The leader of the United African Apostolic Church (UAAC), archbishop David Mureri, stated his support for the total lockdown announced by the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Monday night.
Mureri met with the Limpopo Premier, Stan Mathabatha, on Monday. The meeting took place at the premier's office in Polokwane.
The UAAC is one of the biggest churches in Africa and has followers throughout the country. The drastic steps announced by the SA president were taken to help control the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease. The nationwide lockdown starts on Thursday, 26 March and will continue for 21 days, until 16 April.
To support the nationwide lockdown, the UACC has suspended all church services, including the Sunday services, until further notice. The UAAC will communicate with its members if the situation changes. Many churches have already brought in measures to avoid exposing members of their congregations to the virus.
After the announcement by the president on Monday, many entities and facilities closed their doors in compliance with the new rules and have also encouraged social distancing guidelines.
According to archbishop Mureri, church members will have to find new ways to continue providing services. The new means of communication will include using social media and directly broadcasting sermons.
Archbishop Mureri also urged church centres to follow the government's guidelines on maintaining proper hygiene. "It is vitally important to maintain connection with the community as a church during this health crisis, and so we will be live-streaming our Sunday services in order that we maintain our spiritual health and not our physical health only," said Mureri.
He said had decided to postpone the church's annual Easter conference and would announce a new date once normality had been restored.