“STOP ABUSING PEOPLE WHO HAVE ENTRUSTED THEIR FAITH IN YOU”, RELIGIOUS LEADERS WARNED

October 2, 2025 will rank as a great milestone for the community members of faith in the march to bring to a stop the perpetuation of harmful practices of some religious leaders in their congregations.

The milestone has been spurred by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights (CRL).

The road travelled has not been rosy one. For, it is burdened with misunderstandings and misleading claims to the effect that CRL was calling on the State to regulate religion.

On the contrary, the issue is the misconduct of religious leaders placing their church members in harm’s way. The task to this end will be shouldered by a Section 22 Committee chaired by Prof Musa Xulu.

The journey behind the launch of Section 22 Committee dates back to 2015. This follows the CRL Commission conducting an investigation into the “Commercialization of Religion and Abuse of the People’s Belief Systems.”

For the uninitiated, CRL is a Chapter 9 Institution established in terms of section 181(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities Act, Act no.19 of 2002, to strengthen constitutional democracy in the Republic. In terms of section 185(1) of the Constitution, the CRL Rights Commission’s objectives are to:

• Promote respect for the rights of cultural, religious, and linguistic communities.
• Promote and develop peace; friendship; humanity; tolerance; and national unity among cultural, religious, and linguistic communities, based on equality, non-discrimination, and free association.
• Foster mutual respect amongst Cultural, Religious, and linguistic communities.

The inquiry revealed a series of alarming incidents that garnered national attention, triggering intermittent community outages.

The unsavoury incidents include individuals being sprayed with insecticide (Doom), made to ingest grass, consume petrol, tear off each other’s hair and chew on snakes.

There were also serious allegations of young girls being sexually assaulted by certain religious leaders, as well as instances where individuals were made to risk life and limb lying down for vehicles to drive over them.

The findings of this investigation were subsequently presented to the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) in parliament, which held discussions with an array of religious leaders, leading to a set of significant recommendations back in 2018.

To deepen self-regulation with the religious sector two key recommendations were arrived at. One was the establishment of a Charter for Religious Leaders and the other a legally recognized Code of Conduct for Religious Leaders.

In response to the recommendations from the CoGTA Portfolio Committee regarding Self-regulation in the religious (Christian) sector, the Commission invoked Section 22 of the CRL Rights Commission Act to establish a Section 22 Committee. This is where the Section Committee derives its life.

October 2, 2025 therefore marks a milestone for the inauguration of the Section 22 Committee publicly launched at Rhema Bible Church recently where Prof Musa Xulu had the opportunity to introduce its other members.

This Committee comprises Christian religious leaders from various umbrella organisations, including inter alia: mainline, independent, charismatic, and Pentecostal churches.

The mandate of this Committee is to facilitate lead dialogues, consult widely, and come up with strategies to address the challenges in the sector, thereby ensuring an effective implementation of the Portfolio Committee’s recommendations pertaining to the self-regulation of the Christian sector.

The recent launch served to introduce the members of the Section 22 Committee to the nation and officially confer responsibility for this vital process onto the leaders of the Christian sector.

This symbolizes a collective commitment to fostering integrity, respect, and accountability within religious communities, thereby paving the way for a more ethical and responsible future.

With the benefit of this launch the Committee is now energized to take its mandate countrywide in order to deepen the consultation for the next 12 months.

In her opening address, CRL Chair Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva explained: “None can stand in the way of anyone called to duty to serve God, but no God will allow people to be abused. Don’t abuse people who have entrusted their faith in you.”

Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said all conceivable professions of one’s choice are ordinarily subject to codes of conduct for best practices, allowing for sanction in the event of transgressions.

“Out of the ordinary is not holding people occupying positions of trust not accountable. Believers and Christians are no exception to accountability,” said Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.

“When a church becomes unsafe and it places life, dignity and integrity in harm’s way, will not escape accountability,” Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said.

She further explained that self-regulation is simply about declaring in word and deed that “not in our name should debasing excesses be tolerated”.

Mischievously, the wayward that have equated their misconduct to religion itself, have been raising desperate false alarms, inferring that sanction against malpractices is regulation of religion.

Not only do they do so to insulate themselves from accountability, but also fortuitously leaving the door open for continued malpractices for the continued perpetuation of human-trafficking, sexual molestations, spiritual abuse, emotional deprivation, and worse forms of invasions to congregants – all in the name that God has ordered it so, said Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.

The example testimony of Sihle Sibisi brought the CRL’s point home in the most vivid way. She shared experience of how she was manipulated to undress for the pleasure of TB Joshua from Nigeria following her being trafficked in that country.

When Sibisi’s daughter died in January 2025, she says she was mocked as being punished by God.

At issue, Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said, is the conduct of religious leaders doing harmful acts on unsuspecting, vulnerable and desperate people of faith. This will not be tolerated, she warned.