Members of the South African Church Defenders during the press conference.
Image: Supplied
THE South African Church Defenders (SACD) are gearing up for a historic march to protest against new regulations targeting the Christian religious sector.
This follows the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities’ (CRL Commission) launching its Section 22 Committee last year.
The committee, which is an ad hoc body, was established to address abuses, establish a peer review council, and promote self-regulation within the South African Christian religious sector.
At the time, the CRL Commission said the committee aimed to curb harmful practices by religious leaders while protecting believers' constitutional rights.
However, the SACD feared this posed a threat to the autonomy of the church and recently addressed its concerns before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Pastor Mpfariseni Mukhuba, the chairperson of the SACD, a non-partisan Christian advocacy movement, said in their address that religion must not be regulated by the State under the guise of “self-regulation”.
She was speaking during a press conference at Gateway Church in Mount Edgecombe on Thursday.
“Before Parliament, the SACD made it clear that churches are not seeking immunity from the law, but criminal conduct must be addressed through existing criminal justice institutions.”
Mukhuba said constitutional guarantees of religious freedom must be upheld without creating parallel regulatory structures targeting religions.
She said that following the developments after the parliamentary address, the SACD would host the “largest provincial Christian march” - a peaceful constitutional mobilisation to defend religious freedom.
Mukhuba said the SACD rejected the State regulation of belief and church governance; and they called for the lawful handling of criminal matters without regulating religion itself.
“The march is also to demonstrate unified faith leadership across denominations.”
Pastor Aaron Moonsamy, the SACD’s provincial coordinator for KZN, said enough was enough.
“For far too long now, we have only been praying and allowing the government to do whatever it wants. But we are saying now, we are frustrated, and enough is enough. As the KZN chapter of the SACD, we want to mobilise our churches to come out in their numbers so we can take a stand together. We are taking to the streets and making a declaration that the State will take its hands off our churches.”
The march is scheduled to take place on March 12 at 9am from King Dinuzulu Park to the Durban City Hall.