralysed from strokes.

Then one day Enzo’s mother brought him to the creche at the mission and, to their great joy, one side of his body was healed and there was slight movement in the other side.

“We spend a lot of time sitting with him, singing over him, massaging his muscles. He’s going to get his full freedom. But at the same thing we are regularly seeing paralysed people healed at hospital — and it has come from this heartbreak.”

She said that the week before my interview with her they prayed with a man in the hospital with a paralysed arm. They stayed with him for 20 minutes, in contrast with many other prayers which were over in a few seconds.

“With the paralysed I’ve really learned to fight — just to stay and wait for the miracle. And so we prayed [with the man], and nothing happened. We prayed again and nothing happened. We started massaging his limbs.”

She asked the man to try and move his hand but he could not. Then she asked him to try his shoulder and he was able to move it a little, which he couldn’t before.

“By the end of his time with us he was holding our hands and having little arm wrestles with us. Gripping us. He was a happy man — smiling from ear to ear,” said Micah.

She recalled how a member of her team who was only with them for the third time heard that they were having breakthroughs with praying for paralysed people. So he set out with some of the team members to find a paralysed patient and found a man, called Miracle, who had no movement from the chest down as a result of a car accident.

The team prayed with Miracle for an hour but there was no change in his body.

“I ended up coming in at the end of their hour and the whole team was there, all gathered around this one man and they were all crying out to Jesus and they were all still full of faith, and just loving this guy radically.

“And they all left with smiles, saying we know though we didn’t see anything in the natural, we know this guy is going to get up. It reminded me of fighting for Enzo — the same fire.”

She said she told the team to continue to fight for Miracle in their bedrooms for the whole week, and to pray for him again during their next visit until there was a breakthrough.

She said she had a high regard for the medical profession and believed God used medicine to heal people. But there were times when He chose to heal supernaturally.

The team had a great relationship with the nurses at the hospital and they often directed the team to patients who they said needed a miracle. The nurses also often asked for prayer for themselves and a lot of them had been healed.

The team always preached the Gospel and gave away Bibles during their outreaches. It was like planting seeds. Some people said: “No” but many accepted Jesus. Five people came to salvation during their outreach the previous week.

They had seen people delivered from suicide and starting to attend church.

During their last hospital visit a patient said to one of the young people on the outreach team: “Because of the love you’ve shown me today, I now believe Jesus is real.”

Chief Justice Mogoeng (PHOTO:Mary-Ann Palmer/News 24).

Originally published in News 24

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng says the only way to achieve a truly sustainable solution to the emotive land expropriation issue is through peace, unity and shared prosperity.

Mogoeng was the keynote speaker at an event hosted by the Mediation Foundation for Peace and Justice at the Castle of Good Hope today.

The head of South Africa’s judiciary — a part-time pastor — challenged those present, who were mostly members of the First Nations (Khoi and San) royal houses, to seek the return of their land through peace and forgiveness.

Speaking to the media outside the event, Mogoeng said the country needed to go back to basics if it wanted the best land expropriation solution.

“We need to get the foundation right. For us to resolve any of the serious problems that confront South Africa, we have got to deal with ourselves as a people.

“We are too divided to achieve anything,” he added.

The critical starting point therefore was for South Africans, black, white and especially First Nations people, to recognise that the overemphasis placed on artificial differences has taken citizens back.

“We need to recognise that we are one people, one nation and as long as we are divided, we are not going to achieve anything. This is a critical beginning, that our country has everything that each and every one of us needs to prosper and realise our full potential.

“Let’s unite. Let’s pursue peace. Let us love and respect ourselves because you can’t give what you don’t have.”

Mogoeng also said there were so many things that enjoined and united South Africans as people, and that for too long, the country has focused on what separated it.

“The rest of the African continent looks to South Africa for guidance and solutions because of the incredible capacity we’ve displayed for compromising and bridging our differences, and the infrastructure we have here.”

Mogoeng said he would visit a group of “mega farmers” in Parys at the end of August to engage and take his message to them.

“The message is the same: don’t despair about the land issue. We are a peace-loving people as South Africans, and there is no solution that relates to the land issue except one that caters to all of us, that unites us, and is enduring.

“If we ever think we have arrived at a solution, but it is such that it benefits some but not all, it won’t last long. We will play games to try and sustain it, but it can never sustain forever.

“So that which will unite us and sustain peace, is the kind of solution that we must pursue.”

He again emphasised that solutions driven by love, reconciliation, peace and shared prosperity “will last forever. If not, it will fail, and it’s just a matter of time”.

There was a strong church presence during Mogoeng’s address and a ceremony to honour the First Nations royalty present. Mogoeng led those present in a prayer and asked God to lead the way as South Africans find solutions to what was a heart problem.

“Nobody wants to be dehumanised, nobody wants to be exploited. So I understand where the anger comes from. But it is time to forgive,” he challenged them.

If they did so, God would find a way for land to be returned to those who deserved it and for all in the country, black and white, to prosper together, he said.

The Company of Prophets SA (COP) — a movement that unites and equips prophetic people — is holding its annual national conference at Hatfield Church, Pretoria on August 31 and September 1.

The focus of this year’s conference is the seven mountains of society and the main speakers include Dr Walter Penzhorn from Germany, Dr Pearl Kupe and Tony Cooksy.

There will also be breakout sessions on what God is doing in the mountains of business and government.

Christians in South Africa are invited to come, expecting God to speak to each one of them, establishing them in their call and and confirming that which He is doing within them, say the conference organisers.

Worship and prophetic teams will be serving at the event, as well as prophetic artists and possibly dancers.

More details about the conference are available online at  http://companyofprophetssa.co.za/category/national-conference/ . You can also register online at http://companyofprophetssa.co.za/national-conference-2018-registration-form/

Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) has sent out an email alert encouraging broad public participation in the provincial consultations, and written submissions, on the Children’s Third Amendment Bill which outlaws any form of physical discipline at home.

Provincial consultations on the bill will be held in August and September, and written consultations are invited by September 7.

In its alert FOR SA highlights the following two main objections to the bill which it urges should be raised in consultations and submissions.

1) Existing law (including the Children’s Act, the Domestic Violence Act, and the common law offence of “assault”) already provide firm and adequate protection against child abuse and violence. The amendment, however, poses a severe threat to parental rights and religious freedom. It removes the option for parents to decide for themselves – in accordance with their own moral or Scriptural convictions – what is in the best interest of their children.

​2) While the State must intervene where physical violence or abuse is taking place, a statutory prohibition on physical correction in the home may create the situation that significant amounts of taxpayers’ money are misdirected into training interventions and court cases involving parents and families that are not at risk, when it should be directed towards those families and communities that are truly vulnerable and in need of such intervention.

Most notably, from a parental rights and freedom of religion perspective, section 8 of the bill proposes that “positive discipline” (which is not defined in the bill) be the only legally acceptable form of child correction. It specifically proposes that corporal punishment in the home be prohibited and the common law defence of reasonable chastisement be abolished, says FOR SA.

In plain language, it says the bill aims to make any form of physical discipline by a parent – no matter how light or well-intentioned – illegal and potentially subject to criminal prosecution for assaulting a child, to which there will be no defence in law.

The provincial consultations dates are:

Gauteng (Johannesburg / Pretoria), Free State (Bloemfontein)
August 15 – 17

Western Cape (Cape Town), Limpopo (Polokwane)
August 22 – 24

Northern Cape (Kimberley), North West (Rustenburg), KZN (Durban)
August 29 – 31

Eastern Cape (Port St Johns), Mpumalanga (Nelspruit)
September 5 – 7

FOR SA says it will circulate an alert as soon as the venues for the provincial consultations are confirmed.Alternatively, participants can contact Ms Sarah Mabasa (DSD Chief Directorate: Children’s Legislation, Monitoring and Reporting) directly at SarahMaf@dsd.gov.za or 012 – 312 7725.

Written comments on the bill can be e-mailed to Sarah Mabasa at SarahMaf@dsd.gov.za and Matlhogonolo Sebopela at SarahMaf@dsd.gov.za

Angus Buchan announcing another It’s Time prayer day in a special video message this evening. SEE VIDEO BELOW.

God wants South Africans to gather for another “It’s Time” event — and it will be the biggest prayer meeting ever seen in Southern Africa, said Angus Buchan in a special announcement released on video this evening.

“This is probably the most crucial prayer meeting of all,” as the country “is on a knife-edge” with unrest in the nation ahead of elections next year, said the farmer-evangelist, who called the historic open-air It’s Time mass prayer events in Bloemfontein on April 22 last year, and in Cape Town on March 24 this year.

He said the Lord gave him a very clear instruction through His Word on Sunday, to call another It’s Time event. He said he was not at liberty to say when and where the prayer event would be, but would make an announcement as soon as those details were confirmed. He said latest information would be posted on www.angusbuchan.co.za

All he could say now was that the big prayer gathering would take place “very soon”, on a Saturday and on an open field, and it would be free.

He urged Christians to “tell every person in SA and in surrounding countries to get ready for a prayer meeting which will be the biggest prayer meeting that we’ve ever seen”.

An aerial view of the It’s Time gathering April 22. (PHOTO: @DrMichaelMol).

“At Bloemfontein we had over a million people. I’m believing for more than that. And remember at Bloemfontein we prayed and there was a change of government, they shelved the nuclear power station, the rand strengthened — they were singing choruses and hymns in parliament, and many other miracles.

“Then we went to Cape Town that had had no rain for three years. The only city in the world with no water. We came as a people. We repented and prayed and God answered our prayers and there is plenty of water in Cape Town,” said Buchan.

He said people of all races, ages and sexes would come together as a people before Almighty God The Miracle Worker at the upcoming It’s Time event.

Meanwhile, he urged people to pray everywhere “so that the Lord Jesus Christ can intervene on behalf of our people.”