* CFT AGM, "RUNNING THE RACE"
– We are thankful to the Lord for the wonderful time we could have had during our
Annual General Meeting, 7 – 9 Sept 2007. Various speakers spoke on the theme,
"Running the Race" and how it relates to the work of CFT.
The CFT President, Rev Fano Sibisi, highlighted a number of important points. The
following are some excerpts from his address,
"We cannot thank God enough for granting us the grace to serve Him through CFT. In
South Africa we have had this privilege for the last 17 years.
Let me remind you once more what our Mission and Vision are.
Our Mission
To uphold and promote Christian norms and values as stated by the Word of God.
Our Vision
A nation inspired to live according to the highest Christian norms and values.
Let me once again encourage CFT members to look out for opportunities to promote
Biblical norms and values. Often we are pleasantly surprised to see how much can be
achieved through a few people’s initiative."
"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebr 12:1)
(Christians For Truth News, 15 Sept 2007) (to index)
* DOCTORS FOR LIFE WELCOMES WARNING LABELS ON BOOZE - The
SA Government should be commended for the new regulations that require warning labels for
alcoholic beverages which highlights the negative effects of alcohol consumption. This
legislation reflects the cutting edge of world wide trends. It is no surprise that the
British Public Health Minister, Caroline Flint, also announced in May 2007, that a
voluntary agreement has been reached to put similar warning labels on Britain’s
alcoholic beverages by the end of 2008. Britain is actually considering taking it a step
further by making it illegal to sell alcohol to those under 21.
The SA government’s decision is thoroughly backed by recent statistics showing
that between 7,5% and 31,5% of South Africans have an alcohol problem or are at risk of
having one. It also showed that alcohol abuse cost the country about R10 billion per year
and is responsible for almost 50% of road crashes, killing about 7 000 per year. Over 10
million South Africans who consume alcohol drank the equivalent of 196 six-packs of beer
or 62 bottles of spirits which amounts to 20.1 liters of pure alcohol per capita per year.
Alcohol consumption is a major factor in crime. Low, to moderate doses of alcohol can
increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including spousal and child abuse.
In addition, the physical harm alcohol consumption can lead to, is devastating. Mothers
who consume alcohol during pregnancy may give birth to infants with fetal alcohol
syndrome. These infants can suffer mental retardation and other irreversible physical
abnormalities. Research also indicates that children of alcoholic parents are at greater
risk of becoming alcoholics themselves.
DFL fully supports Social Welfare Minister, Zola Skweyiya, who recently concluded when
referring to the 2010 world cup, "the promotion of the perception, for example, that
the use of dagga is not harmful or that excessive or binge drinking is acceptable
behaviour over weekends undermines all efforts to combate this scourge."
According to the Act, the warning messages should be visible and on a space
specifically devoted to it, which should be at least one eighth of the total size of the
container label. Some of these messages will include "Alcohol reduces driving
ability, don't drink and drive", "Alcohol is a major cause of violence and
crime" and "Drinking during pregnancy can be harmful to your unborn baby"
The regulations, published under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectant Act, will
come into effect within the next 18 months. Words such as "health",
"healthy" or any other word or symbol claiming that alcoholic beverage has
health properties, are also banned under the new act. Failing to comply with these
regulations will lead to a fine or imprisonment for up to 5 years. (Doctors For Life
International, 8 Sept 2007) (to index)
* SANGOMA ON CALL AT UKZN CAMPUS – The Universtiy of
KwaZulu-Natal has introduced traditional healers and sangomas at its campuses.
The "indigenous counselling" initiative would complement Western forms of
counselling provided by the Student Counselling Centre.
The project has been given the thumbs-up by African students at UKZN, and already
hundreds of students have visited an in-house sangoma in the past three weeks.
According to a proposal by UKZN Deputy Dean of Students, Bheki Ngcobo, plans are under
way to build traditional huts for the healers.
Ngcobo said that the project should be seen in the context of "reclaiming our
heritage". "Indigenous counselling attempts to restore the African way of life,
primarily to African students."
The proposal says that many students, primarily African students, experienced problems
that required the special skills of traditional healers.
Some of the problems experienced by students included being possessed, being chosen by
ancestors to stop formal education to be trained as an traditional healer; being unable to
concentrate on studies owing to bad spirits and madness caused by bad spirits that needed
to be exorcised.
The sangoma practising at Howard College said that more than 250 students had come to
her for help since her arrival al few weeks ago.
"Most students I’m counselling have serious problems that need traditional
healing, and I always advise them to consult with their parents after I have revealed
their problems. Even staff and top officials from the university use this centre,"
she said. (The Mercury, 10 September 2007) (to index)
* DOCTORS: NO HUMAN BODY PARTS IN MEDICINE PLEASE - The
recent report of a terrorized community in the North West Province, where people are too
terrified to leave their houses at night after the gruesome muti-murder of a 17 year old
boy, is once again drawing attention to the ongoing horror and reality of the practice of
muti-murders in South Africa. These body parts somehow find their way to the consumer
without ever being advertised as such. However, from the extremely high incidence of
muti-killings, it is clear that some potions sold as traditional African herbal medicine
contain these human body parts.
Added to this are the numerous testimonies DFL has come across of traditional healers
using human body parts in herbal mixtures. Usually the medicine is considered more
powerful if the body parts are removed while the victim is still alive. Genitals are often
used in love potions and remedies for infertility and/or impotence.
DFL therefore once again want to direct this final, desperate appeal to the government:
To include in the Traditional Health Practitioners Bill a clause that will force all
herbalists to make the contents of their potions known and that such contents be printed
on the containers.
In August 2006, DFL challenged the validity of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act
in the Constitution Court on the grounds that the insufficient public participation took
place when the Act was passed. The Court subsequently declared the Act unconstitutional
and Parliament was given 18 months to re-enact the law after having consulted with the
public. Since then DFL has made submissions to Parliament, in which the health concerns
regarding the said Act was carefully and clearly explained by medical and legal experts.
(Doctors For Life International, 8 Sept 2007) (to index)
* EXPLICIT PORN ON PUPILS' CELLPHONES - Explicit
pornographic footage of teenagers distributed on cellphones has sparked an outcry from
government and NGOs.
The craze has spread to a number of city schools where the video clips are reportedly
widely available and has now forced education authorities, police and child rights
organisations to intervene.
Childline's national director Joan van Niekerk said they were "concerned about the
situation".
She said a number of schools had asked them to intervene because, due to the nature of
the problem, teachers often did not want to deal with it.
She said many children were not aware that they could be charged in a court of law for
their actions.
"There needs to be a nationwide push to educate and provide information to make
them realise that when they indulge it is illegal and measures can be implemented which
would lead to prosecution."
She said children should get family support and that children needed to be called upon
to reconsider decisions that could harm themselves and those they were filming.
Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana confirmed that police have opened an
inquiry file. "At this stage the investigation is ongoing but no criminal case is
registered at the moment," said Sinyangana.
Gert Witbooi of the Western Cape education department said the schools directorate, in
association with the district offices, was working to identify the affected schools.
Witbooi said they had been informed these videos were made at schools and that they had
already identified a school in Elsies River where the videos were circulating.
Witbooi said the department planned to keep in touch with principals from the affected
schools to find ways to deal with the problem.
"Good morals and sound values start in the family environment." (Cape Argus,
6 Sept 2007) (to index)
International
* YOUNG WOMAN KILLED IN ERITREA FOR
REFUSING TO RENOUNCE JESUS CHRIST
* YOUNG MUSLIMS BEGIN DANGEROUS FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO ABANDON FAITH
* CALL TO REVAMP DEATH DEFINITION
* YOUNG WOMAN KILLED IN ERITREA FOR
REFUSING TO RENOUNCE JESUS CHRIST - Christians have been left outraged by the
death of a young woman in Eritrea allegedly tortured to death in a military facility for
refusing to renounce her faith in Jesus Christ, reported the persecution watchdog ministry
Open Doors.
Migsti Haile, 33, died this past Wednesday at the Weaa Military Training Center and is
the fourth Christian known to have been killed this way in the past year.
Open Doors said Haile was tortured specifically for refusing to "sign a letter
recanting her faith".
It is believed she spent 18 months in prison "under severe pressure" since
she and nine other single Christian women were arrested at a church gathering in Keren.
The latest news of persecution will further increase international pressure on the
Eritrean government to take action to guarantee religious freedom.
At least 2,000 mostly Christian evangelicals are detained in Eritrean prisons, police
stations, military camps and other facilities, including even shipping containers,
according to a number of human rights groups. The Eritrean government, however, has denied
any such abuses.
The director of the Office of the Eritrean President, Yemane Gebremeskel, said recently
that reports of mass arrests are "distorted and exaggerated."
Open Doors has expressed grave concerns over the possibility that more prisoners,
including priests and pastors, may be killed by the same method of torture.
The Christian organization reported that the prisoners "remain locked up and [are]
subjected to severe torture for their religious beliefs in the nation’s jails, police
stations and military camps. All have been denied legal counsel or trial, with no written
charges filed against them."
"We need to keep up our prayer vigil for the Christians in Eritrea," Open
Doors USA President, Carl Moeller, commented. "Eritrea is a small country in Africa,
but that doesn’t mean the persecution is less intense than in larger countries."
In May, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended
that Eritrea be re-designated as one of 11 "countries of particular concern" for
2007. In including Eritrea on the list, the report noted that "religious freedom
conditions continued to deteriorate in Eritrea, where the government engages in systematic
and egregious religious freedom violations…." (The Christian Post, 8 Sept 2007)
(to index)
* YOUNG MUSLIMS BEGIN DANGEROUS FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO ABANDON FAITH
- A group of young Muslim apostates launches a campaign on 11 Sept, the anniversary of the
9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam.
The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger
generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance.
The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has
already upset the Islamic and political Establishments for stirring tensions among the
million-strong Muslim community in the Netherlands.
Ehsan Jami, the committee’s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the
twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He
has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.
The threats are taken seriously after the murder in 2002 of Pim Fortuyn, an
anti-immigration politician, and in 2004 of Theo Van Gogh, an anti-Islam film-maker.
Speaking to The Times at a secret location, the Labour Party councillor said that the
movement would declare war on radical Islam. Similar organisations campaigning for reform
of the religion have sprung up across Europe and representatives from Britain and Germany
will join the launch in The Hague today.
"Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam. In Islam you are
born Muslim. You do not even choose to be Muslim. We want that to change, so that people
are free to choose who they want to be and what they want to believe in."
Jannie Groen, a writer for De Volkskrant newspaper, said: "[Among Muslims]
he is getting the same reaction as Ayaan Hirsi Ali that he is too confrontational but you
are seeing other former Muslims now coming forward. So he has been able to put this issue
of apostasy on the agenda, even though they do not want to be in the same room as him and
he has had to pay a price." (Times Online UK, 11 Sept 2007) (to
index)
* CALL TO REVAMP DEATH DEFINITION - It may be wrong to define
death purely in medical terms, an academic argues.
Professor Allan Kellehear said the medical diagnosis of brain death was at odds with
society's view of when death actually occurs.
He said a debate was needed about whether it was right to use brain death as the key
criterion for switching off life support, and removing organs.
He argues that the current emphasis on brain death has come from a select cabal of
doctors, and is at least in part driven by the need to harvest organs for transplant.
He said that although relatives were consulted about whether or not to switch off life
support, many did not truly understand what they were agreeing to - or sign up to brain
death as the definitive measure of end of life.
A diagnosis of brain death is made using factors such as fixed and dilated pupils, lack
of eye movement and the absence of respiratory reflexes.
However, it is not based on whether or not the heart is still beating - for most people
the most telling sign of death.
Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said the current
medical definition of death had partly arisen out of the need to ensure that organs
harvested for transplant were still fit for purpose.
Medical technology in the 1960s and 1970s was such that if the heart had been allowed
to stop beating the chance of retrieving usable organs was slim.
He said: "There has never been a really serious national debate about whether this
is socially acceptable, or just medical pragmatism."
"I suspect it does create real problems for an awful lot of relatives when they
are asked if organs can be removed when the patient's heart is still beating."
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is due to publish a report into how death is
defined in the autumn. This will become the new code of practice for doctors.
Professor Kellehear will speak at the international conference on death, dying &
disposal at the University of Bath. (BBC News, 12 Sept 2007) (to index)
