“Soon we will have pastors preaching in bulletproof vests”: alarm over violent robberies in churches and mosques in South Africa

“It was a cruel and evil act.

I am concerned about the moral fabric of this nation,” laments Pastor Jaibhesi Dota, a clergyman of the Zion Christian Church, the largest indigenous African religious denomination in South Africa.

He is referring to the violent robbery that occurred at the church in Newlands, a wealthy neighborhood in the South African city of Johannesburg.

On October 8, a group of armed men broke into the temple during a crowded religious service and went, row by row, demanding that the faithful hand over wedding rings, mobile phones, car keys and cash.

During the robbery, Pastor Dwayne Gordon, who was in the pulpit, was shot in the neck and died before a traumatized congregation.

South Africa is experiencing increasing levels of insecurity.

The country recorded 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 and 2023, placing it among the most violent nations in the world, according to the African non-profit organization Institute for Security Studies.

This is the highest ratio in the last two decades, with an increase of 50% compared to the 2012-2013 period.

Official statistics show that millions of crimes (a third of home burglaries, for example) go unreported, largely due to a lack of trust in the police.

In this climate of citizen insecurity, the faithful seem to be a particularly attractive target for armed criminals, although there are no official figures for robberies in places of worship.

“A church is attacked, worshipers are injured and kidnapped' is already a common headline in South Africa, with dozens of incidents reported and dozens more unreported,” clergyman Jaibhesi Dota, who has followed these events and has attended marches, told this newspaper. of solidarity together with other clerics.

“I have counted 10 robberies in churches in my city since June 2023,” he adds.

“We have to address this wave of criminal activity that is frightening our places of worship,” Faith Mazibuko, head of security in the northern province of Gauteng, acknowledged in November.

“Last winter, as we were dancing after an all-night prayer, they held guns to our heads and we stood there, frozen with our Bibles in our hands,” recalls Ashley Moyo, an immigrant pastor in Springs, a mining town. of gold 60 kilometers east of Johannesburg.

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Burglaries at places of worship are a new phenomenon in South Africa, adds Dota.

“15 years ago, criminals more or less respected temples, mosques and churches,” she points out.

“I remember that, in 2005, when I was a pastor, a thief approached me and said: 'Pray for me, pastor, I stole a wallet on the train, I need forgiveness.'

Crime is not limited to Christian churches.

Mosques have also seen cases of imams being robbed at gunpoint during Friday prayers, says Farida Mehmet Khan, principal of a Muslim school in Cape Town, South Africa's second-largest city.

“The ban on places of worship has been opened,” he says.

I remember that, in 2005, when I was a pastor, a thief approached me and said: 'Pray for me, pastor, I stole a wallet on the train, I need forgiveness

Jaibhesi Dota, South African cleric

One reason criminals see churches and mosques as an easy target is the lack of security.

“Criminals know that very few police drones and surveillance cameras are dedicated to protecting religious centers, despite monetary offerings, cars parked in the courtyards of mosques or churches and cash donations from the faithful,” he says. Yasin Kakande, writer and political analyst.

Another risk factor is the fact that “money flows” due to large cash donations from the faithful, he adds.

South African churches and mosques often receive cash donations for philanthropy from their congregants or their parent churches abroad.

South African banks, meanwhile, have become less attractive to thieves in recent years due to the rise of cashless payments and improving technology, Kakande notes.

In 2022 there were no “traditional” robberies, where staff and clients are held at gunpoint, “due to new security measures,” corroborates the South African Banking Risk Information Center (Sabric), an organization created by banking entities. South Africans.

In 2010, for example, there were 93 robberies of this type.

armed cult

Some officials of the besieged mosques and churches are already betting on arming themselves or hiring private guards.

In South Africa, it is legal to possess up to seven firearms for personal defense or recreational purposes.

“If this abomination continues, we will soon have pastors preaching in the pulpit with Bibles and bulletproof vests, and deacons guarding the church yard with shotguns,” reflected Pastor Tom Fazenda, a retired Baptist clergyman, after the murder of Pastor Gordon in October .

“The faithful will soon have no choice,” says Imam Jabil Bere, a Muslim cleric from Durban, a city on the shores of the Indian Ocean and the third largest in South Africa.

“Mosques are faced with an uncomfortable dilemma.”

Pastor Dota, likewise, predicts an increase in “armed worshipers” in South Africa, and leaders of temples, synagogues and mosques taking over the functions of the police.

“This will bring with it all kinds of moral considerations: Will there be Sunday school pastors with guns talking to children?” he wonders.

“We will end up with churches armed to the teeth, which will terrorize both the faithful and the criminals,” agrees Fazenda, the retired clergyman.

There are already examples: in January last year, two thieves who tried to rob a crowded mosque in Kensington, a working-class neighborhood of Johannesburg, were shot dead by armed worshipers.

A depleted police force

Only 27% of South Africans trust the police, according to data from the South African Human Sciences Research Council.

Security forces face accusations of police brutality, but also, simultaneously, of permissiveness towards crime, something that some experts attribute to their poor training, low salaries, corruption and lack of sophisticated technological equipment.

“The record of the South African police is dismal,” summarizes Carter Mavhiza, an independent economic analyst in Pretoria, the capital.

There is also a lack of troops: according to analysts such as criminologist Guy Lamb, the number of police officers has fallen from 150,600 in 2018 to 140,000 today.

Thus, a part of security in South Africa falls on the private sector.

South Africa's Private Security Sector Regulatory Authority estimates that in 2019 there were 534,300 registered private security officers in a country of 60 million people, almost four times more than police officers.

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