Government says it’s talking to ZCC about whether big Easter pilgrimage will happen despite Covid-19

With the Easter weekend coming up, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says government has been engaging with South Africa’s big churches, particularly the ZCC, about whether the big gatherings of the faithful will still be going ahead this year.

Easter weekend falls between 10 April (Good Friday) and 12 April (Easter Sunday) this year.

The Zion Christian Church is the largest African-initiated church in southern Africa. The church’s headquarters are at Zion City Moria in Limpopo Province, and it pays host to a massive pilgrimage each year.

The current number of ZCC members has been estimated at between 8 and 10 million.

Each year during the Easter holidays church members bus en masse in their millions to Moria to meet the church’s bishop and to pray for blessings.

Mkhize told journalists at the Protea Ranch Hotel in Polokwane on Thursday night that government was cautious about “unilaterally” deciding that such gatherings would be cancelled or prevented by force, which also went for other events that see people coming together amid the presence of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in South Africa.

However, he said government was taking the issue seriously and engaging with all the religious leaders in the country, along with other organisers of big events, especially regarding sport.

Mkhize said it was important to have a holistic approach to containing the virus and that South Africans working together with a common purpose would together be able to contain and defeat the potential of any major outbreak.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize can be seen during a press briefing about the group of 120 South Africans that are being repatriated from Wuhan, China and will be staying at The Ranch in Polokwane, 12 March 2020. Picture: Jacques Nelles

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