Opponents of the CRL Rights Commission’s controversial Section 22 Committee process for the Christian sector who participated in a Religious Freedom Imbizo in Cape Town last Saturday expect to have a follow-up meeting soon with Dr Zweli Mkhize chairperson of the Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), said Bishop Templeton Mbekwa, who convened the Mbizo.
Mbekwa, who heads the All-African Reformed Transitional Liberation Council (ARTLC), said Mkhize, who was the keynote speaker at the imbizo had listened carefully to all objections raised by attendees and had undertaken to meet with them later.
“We expect he will call us to a meeting very soon,” he said.
He said his organisation “has an issue with the [state regulation of religion] agenda of the chairperson and with the Section 22 Committee itself which was not set up and launched constitutionally because there was not proper consultation”. They also have questions about how the committee’s nationwide consultation process is being funded, he said.
Organisations represented at the Imbizo said they were not opposed to accountability for the religious sector but were against government regulation. Organisations represented included Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA), ChristianView Network, the ACDP and the DA.
In a response to the Imbizo Michael Swain executive director of FOR SA says Mkhize “deserves acknowledgement” for listening to every speaker and answering questions candidly. But, he writes, while Mkhize’s words were sympathetic towards objectors’ concerns, “they were made orally, not in writing, and none of the governing documents has been publicly amended”.
He calls on Mkhize to: “One: confirm Saturday’s assurances in writing, and formally withdraw the legislative mandate in the Terms of Reference. Two: pause the hearings while Parliament’s lawyers advise on whether the Committee was lawfully formed. Three: let the sector’s existing code be the starting point, owned and run by faith communities, without a statutory council, register or licensing power. We also ask Parliament to require a full budget and cost-benefit analysis, particularly as the CRL Commission has established similar committees for other faith communities”.
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