WE’RE NOW CONFUSED - CHURCHES

MBABANE – Some pastors say they are confused and have been placed in a precarious situation regarding the number of people allowed in church services.

These were the views of some pastors whose hopes of having a large number of congregants were raised by the Minister of Home Affairs, Princess Lindiwe, following her announcement on an additional number of congregants from 20 to 70 during church services.

Debating

The pastors said their joy had been shortlived and they were still debating on what would really happen on Sunday as they had already communicated to their congregants that they could be 70 in a single service and some had indicated their intention to attend. They said they were yet to decide whether they reverted to livestreaming their services because the 20 people was too little for them and would not work to their advantage.

Parliament on Wednesday reversed government’s decision of allowing 70 people in churches, to the 20 that was gazetted in the COVID-19 regulations. With the latest changes, the pastors said they were currently holding meetings to come up with a way forward. Free Evangelical Assemblies, Reverend Aaron Matsebula said there was nothing they could do, after the resolution by Parliament, to toe the line. Matsebula said at the moment, they were not really certain of what they would do but the bottom line was that they had to comply. “We will consider whether we go back to the social media platforms, including livestreaming,” said Matsebula.

He said even when they arranged groups, they needed the entire day, but ended up not covering the entire members. 
This, he said, was because they had to reach out to a large number of congregants with their churches taking up a capacity of more than 550 people for some while others accomodated more.

Groups

Pastor Hertform Xaba of the Christ Cares Church said they had no choice but to go back to their scheduled groups and continue to sanitise and observe the social distancing regulations, among other things.

According to Xaba, they would change nothing regarding the precautions to be taken against preventing the spread of the virus and would continue to screen, encourage wearing of face masks, sanitise and also observe social distancing. He said despite the latest resolution by the law-makers, they had already secured screening equipment among other things and would continue following the precautions regardless of reduced numbers.

When reached for comment on the latest MPs’ resolution, President of the Conference of Churches, Bishop Stephen Masilela said they were yet to engage with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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