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'Healing and religion are now one'

November 25, 2015. LAST RESORT: CRL commission chairwoman Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, middle, walks inot the Hillbrow police station to lay chages against prophet Samuel Radebe, who snubbed the commission . Photo Vathiswa Ruselo. © Sowetan
November 25, 2015. LAST RESORT: CRL commission chairwoman Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, middle, walks inot the Hillbrow police station to lay chages against prophet Samuel Radebe, who snubbed the commission . Photo Vathiswa Ruselo. © Sowetan

New age churches have become healing centres that sell water and oil with promises of curing people of ailments.

This was the submission of the commission investigating the abuse of people's belief systems during a sitting in Durban yesterday.

The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities is also investigating the commercialisation of religion.

"In the new age, churches have become places of healing and religion. People are taken to churches on stretchers. Healing and religion have become one.

"The nation needs to start asking itself ... are churches hospitals or places of worship," said chairwoman Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, adding that some pastors encouraged people to stop taking medication and drink holy water.

She said South Africa needs to understand what "this monster we are dealing with" is.

"Is Christianity traditional or religious? Churches are not what they used to be," Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said.

There was a need to find ways to deal with people who make false promises to communities about rats and short boys that would bring them instant riches, she added.

Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said the advertising of these claims was also fuelling the perceptions.

"How do you regulate such a thing and how do you stop people from abusing people's beliefs and taking them for a ride," she asked.

Cultural expert on traditional and spiritual healing Dr Velaphi "Bhedlindaba" Mkhize said: "You cannot prescribe for the spirit. We listen to the spirit so you cannot say someone must go for training for 12 months. Only ancestors can do that."

The Department of Health has proposed a law to regulate traditional healers.

Mkhize said the government was looking to change laws about something they did not understand.

 

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