Christian march leaders promised chance to take religious-regulation concerns to Parliament

Leaders of a march to Parliament today by about 4 000 Christians opposing state regulation of religion were told they will be given an opportunity to address Parliament on their concerns, said a spokesman for SA Church Defenders (SACD) which organised the protest.

Apostle Siniko Nxesi told Gateway News that the promise was made outside Parliament by Dr Zweli Mkhize Chairperson of the National Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to leaders of the march who presented him with a memorandum in which they call for the dismissal of CRL Rights Commission chair Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva who they say is abusing her office to pursue state control of the Church. The portfolio committee exercises oversight over the CRL.

“He has promised that we will be called as pastors to address the Cogta community on this issue and that they will also raise it with relevant bodies.”

Referring to a memorandum which SACD handed to a representative of the Office of the President at the Union Buildings during a National Christian March on October 8, Nxesi said: “He [Mkhize] even acknowledged that they did receive our letter at the Union Buildings and that letter then was taken to Parliament. So, the response is good.”

He said SACD will host further Christian protest marches in Durban and Bloemfontein.

“We will not not stop fighting this because we will not allow religion to be regulated in our time. So, our call is very clear. We are saying Mama Xaluva [Mkhwanazi-Xaluva] must be fired. And we are calling Parliament to investigate her utterances, where she said that if a person says to you that he has heard from God, that person must be taken to a psychiatric hospital [see video clip below]. 

“We say on that basis she has fired herself from that position because she is supposed to be the custodian to defend any person that says he has heard from God because the CRL Commission’s mandate is to protect and promote the cultural, religious, and linguistic community. The very basis of the Christian faith is based on God speaking. So, any person that denies the speaking of God cannot therefore sit on a chair to defend the very same people who believe that God can speak.”

He said “a process should be taken where she is investigated and if Parliament finds that ‘yes, she is guilty of those utterances’, then she must be removed with immediate effect.”

Nxesi said the SACD is also calling for the immediate dissolution of “this so-called Section 22 Committee which for us is illegitimate — it doesn’t have the mandate of the Christian faith”. 

The CRL says the task of its Section 22 Committee is to facilitate dialogue on the self regulation of the Christian sector, but critics say it is a bid to revive a previous failed attempt by the CRL to get religion regulated in South Africa.

Mkhwanazi-Xaluva has denied claims that the commission advocates for state regulation of religion, blaming the allegations on “disinformation”. She said the “concern has been and continues to be about the conduct or behaviour of certain religious leaders, who place their church members in harm’s way”.

“The Commission firmly asserts that freedom of religion is sacrosanct and an inviolable constitutional right that must never be compromised by any individual,” she says in a media statement released after the launch of the Section 22 Committee.

CRL senior manager: media and marketing Mpiyakhe Mkholo, declined a request from Gateway News for CRL comment on today’s march to Parliament, calls for Mkhwanzi-Xaluva’s dismissal over her remarks and for the disbanding of the Section 22 Committee.

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