Oudtshoorn, 11 May 2016 – Administrator, Mr. Kam Chetty has appealed to Spiritual Leaders to assist in the recovery of Oudtshoorn Municipality and to collectively address the problems of the Greater Oudtshoorn.
“Your presence gives us hope and the strength we require – we previously had administrators in this town, with marginal changes – this means there was something missing in the past interventions,” Mr. Chetty told the approximately 50 church leaders in a meeting held on 28 April 2016 at Toekomsrus Community Hall. Chetty pleaded that, “all of us are servants and instruments of God”. He added: “All the knowledge, strategies and technologies are not going to succeed, unless we acknowledge the supremacy of God.”
“We find ourselves today in a deep-seated crisis. We are facing severe financial paralysis, massive infrastructure deficits, backlogs, failure in service delivery, and poor governance. The crisis that we find ourselves in prohibits growth in our town, also denying the communities what is rightfully theirs, particularly the impoverished. We call all of you, with no favours to any groups to assist with rebuilding the Greater Oudtshoorn – as God intended – to be this beautiful, prosperous and peaceful Town.”
Mr Chetty called on Spiritual leaders to assist with building a culture of:
- Integrity and mutual Respect
- Caring and selfless service
- Ubuntu
- Reduce the obsession with Materialism
Church leaders were, during the meeting, afforded an opportunity to discuss a way forward of their involvement in the Intervention process. The minsters all agreed to support the Municipality and draw up a programme of action to assist the town and Municipality.
One of the attendees of the meeting Urshulla Slabbert said: “As Christians, we’ll have to join hands and help the Municipality, let’s organize a prayer day for Oudtshoorn, we need God in town.
Andrew Wagener said: “The town needs spiritual leaders to lead. We must forget about the past, where we stay, our backgrounds, churches. This afternoon is a historical moment. Let’s all pray together so that God can listen.”
Fortuin Staalmeester proposed a prayer in the Municipality once a week.
Pastor Hanse said: This is an answer to our prayers; we requested this kind of intervention two years ago from the Municipality but to no avail. Oudtshoorn is now claiming its freedom. Thank you Mr. Chetty.”
The meeting decided in unison that weekly prayers must be held on Wednesdays at 18:00 at the Banquet hall in the Civic Centre, as from 11 May 2016. Anyone is welcome to attend the prayer meetings. The next meeting of the Administrator and religious leaders will take place on Thursday, 19 May 2016; all church leaders including Dysselsdorp and De Rust are requested to attend the next meeting. A committee to organize the big prayer event for Oudtshoorn will be elected at this meeting.