Call for churches to open at 50%
THE march staged by women on Saturday at the Union Buildings in Tshwane against the lockdown restriction on the number of people attending churches was just the beginning of efforts to put pressure on the government to allow churches to operate at 50% capacity.
This is according to Pastor Thobile Magerman on behalf of the marchers bused to Pretoria from across Gauteng.
Participants were clad in black attire as a symbol to lament incidences of women subjected to gender-based violence.
They expressed the determination to compel the government to accede to demands to set aside the regulation limiting the number of people in attendance to 250 people and allow churches to operate at 50% capacity.
Magerman said: “Freedom of unfettered religion is the basic and fundamental human right.
“There is no way we cannot get what we want from the government.
“You can see that everything else is operational, operating on a full-scale – public transport and entertainment centres – and the Covid-19 numbers have gone down drastically.”
Asked about the next move should the government fail to heed their call, she said: “If we don’t get what we want we will have to go back to the drawing board where we started.”
However, she hoped that President
Cyril Ramaphosa would lend an ear to their demands and take them into consideration.
“If the president doesn’t listen to us; this is just the beginning,” she said.
The marchers, she said, were frustrated because the churches were
restricted despite the fact that rhey were places where “we get healing, solace, counselling and rehabilitation, even for the perpetrators”.
According to Magerman, at least 68% of any average church membership was made up of women.
Regarding gender-based violence concerns, she said: “South Africa is known as the murder capital of the world, as a femicide destination of the world.
“While the government has policies in place we also have the role to play as the church.
“Our role is spiritual; our role is more on the inside out.
“We have a role to play in mitigating gender-based violence.
“We strongly condemn gender-based violence.”