South African Christian News: Telling the God Stories of Africa
Proposed measures consolidate unaccountable power in a single minister The deadline for submitting comments on the draft health regulations ended at midnight on Sunday April 24, but grave concerns about their application and future implementation remain. The DearSA online platform alone registered over 283 000 individual submissions with the Department […]
Parliament has re-opened the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill for public comment until Friday October 1. The decision to reopen the bill follows on from the Constitutional Court’s recent decision and definition of hate speech (in the Qwelane matter). The bill – for the first time in SA’s history – criminalises certain […]
This is the first article in a series by Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) on the PEPUDA Amendment Bill (“the Amendment Bill”) and its potentially detrimental and far-reaching implications for religious freedom in South Africa, if passed into law in its current form. For more articles like this that explain what the bill is about, and […]
By Michael Swain, Executive Director, FOR SA (Freedom of Religion SA) To say we live in unprecedented times, is both true and also an understatement. Although FOR SA makes no claim to expertise in the area of epidemiology and the severe medical challenges involved, it is nevertheless important to understand […]
Originally published in Freedom of Religion South Africa Recently, the owners of the Beloftebos wedding venue were back in the crosshairs because they declined the opportunity to host (and for their family to be involved in) the celebration of the same-sex wedding of Megan Watling and Sasha-Lee Heekes. Social media, […]
By Michael Swain, executive director of Freedom of Religion South Africa How greater levels of voluntary and self-regulatory accountability can effectively resolve problems It seems that every day there is another article or TV exposure of some so-called pastor or prophet doing something that is either outright criminal or borderline at […]
October 27 marks International Religious Freedom Day, which is designed to highlight Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This fundamental human right was confirmed by the UN Human Rights Committee in its General Comment No 22, as follows: “The right to freedom of thought, […]
Land expropriation is a highly political and emotionally charged issue. Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) is closely monitoring this area since it clearly has the potential to impact on the religious community. We therefore want to bring a balanced perspective to our constituency so that we have a […]
For those who believe in unicorns, understanding the complexities of the transgender issues that are currently making headlines across the world will be a walk in the park. For the rest of us, this issue has come out of nowhere in the past two years and was put firmly in […]
The COGTA Parliamentary Portfolio Committee recently held meetings to allow for input by the religious community into the CRL’s Report on the “Commercialisation” of Religion and Abuse of People’s Belief Systems. These meetings were attended by a significant number of denominations, churches and major organisations from the Christian community. Many […]