CRL appoints section 22 committee to regulate the church

Written by: Dr Pearl Kupe
Article source: Supplied

CRL Rights Commission

The CRL Rights Commission, also known as the  Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities  is a Chapter nine institution which was established for the purposes of “supporting and strengthening constitutional democracy.

It is supposed to “promote and protect the rights of cultural, religious, and linguistic communities in South Africa by investigating complaints and fostering peaceful coexistence”. Whether it is fulfilling the mandate for which it was established, is highly questionable. I questioned this in an article I penned in 2019 (source (https://joynews.co.za/critical-questions-affecting-christianity-for-the-crl-dr-pearl-kupe/)

CLR Commissioners Chairperson

The Chairperson of the CRL Rights Commission is Ms. Thoko Mkhwanazi Xaluva who was first appointed in April 2014 and when her term ran out in 2019, she was re-appointed in December 2024 for another five year period. One of the first things she did upon her re-appointment was to reiterate her previously failed call for the regulation of religion by the State. To facilitate the regulation, she proposed the establishment of state-appointed peer review committees which would assess individuals who sought to become religious leaders or start churches.

Ms. Mkhwanazi-Xaluva pursued the call for state regulation in spite of its having previously been rejected by the COGTA Parliamentary Portfolio Committee,. The rejection came as a result of the overwhelming opposition to state regulation by the majority of South Africa’s faith communities. COGTA  took the opposition by the faith communities into consideration and instead recommended that the faith sector develop its own self-regulatory mechanisms.

Chapter 2, section 31 of the South African Bill of Rights protects the rights of cultural, religious, and linguistic communities to enjoy their culture, practice their religion. The Christian community has ,however, through the deliberate actions of the CRL Chairperson, Ms Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, been denied the right to enjoy the practise of their religion.

The CRL vision refers to the value of “mutual respect” and yet time and time again, Ms Xaluva has disrespected the Christian community by referring to them in a derogatory manner.Recently she was heard to have made this statement ” let’s educate our people that no one talks to God. Let’s just put it as bluntly as that.If someone tells you that God was talking to me, tell them to go to the psychiatric ward …” This is at best a very disturbing and derogatory statement which demonstrates the bias that she has against the Christian community.  How is someone who does not believe in a God who hears His people when they pray, be expected  officiate over a group of people whose faith is rooted in hearing God.This statement not only portrays her condescending bias against the Christian faith community but also demonstrated her disdain and dislike for them.

Section 22 CRL Committee

On Thursday 02 October , the CRL Rights Commission launched it’s section 22 Committee for the Christian sector at the Rhema Bible Church from 10h00-13h00.

The primary objective of this launch was to appoint members to a committee that would in essence oversee and regulate the Church. According to the CRL, the commission would  “confer responsibility for promoting integrity, respect and accountability within religious communities”. In reality the establishment of this committee was simply about control and regulation of the Church.

What was extremely concerning about this launch were the following factors:

1. the CRL’s dismissal of COGTA’s previous decision to not be involved in the regulation of the Church;
2. the CRL’s dismissal of the recommendation made by COGTA advocating for the self-regulation of the Church that was to be led by the Church;
3. the manner in which the Committee 22 process was held was undemocratic, shrouded in secrecy and void of all transparency or legitimacy;
4. the fact that those who were pre-selected and invited by the CRL had no clear mandate from the Body of Christ in general and are unknown to most believers;
5. Selected invitees appeared to be only those who had previously supported the CRL efforts;
6. Major organisations, such as ForSA, Freedom of Religion South Africa, IFCC and other key organisations that had been involved in the state regulation were left out of the process. This demonstrates that this was nothing but a sham that was merely intended to get individuals who would “rubber stamp” the overall CRL agenda of state regulation.

Members of the CRL 22 Committee.

The members of the S22 Committee as appointed by the CRL are as follows:

1. Chairperson: Professor Reverend Musa Khulekani Xulu
2. Council of African Independent Churches (CAIC) – Reverend Gift Mwerane.
3. Ebuhleni Nazareth Baptist Church –

• Mr Lizwi Terence Ngcwana,
• Rev Mondli Siyabonga Jele,
• Rev Zacariah Misokwakhe Mbatha,
• Rev Mbongwa Friend Zama,
• Rev Thembinkosi Melvin Kulu Ubhedla.

Organisations:

1. Gauteng Shembe Nazareth Baptist Church: Nkosi Phakama Shembe
2. Ginyezinye Nazareth Baptist Church: Reverend Joseph Silwyiphi Mhlongo and Thabo Sambothi.
3. Moral Regeneration Movement: Ntate Seth Mazibuko
4. Rhema Bible Church: Pastor Joshua McCauley
5. SACC: Reverend Oscar Madlala
6. St Engenas Zion Christian Church: Mr Piet Lekganyane and Rev Prince Teka
7. Evangelical Alliance SA: Rev Dr John Maloma
8. Great Commission Western Cape: Apostle Aaron Makili
9. Thembezinhle Nazareth Baptist Church: Mfundisi Solumuzi Themba Mathenjwa
10. Zion Christian Church: Prof Themba Mosia (in absentia)

Call to Action

Let the Body of Christ arise to pray. Let us Pray:

• That the appointment of this committee will not divide the Church and bring strife and disunity;
• That the will of God concerning this committee will be done and that any unauthorised or attempted regulation or muzzling of the Church will be thwarted;
• For an opportunity to further engage COGTA to stick to it’s original agreement of allowing the Church to conduct it’s own method of self regulation

#SayNotToStateRegulation

Pearl Kupe-Attorney & International consultant to world leaders & International organizations. She is the International President-Global Forum for Women Entrepreneurs- www.gfwe.co.za . Personal website on www.Pearlkupe.co.za. She is the TBN Africa DSTV channel 343 Host on Ambassador of Change, Sundays at 13h00 and Wednesdays at 09h30 and 19h30(SAST)

You can follow Pearl on facebook page Pearl Kgomotso Kupe  www.facebook.com/pearl.kupe

Click here to KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE weekly newsletter.

> Please support Christian media and journalism in South Africa. Help us to spread the Word of God and take a stand for the truth by making a donation to our ministry. We appreciate your support. Click here to take hands with JOY! Magazine. 

Date published: 03/10/2025
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. Artwork adapted from

DISCLAIMER
JOY! News is a Christian news portal that shares pre-published articles by writers around the world. Each article is sourced and linked to the origin, and each article is credited with the author’s name. Although we do publish many articles that have been written in-house by JOY! journalists, we do not exclusively create our own content. Any views or opinions presented on this website are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.