Parliament, Monday, 17 November 2025 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) will meet on Tuesday with the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Rights Commission and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs regarding issues raised by the religious sector.
Last week, representatives of the South African Church Defenders marched to Parliament to hand over a memorandum calling on Parliament, and the Portfolio Committee on COGTA, to “urgently investigate the CRL’s recent actions and statements, and convene open hearings on any proposals concerning religion”.
Following a CRL Rights Commission investigation into the “Commercialisation of Religion and Abuse of the People’s Belief Systems” in 2015 and 2016, the findings were presented to the committee, which held discussions with religious leaders. In 2018, the committee, among other things, recommended that a charter for self-regulation be established as well as a code of conduct for the sector, which should be recognised by legislation.
Since then, the commission has established under the CRL Rights Commission Act, a Section 22 ad hoc committee comprising Christian religious leaders from various umbrella organisations to facilitate consultations that would result in mechanisms and strategies to identify and address challenges in the sector, halt the harmful practices of some religious leaders within their congregations and thereby ensuring an effective implementation of the portfolio committee’s recommendations regarding self-regulation.
Also on the committee’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting is a briefing from the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) on its study into illegal initiation schools and policy recommendations that would present remedial mechanisms to prevent loss of lives for initiates during initiation seasons. The committee will also receive a briefing from the department on the status of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill (Coalitions Bill).
DETAILS OF THE MEETING:
Date: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Time: 09:00
Venue: Virtual Meeting Platform
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s media officer:
Name: Alicestine October (Ms)
Cell: 083 665 4345
E-mail: aoctober@parliament.gov.za
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