Churches should be fitted with metal detectors to ensure no-one walks through the doors with dangerous weapons. Collection of tithes and offerings should be done electronically or during the home cell gatherings of congregants then deposited into the church bank account. Panic buttons should be fitted on church premises, and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s wardens, commonly referred to as amaPanyaza, should be deployed to patrol during services.
These were among the proposals made during a gathering of hundreds of church leaders at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
Churches should also advise their members against carrying their cellphones and wallets to church, Archbishop Mamikie Teme of the New St Bethesda Apostolic Church in SA told TimesLIVE Premium.
“I have observed that the one thing that criminals target even on the streets, is a cellphone. It is a number one priority in a robbery. If we go to church we should just leave our cellphones at home and have only one cellphone inside the building for emergencies.
“In all the church robberies that have been reported in the media, criminals want cellphones. They don’t want money as one would expect. It is just cellphones and laptops that they want,” Teme said on the sidelines of the gathering
She also proposed that tithes and offering should not be physically collected during church services.
“Every church collection must be done electronically so that every congregant comes to church carrying a Bible and no wallet. When we go to church, we go there to heal our souls and to pray,” Teme said.
People think the safest place on earth is a church. That is why criminals are targeting churches because no-one in church is anticipating an attack.
— Faith Mazibuko, community safety MMC
The gathering of religious leaders was organised by Gauteng MEC for community safety Faith Mazibuko after a spate of robberies in churches.
On October 6, Pastor Dwayne Gordon was shot and killed at the Eagle Christian Church in Newlands, Johannesburg, when armed men stormed the church demanding cellphones and wallets from the congregants. The 22-year-old pastor was a guest speaker at the church.
Not long after Gordon’s killing, Pastor Siyabonga Hlongwane was killed when robbers entered his church in Malvern, eastern Johannesburg. They robbed all the congregants in the church, then opened fire on him.
On October 15, a 13-year-old boy was assaulted at the Reformed Church in Daspoort, western Pretoria, during a robbery at the church. Congregants were busy counting money when four men came and robbed them of the money. Robbers also took cellphones, jewellery and the church laptop.
The one-day gathering, which included traditional healers and traditional leaders, is expected to help develop a safety plan which can be used in places of worship to help address the current spate of attacks on churches.
Archbishop Patrick Shole, president of the SA Union Council of Independent Churches, said the crime experienced in worship spaces is a result of unemployment.
“There are a lot of people in our cities who are unemployed. Actually our churches are crowded with those people. We are saying to government, there should be some way of having police visibility around churches. This can be done through community patrollers, community policing forum and even the crime prevention wardens,” Shole said.
Mazibuko said something had to be done to end the attacks on churches. “Criminals take churches as soft targets. They know that most of us when we are in church, we relax and are not vigilant. No-one in a church anticipates that anyone might come in with a gun demanding things from them. People believe that when they are in a church they are in a safe haven.
“People feel that when they are in a church they are in a protected space where no-one can think of coming in and do wrong things. People think the safest place on earth is a church. That is why criminals are targeting churches because no-one in church is anticipating an attack,” Mazibuko told TimesLIVE Premium on the sidelines of the gathering.
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