Religious body halts court action against government as churches reopen

Freedom Of Religion SA (For SA) says it has halted its urgent court application which sought to force the government to lift the ban on church gatherings under alert level 3 lockdown.

This after president Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday that churches will now be allowed to reopen.

He said the cabinet had taken this decision due to a decline in numbers of daily infections. Churches are allowed to host 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors.

The organisation's executive director, Michael Swain, said while the court arguments will no longer be heard as an urgent matter, the “in-principle” issue regarding the constitutionality of the government’s decision-making process regarding faith-based gatherings still needs to be addressed.

“Though faith-based gatherings have again been permitted, it is very possible that we will face one or more waves of the pandemic.

“It is therefore critical that we establish a precedent regarding the reasoning and basis upon which government can lawfully regulate religious gatherings as the pandemic unfolds,” said Swain.

Last week, the organisation approached the high court in Johannesburg on an urgent basis to ask that the government’s ban on faith-based gatherings be lifted.

The application gained the support of other church organisations and stakeholders which represent over 11 million members, according to Swain.

The application is in two parts and lists the minister of Cogta as the first respondent and president as the second respondent in the matter. The minister of health and the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) are the third and fourth respondents respectively.

The first part of the application demands among other things that the first and/or fourth respondents furnish the organisation with official documents of scientific studies or research relied upon to arrive at the decision to close churches.

It also sought to have religious gatherings considered an essential service.

In the second part of the application, For SA wanted the court to declare the regulations gazetted on December 29 as unconstitutional. These regulations prohibited religious gatherings.