South African Christian News: Telling the God Stories of Africa
Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) has sent out an email alert encouraging broad public participation in the provincial consultations, and written submissions, on the Children’s Third Amendment Bill which outlaws any form of physical discipline at home. Provincial consultations on the bill will be held in August and September, […]
A recent article in Die Burger regarding the settlement agreement concluded between Christian author Gretha Wiid and the Human Rights Commission (HRC), states as follows: “You may be a Christian and practise your religion, but you cannot use it to discriminate against others”. This statement is an over-simplification and therefore […]
By Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) On August 21 2018, the Pretoria High Court will hear argument in an important case (Gaum and others vs Dutch Reformed Church and others) that could potentially have dire implications for the autonomy of the Church — and indeed the broader religious community […]
At Parliament on May 30 2018, Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) attended a briefing by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice regarding the proposed Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill (“the Bill”). This briefing followed certain amendments made […]
The COGTA Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has decided (for now) not to adopt the CRL Rights Commission’s proposed recommendations for the regulation of religion. Instead, COGTA recommended (as unanimously requested by the religious community during the meetings before Parliament), that the religious community be granted an opportunity to come up with […]
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 […]
The surprise tabling of the contentious ‘Hate Speech Bill’ in parliament this week raises serious religious freedom concerns writes Advocate Nadene Badenhorst of Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) in this special report. It has come to our attention that the controversial draft Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes […]
Parliamentarians who met on Tuesday to discuss their response to a report by the CRL Rights Commission calling for religious licensing expressed support for an appeal by the religious community to regulate its own affairs. This week’s verbal responses by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) […]
Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) says it will need to raise in the region of R1-million for legal costs for its appeal against the High Court judgment which removed “moderate and reasonable chastisement” as a common law defence that parents could use against a charge of assault. “Appealing this […]
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 […]