Cape Town - Cape Town Pastors Against Church Closures faced a heavy police presence during their march to Parliament to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
Police prevented the group of about 100 protesters from going ahead, stating that the Disaster Management Act prohibits any form of protests.
When the go ahead was given, pastors marched the streets with their hands in the air praying in tongues and marched to Roeland Street and had to stand 100 meters away from Parliament.
When an argument erupted, protesters insisted they wanted to go to Parliament, police took out their shields and made a wall to prevent them from going any further.
Earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa eased the regulations of the level 3 national lockdown.
Among those eased were the reopening of churches, allowing only 50 people indoors per church service and 100 people outdoors.
One of the organisers, Apostle Siniko Nxeshi of Kingdom of God Ministries, said they were marching to tell the President they are rejecting his proposal.
“We do not agree with what the President said, that we can have 50 people only. We are saying we want 50% attendance of the capacity under strict regulations,” he said.
He said churches differ in the number of people they accommodate and if a church has about 1 000 members it does not make sense for them to only have 50.
Nxesi said restaurants and retail shops are allowed to take 50% of their capacity, but they are not.
“As churches, we only meet once a week for a short time, while restaurants operate for 8 hours, seven days a week,” he said.
He said it is not fair to call churches super-spreaders because taxis and buses operate in full capacity and there is no one monitoring if the safety regulations are being followed.
“We want government to declare the services we provide as essential services, and they must consult us when making decisions involving us,” he said.
Nxesi added that the march is the first of many if their grievances which are not being taken seriously.
Prophet Timothy Lategaan of Revival Ministries said he believed that churches have a voice to speak.
“We deserve to be heard because we provide our communities with a lot of services. Therefore, our people need churches,” he said.
Evangelist Sobantu Nonjola of Arise and Shine said churches are called in to conduct funerals, but they are told how to operate.
“It is funny that the very same churches that bury people dying from Covid-19, which has made the government close them, are called in for funerals. Why must we open for funerals?” asked Nonjola.
Regional Director in the Presidency Charles Ford accepted the memorandum on behalf of the Presidency.
Ford said he would make sure that the document is delivered to the president’s office and that a response should be expected between four to six weeks.
Weekend Argus