Last week, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Communities released its final report on the commercialisation of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems saying that religious organisations and practitioners should be regulated. Amongst its other regulations was that they should also be licenced. The report comes after there were media reports which documented pastors in parts of South Africa were allegedly feeding their congregants snakes, rats, human hair and in some cases there were those who were instructed to drink petrol in order to receive miracles.
In its findings‚ the commission found that the laws in place were not protective of people.
• Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) CEO Edward Mafatso
• Director: South African Pagan Rights Alliance Damon Leff
• Executive Director of FOR SA Michael Swain,An organisation standing for several catholic divisionsE
