Government still deliberating issues for Easter

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has urged faith communities to be innovative when holding events during the Easter, Passover and Ramadaan religious periods to ensure their events don’t lead to the spread of Covid-19.

Ramaphosa said this in his newsletter yesterday amid calls by religious organisations to avoid strict and tougher Covid-19 regulations for the Easter weekend.

A presentation was made by religious leaders last week to the government where they pleaded with Ramaphosa to allow for services to be held with 50% capacity under strict safety protocols.

According to the current level 1 restrictions, 100 people are allowed for religious gatherings indoors and 250 for outdoors.

Ramaphosa also confirmed that a virtual meeting with leaders of the faith community was held recently.

During the meeting, a number of religious organisations had asked that some existing restrictions on the size of congregations be eased as part of preparation for Easter and Ramadaan observances.

Ramaphosa said the government was deliberating on these and other issues and would make an announcement in the coming days.

“Religion plays an important role in the lives of millions of South Africans and congregational worship forms a vital part of their religious practice.

“Being able to gather for religious services is also a welcome respite from a period of great hardship for individuals, families and communities,” he said.

Another important factor was that during the various alert levels, religious organisations have incurred substantial financial losses that threaten their sustainability.

Ramaphosa said that even though the government was committed to working with the faith community to find workable solutions, public health and safety should be their paramount consideration.

“We are now at a time when precaution is needed above all. The coronavirus pandemic has not been eliminated, either in our own country or around the world.

“The threat of a third wave is real and ever-present.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) said they had already planned their Easter weekend according to the current lockdown restrictions.

Nametso Mofokeng, from UCKG public relations department, said they would be having services on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

For now, she said, they had no choice but to wait until the president makes an announcement on the matter.

Mofokeng said that if Ramaphosa does not give any new regulations or protocols to follow for the Easter weekend, they would continue according to the existing restrictions and protocols.

“We will have 100 people inside our churches at a time and also take 250 outside. We will also continue to separate our services to ensure that we stick to the regulations. If they make adjustments to the current regulations, we will have to adjust accordingly,” she said.