Cape Town | Monday
A CAPE Town church that declared last week that only white Afrikaans worshipers were welcome did not object to a visit by mixed-race officials of South Africa’s ruling party on Sunday, a party official said.
Charmaine Manuel, her 13-year-old son Nigel and his grandmother were asked to leave the church by two of its members last Sunday. Manuel interpreted the rejection as a racial insult as the family was of mixed race.
But a week later there were no complaints from the congregation of the Afrikaans Protestant Church when African National Congress (ANC) officials arrived at the church, area official Jack Ferris said.
The mixed-race delegation to the church consisted of Ferris, South African National Civics Organisation member Lorraine Bruintjies and Janet Hess of the ANC Women’s League.
They held a silent prayer for unity and non-racialism outside and the priest came to speak to them,” said Cameron Dugmore, ANC representative in the Western Cape province.
Samuel Botha, chairman of the church’s council, said members of his council had the right to choose their followers who should be Afrikaans speaking as well as white.
The council and members of his church were in full support of what had happened last week, he told state radio SABC.
Botha said he was aggrieved that the incident had become a political issue.
Meanwhile a Pentacostal Church, near the Afrikaans church, welcomed the Manuel family there on Sunday. – AFP