By Fakir Hassen, IANS,
Durban : A South African commisison is to investigate a dispute in which a local child care project allegedly devastated and is now trying to take over a historic Hindu temple established nearly a century ago by settlers from India.
The South African Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) will investigate charges that statues of deities and other items used for Hindu prayers were found in rubbish bags outside the temple.
The Commission will also look at claims that community activist Ntombi Makhatini, who runs the Sibonelo Esihle Children’s Project, referred to Hindu deities in the Sri Ganesha Kovil temple in the suburb of Welbedacht here as “dollies”.
The CRL is a statutory body set up under the constitution as part of the government’s attempts at reconciliation after the apartheid era that was marked by bitter racial and class divisions in which cultural identity was often in the spotlight.
“This is the worst form of devastation, destruction and desecration that I have ever witnessed,” said Gopaul Angappan, a veteran devotee who has initiated the campaign to rescue the temple, which has served three generations of Indian farmers in the area.
The tension began when Makhatini decided that the adjacent temple had to make way for her shack-like childcare facility to be extended to the temple building after the original owner, a Mrs Govender, had sold the property to the local municipality for use by the temple organisation and a childcare facility.
Angappan said the municipality had failed to intervene in the dispute around ownership of the temple, but the Deputy Mayor of Durban, Logie Naidoo, said the desecration of any temple would not be tolerated as the South African constitution protected the rights of all citizens to pray in their designated places of worship.
Angry local Hindus were Thursday rallying support to fight what they termed a “hostile attempt to take over a historic temple.”
The matter took on another twist when it was disclosed that local Indian Christian Pastor Siva Moodley and his wife Rani had donated money for Makhatini to build the child care facility in the temple building. Although the couple said they had made the donation to allow for two cr�ches to be built to assist he needy children in the area, this has given rise to renewed concerns about South African Indian Christian organisations interfering in the activities of Hindu organisations.
In recent years, there had been tension between the two religious groupings, with some Hindu leaders alleging that Christian missionaries were luring Hindus away from their faith with inducements such as employment and gifts in cash and kind.