“There is a very clear and worrying disconnect between what the CRL claims publicly and what the CRL is actually trying to build behind the language,” said DA MP and member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Marina van Zyl.
She was addressing Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva chair of the CRL Rights Commission at a meeting called by the Cogta portfolio committee in response to a request from the South African Church Defenders (SACD) for them to “urgently investigate the CRL’s recent actions and statements, and convene open hearings on any proposals concerning religion”. The SACD request was made in a memorandum handed to Dr Zweli Mkhize chairperson of the portfolio committee after a Christian march to Parliament on Thursday last week.
Responding to a presentation by Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, Van Zyl said: “What you say is that you respect the Constitution, that you do not want to regulate religion, and that nothing you propose would interfere with freedom of belief. But what you want to do in practical terms tells another story. And this is from your own presentation.You want a national oversight framework for religion, a CRL-designed, peer-reviewed structure, governance standards imposed on churches, a national database of religious leaders, expanded investigative authority, and new legislation to give the CRL enforcement powers.
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“Chairperson, that is regulation of religion — just through a softer door. So, I must ask directly, how can you claim that you are not regulating religion when every element of your proposal centralises oversight, creates compliance structures, and requires religious leaders to be part of CRL-recognised systems?
“You say it is self-regulation, but the CRL designs the structures, approves the councils, and sets the standards.That is not self-regulation — that is CRL regulation.
“You say you respect the Constitution, but the outcomes of your framework, the oversight, compliance, and central control, all point to state intrusion into faith communities. This is not harmless coordination –it is a push towards a state-directed religious compliance model. And why this is a problem is it undermines section 15, which is the freedom of religion, it violates section18, which is the freedom of association, and it threatens section 31, the right of communities to run their own institutions. And it contradicts Parliament’s previous stance, which is the document that the chairperson is talking about, which rejected regulation and insisted on voluntary self-regulation.
“So are we witnessing a constitutional protection or an attempt to introduce a rejected regulatory agenda under a new label? I also need the chairperson of the CRL to tell us what her source is to say 45 million Christians are represented by these bodies. I think this is very much overstated, and to mislead Parliament is an offence. So, I’d like her to tell us the source and the provide us with those source documents.
Listen to Marina van Zyl’s response:
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