{"id":36664,"date":"2026-06-10T07:31:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36664"},"modified":"2026-06-10T07:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:31:03","slug":"sa-faith-leaders-call-for-restraint-amid-planned-anti-migrant-action","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-faith-leaders-call-for-restraint-amid-planned-anti-migrant-action\/","title":{"rendered":"SA faith leaders call for restraint amid planned anti-migrant action"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Church leaders in South Africa (SA) are urging citizens not to take the law into their own hands amid planned action against undocumented migrants later this month.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The All-Africa Bishops Council says concerns over illegal immigration should be addressed through lawful processes and government institutions.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The council has called for calm, noting that President Cyril Ramaphosa has already announced measures aimed at tackling the issue.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Protests linked to undocumented migrants have raised concern across the country, with the All-Africa Bishops Council acknowledging the frustrations of many citizens.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria, Gauteng Province, Council President Archbishop Owen McGregor, said rising unemployment, poverty and deteriorating infrastructure have fuelled public anger.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">However, he stressed that law enforcement agencies should deal with immigration-related issues.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">While agreeing with\u00a0Ramaphosa that migrants are not the root cause of the country&#8217;s challenges, McGregor said government must urgently strengthen border security and improve service delivery.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13027,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-36664","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Church leaders are urging citizens not to take the law into their own hands","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36665,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36664\/revisions\/36665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}