Mashatile calls on churches to assist in curbing social ills

African National Congress (ANC) Deputy President, Paul Mashatile says churches across South Africa can assist government in its efforts to fight social ills such as drug abuse and gender-based violence.

Mashatile visited Khayelitsha on Sunday in the run-up to the party’s January 8th Statement for its 113th anniversary programme.

The anniversary celebration will be held in Khayelitsha next weekend.

Mashatile says their continued work with churches can help to improve the quality of life of South Africans.

“We also work with them when it comes to other social ills, as we know in many of our communities we are facing problems of drugs that are affecting many of our young people, gender-based violence and people are struggling with unemployment. We think the church has a very big role to play in addressing those challenges working with government,” explains Mashatile.

Mashatile says national government is committed to addressing the issues faced by communities in the Western Cape.

“Recently we have seen in the Western Cape problems of shacks that are burning because people built their shacks with materials that are inflammable, in fact [Human Settlements] Deputy Minister [Tandi] Mahambehlala spent a lot of her festive period Christmas, and New Year going around this communities trying to work with them to try and address those kind of problems.”

“So we are going to continue to work with them to address the problems that they have raised with us before. We want to make sure that the people of Khayelitsha like others in the Western Cape do get a better life,” adds the Deputy President.