Executive mayor of Ekurhuleni Clr Mzwandile Masina visited Hope Restoration Church in Chloorkop on March 11.
“I am here at Hope Restoration Church as part of our on-going programme as the city to engage all religious communities because churches play a very important role in our communities. They restore our spiritual being but also have programmes for social cohesion in communities,” said Masina.
He said it is not the first time he visited the church as he was there last year in August during the passing of Dumi Masilela.
“We returned to the church to give them feedback because we had to follow government processes to rename the newly built theater in Germiston in memory of Dumi Masilela.
“We will officially write to the church to indicate when we are opening but we are also monitoring the murder case. Suspects were arrested and some are behind bars and we believe justice has been served.
“That is one of the reasons why we are here. Secondly, coming from the African National Congress we have spent the last three years visiting different churches asking them to pray for the ANC as we are going through difficulties.”
The mayor said they have now emerged with a new leadership at 54th national conference in Nasrec and added that it is important to call on churches to continue to support the ANC.
“We believe that we have self-corrected. We are now having a programme of renewal, a programme of reuniting the ANC and society, and a programme of refocusing to the things that South Africans are hoping we to achieve.
“We are grateful to pastor Mathebula who has given us an opportunity to say a few words to the congregation and we remain inspired by his teachings,” said Masina.
He said his highlight of the day was to see MMC for finance, Richard Funzela Ngobeni, joining the Hope Restoration Church as a member.
“We encourage churches that preach a positive word of God, we discourage some churches who are doing things that are foreign that we have seen in the media.
“We don’t think churches should be in conflict each other. There must always be an opportunity for dialogue so that we can self-correct because in society there’s a difference of opinion on a range of issues.
“Churches are established institutions with value systems and teachings which we need to restore order to in communities, so there should never be a conflict between the church and the community.”
He said they brought different departments to the church to form partnerships between churches and government.
“The activities of government that are utilised by the community must be able to bring them closer to the government. We believe the number of people in this church will be exposed and get a better understanding of how the government functions.”
