Johannesburg - The row over Joburg Pastor André Olivier’s allegedly racist Sunday sermon keeps escalating.
Olivier allegedly told his Rivers Church congregation in Sandton that blacks were lazy and that God sent whites to help blacks.
He was quoted as saying: “White people aren't bad, it's black people that are lazy.”
Then he said God sent white people to help blacks and that white people were entitled to their wealth because they worked hard.
His remarks caused outrage on social media.
He has since apologised. In a series of tweets, he asked for forgiveness for hurting people's feelings.
Now a commissioner from the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Commission, Dr Anton Knoetze, has slammed the notion that they have been silent because the comments were made by a white pastor.
Confronted with this allegation on social media and from some religious quarters, Knoetze said the commission was taking the matter seriously and its legal department was considering the way forward.
“Even if we don't take legal action there is a possibility that we will summon him (Pastor Olivier) in order to engage him and bring in order.”
Knoetze urged religious leaders to exercise self-control and desist from making racist or political comments.
“We strongly condemn any form of racism.
“Our job as a commission is to promote and protect all religions, cultures and languages equally.
“Religious leaders are meant to serve communities, not promote racism or political intolerance among their congregations.
“We, therefore, would like to appeal to all religious leaders to exercise self-control.”
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, said the SACC continued to note, with great dismay, increasingly frequent manifestations of underlying racial tension in the country.
The racialist implications of remarks attributed to a Sandton pastor were wider and deeper than whether they were interpreted out of context or not.
They represent a fairly common mental model in South Africa’s heavily racialised society, he pointed out.
Concerns about “being caught” saying the wrong thing for which you can apologise and “move on” are not the solution.
“Our reaction to the unfortunate but telling remarks, such as those of Pastor Olivier, that come out from time to time, and will continue to do so, should be to dedicate ourselves to work harder for reconciliation and nation building.
“We are clearly neither healed, nor reconciled with each other. This explains why the sermon about whites and blacks touches on economics, charity and attitudes to racial rights to possessions.”
The SACC campaign, The South Africa We Pray For, begins with the need to address these root-level mental models through healing and reconciliation, Mpumlwana said.
“Reconciliation here is not a touchy feely attitude of apology and forgiveness; it is seeking to transform attitudes and mindsets.
“It recognises that reconciliation has to address poverty and inequality - to which the Rivers Church pastor would need to give serious consideration.
“It has to address economic transformation, towards a reconciled economic dispensation in South Africa.”
According to the Rivers Church website, the “church offers inspirational and practical biblical teaching with motivation for people of all ages, races and walks of life. We are a Christ-centred church that preaches the truth about Jesus in a fresh, illustrative and creative way”.
It adds: “André and Wilma Olivier have been pastors of the Sandton branch since 1992. They have grown the church from 70 congregates into a church with thousands of followers and are responsible for the vision, values and culture of the multi-campus church.”
Sunday Independent