Let us not pray, driver told
Church, state debate flares as bus driver fired for leading passengers in prayer
GROWING outrage over the dismissal of a Cape Town bus driver for praying with his passengers before each trip has reignited debate over religion in public spaces.
Jerome Rose said he had been instructed by God — who spoke to him through a voice in his head — to start work every day with a prayer.
Before embarking on long trips from the MyCiti bus station in Atlantis, in Cape Town, he would lead passengers in a minute’s prayer.
But after 10 months of carrying out his ritual, the father of nine, who puts his faith before his job, received a complaint from a commuter and was fired for what he calls his “obedience to God”.
“My passion is to spread the gospel,” said the 41-year-old former taxi driver from Pniel (a name of Biblical origin meaning “face of God”) near Stellenbosch.
“I heard a voice while sitting in my cab. It told me to pray and I had to obey.”
But his employers, vehicle operating company TBRT, which is contracted by the City of Cape Town, disagreed.
After several warnings, he was fired last week, prompting UNDER AN INFLUENCE: Jerome Rose, a Cape Town bus driver, was fired for on-board prayers an appeal and a petition by some passengers.
TBRT would not comment on the issue, other than to say it was “guided by its contract with Transport for Cape Town” and that the dismissal was “in accordance with company policy”.
The city said it was not involved in the case.
Rose said he would rather lose his job than his faith. He has received support from Cosatu, whose Western Cape leader Tony Ehrenreich said South Africa was a God-fearing nation and people had “a right to practise our religious convictions”.
Rose’s former colleague Jeremony Moses, also a MyCiti bus driver, said he and other drivers would take action if Rose’s dismissal was upheld.
But public transport is not the only sector where religion is controversial.
The NGO Organisasie vir Godsdienste Onderrig en Demokrasie (Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy, known by its Afrikaans acronym Ogod) has a court application pending to stop six government schools from advertising themselves as “Christian”.
Ogod chairman Hans Pietersen said the state should allow religion in public institutions, but that in keeping with national policy on reliAfrica gion in schools, it should not promote one religion or denigrate others.
“We don’t want religions out of schools. We want an end to religious apartheid and elitism in public schools. It’s about children’s constitutional rights being violated by schools.”
The application is being opposed by the Federation of Governing Bodies of South Schools.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said: “Children at public schools cannot be forced to listen to a religious talk or prayer, it has to be free and voluntary. If there is religious observation at assembly or in class, every child must be given a clear choice and safe alternative to do something else.”
A Worcester mother of three, who did not want to be named for fear of her children being victimised, said the religious focus at her children’s government schools caused conflict in her household.
“We aren’t religious and I try to teach my children to develop their own world views based on treating people equally and with respect. All of this is undone at school where they are religiously indoctrinated.
“It’s had a bad influence on my relationship with my 14year-old daughter, who asks me . . . to ‘just believe’ because that is what she is being taught at school.”
I heard a voice while sitting in my cab. It told me to pray and I had to obey
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