The Gauteng Health Department has obtained a court order against a church in Katlehong, on Gauteng’s east rand to stop it from convening a church service that is not in accordance government’s ban on gatherings of more than a 100 people.
MEDIA STATEMENT :The Gauteng Department of Health OBTAINS COURT ORDER TO FORCE CHURCH TO DISPERSE pic.twitter.com/kDX5wz9swD
— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) March 20, 2020
Community Members lodged a complain to the department regarding the gathering. The department says non-compliance will result in a fine or arrest because mass gatherings expose people to great risk.
In the video below, Ramaphosa warns that no event is exempt from national disaster regulations banning large gatherings.
Meanwhile, a Durban based bishop, Bishop Bheki Ngcobo has urged members of the South African Zionist Churches to gather in their numbers this Easter. This despite President Ramaphosa’s banning gatherings of more than 100 people.
Meanwhile, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has told a gathering of clerics that the church must adhere to government’s measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Makgoba says this includes implementing social distancing with parishioners sitting a metre apart, the sanitising of hands, and limiting worshippers to one hundred people per parish.
Makgoba says churches will, however, remain open.
COVID-19 has impacted on the way Christians worship, especially during the period of Lent.
Makgoba says the Church has an important role to play.
Earlier this week, the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has postponed its Easter Conference that was scheduled to take place in April amid the coronavirus pandemic until further notice. This as 19 more COVID-19 cases have been confirmed taking the total number of cases in the country to 85.
Speaking to SABC News on Tuesday, the church Spokesperson, Reverend Emmanuel Motolla confirmed that the church had decided to postpone their annual pilgrimage and would announce a new date once normality has been restored.
In the audio below, Reverend Motolla explains the decision to postpone:
