CRL wants to revive failed attempt to regulate religion in SA

The CRL Rights Commission is once again threatening to advocate for state regulation of religion in South Africa, warns Michael Swain executive director of Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA).

He said that during a recent interview on Newzroom Afrika, newly-reappointed chairperson of the CRL Rights Commission, Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, who, in 2016, presided over a failed CRL campaign to get Parliament to regulate religion, reiterated her call for state regulation of religion.

In the interview she proposed the establishment of state-appointed peer review committees to assess individuals seeking to become religious leaders or start churches, Swain said in a media release.

“According to her, these committees would determine whether (or not) to grant individuals a license to work as a religious practitioner or to operate a church. They would also have the authority to suspend or dismiss religious leaders found guilty of wrongdoing. She further urged Parliament to pass legislation enforcing this system, stating that: ‘It’s not business as usual around churches anymore.”

Swain noted that in 2016, the CRL Rights Commission presented a report to Parliament titled The Commercialisation of Religion and Abuse of People’s Belief Systems, in which it highlighted criminal acts committed by certain religious leaders and called for state intervention.

He said that the constitutional right to religious freedom does not, and has never, protected individuals who commit crimes. “A crime is a crime — whether committed by a politician, a pastor, or a postman — and those who commit crimes should face the full force of the law,” he said.

He pointed to the successful prosecution of the so-called “Prophet of Doom,” who was convicted of assault after spraying insecticide into the faces of his congregants, as evidence that existing laws are sufficient to hold perpetrators accountable. Every case cited in the CRL’s report is already covered under South African law, Swain noted, emphasising that the real issue is not a lack of regulation, but rather a lack of enforcement of existing laws.

In the Newzroom Africa interview Mkhwanazi-Xaluva acknowledged that by the end of her first tenure as CRL Chair, this matter had “fallen off the table for whatever reason” but declared that “it’s back on the table now, squarely”. with plans to form a committee to push the legislation through Parliament.

“However, the proposal did not fall of the table for ‘whatever reason’ but was in fact squarely rejected after careful consideration — and for very good reasons, ” Swain said. He siad the CRL’s proposal had already undergone extensive scrutiny during five days of hearings before the COGTA Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, where the overwhelming majority of SA’s faith communities opposed state regulation of religion.

He said that In its 2018 report, COGTA acknowledged this broad-based opposition and recommended that the faith sector develop its own self-regulatory mechanisms. It stated that “We must be mindful not to use the abuses of religion as a motivation to introduce regulations that would infringe on the rights and freedoms of religious individuals and organisations.”

Consequently, he said, a consultative process led to the creation of a code of conduct based on the Religious Freedom Charter, which had been endorsed by over 20 million people of faith and multiple faith-based institutions — including the CRL itself.

“FOR SA fully supports the CRL’s mandate to uphold and protect the religious freedom rights of all South Africans,” said Swain. “We look forward to engaging with the commission to explore alternative and effective solutions to the concerns raised by Ms Mkhwanazi-Xaluva — solutions that respect both the rule of law and the fundamental right to religious freedom.”

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