Some of South Africa’s most influential religious leaders have accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of trying to ruin Easter celebrations for the Christian community and have vowed to disobey Covid-19 regulations.
The pastors who include pastor Mosa Sona of Grace Bible Church, and AT Boshoff of the Christian Revival Crusade (CRC) briefed the media in Joburg yesterday proclaiming their displeasure with the Ramaphosa administration.
The pastors said they would rather go to prison than turn people away from church for being unvaccinated. They said they had engaged the Deputy Minister of Health Sibongiseni Dhlomo, and MP, Tina Joemat-Patterson about the seriousness of the announced restrictions on the Christian community. But those meetings were unfruitful.
The pastors were also unhappy about the proposed amendment to the existing health regulations of 2017. The ministers accused the government of trying to apply some of the state of disaster provisions into the act.
This week marks Holy Week for the Christian community and the faithful are expected to gather in churches throughout the week until Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday.
Reading a statement by the International Federation of Christian Churches (IFCC) Pastor Sono described the restrictions as unjust and discriminatory. Sono said the Church had no choice but to follow God's law on this matter.
According to the president's latest announcement both indoor and outdoor venues can accept 50% of capacity subject to vaccination or a Covid-19 test. Gatherings of 1 000 people indoors and 2 000 people outdoors are permitted for the unvaccinated.
The church said they would not be separating Peter from Paul even if it means getting arrested.
“With reference to the announcement by his excellency Cyril Ramaphosa on the 50% capacity with the condition of being fully vaccinated and the proof thereof. We as the IFCC welcome the 50% capacity.
“However we would like to express that we are outraged, dismayed and disappointed and shocked by the president's announcement that it is only on condition of being fully vaccinated and we are strongly opposed to this idea,” Sono said.
Sono said the churches were at the forefront of ensuring that people obey the various regulations. He said the church was also among the first to encourage vaccination. He bemoaned the government's disregard of the holy institution.
“The faith community is up in arms over the vaccine mandate. The president may not have called it a vaccine mandate but in reality it is a vaccine mandate because we have to force people to vaccinate before they can enter our buildings,” Sono said.
Sono said the issue of vaccine mandates was sensitive and said the government was putting itself in a confrontational path with the religious sector.
Sono said the president had told the country that he had consulted the religious sector on the lifting of the National State of Disaster. But Sono described these consultations as mere information sessions.
“No matter what we say propose or object to government always seems to do what it wants,” pastor Sono said pastors had been treated unfairly by government since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic with some pastors losing their livelihoods because of the closure of churches.
“During the last 25 months, some of our pastors in the rural and township areas appealed for help from our president and the government and nobody came to their rescue, However, other sectors were assisted and continue to be assisted so they can operate,“ Sono said.
Gracefully ending the lamentations, Sono said the church leaders were willing to speak to the president. The president had also been invited to the Easter festivities.
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