Verryn, who runs the refugee centre inside the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, was suspended late last month, after he was charged with transgressing the constitution of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. He was supposed to appear before a church disciplinary committee on February 1, but the hearing was postponed indefinitely, after the cleric enlisted the services of a lawyer. The matter is now to go to arbitration. The refugee centre houses around 2,000 African refugees, most of whom are Zimbabweans who have fled political persecution and the countrys economic crisis.
The Southern African Womens Institute for Migration (SAWIMA) said that, instead of continuing to demonise the bishop, the media and government officials should be looking at ways to help the Zimbabweans in their time of need. It is totally irresponsible for the media to solely focus on the suspension of Bishop Verryn while the women and children he reached out to are being abused and exploited by people preying on their vulnerability, said SAWIMA Director Joyce Dube. The whole matter has turned into a circus with the real victims playing bit parts.
Dube said that her organisation, which gives humanitarian assistance to stranded and predominantly Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, would rally support for Bishop Verryn.
All the Bishop is guilty of is reaching out to the weak and dispossessed and giving them shelter, said Dube. We are surprised at this witch-hunt that is clearly meant to discredit a man whose only crime is to help women and children in a time of their desperate need, when others are dithering. The Bishop refused to confine himself to selfish parochialism and instead, he reached out beyond and above the pervasive selfishness that seems to be engulfing our society to show humanity.
Mandla Sidu, a spokesperson for Gautengs Department of Health and Social Development, which has been at the forefront of both police raids at the Methodist Church and calls for the refugee centre to be closed, said his department was working on measures to address the refugee situation. We have said it before that we are concerned about the situation at the church and something is being done about the minors and vulnerable women that live in there, but we need the support of those who run the centre, including the Bishop, said Sidu.
We have held many discussions meant to better the lives of the refugees and some have previously been relocated. We will continue to work on bettering the situation of those that still remain in the church because it cannot function as a refugee centre and worship area at the same time.
Post published in: News