By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Congregants from different churches gathered at the FNB Stadium in Nasrec, in Johannesburg for the 2024 National Day of Prayer.
This is the fourth National Day of Prayer in South Africa.
The first event was held in 2017 and the last prayer day took place in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Day of Prayer is an observance held in many countries worldwide to encourage people of all faiths to pray for their nations. It serves as an opportunity for people to come together in solidarity and reflection, regardless of their different religious beliefs.
The event was hosted by the Motsepe Foundation.
CEO of Freedom Park, Jane Mufamadi, says she believes that today’s prayer will bring change for the better.
“For me, it is peace and stability. We can see the world is at war, the world is fighting itself and we pray every day that in South Africa we should not see and suffer the injustice because we have just come out of a bigger war, apartheid, and we got peace for 30 years, so we pray that South Africans remember that and the peace that we have is sustained and we believe that this prayer today will contribute to that.”
“Spirituality is above politics: Dr Mufamadi.”
The African National Congress (ANC) Treasurer-General Gwen Ramokgopa has called on all South Africans to pray for gender-based violence (GBV) to come to an end.
Ramakgopa said as the country is in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, more needs to be done to stop the scourge.
She said, “We are joined in one spirit, the spirit of faith should be used to unite a nation and not divide it. We are here on the 1st of December and it is a day we focus on HIV and AIDS and TB and we want to thank God for the progress we have made as a country. We are also in the middle of 16 days of gender-based violence and femicide and we want to encourage our nation to really pray that this comes to an end.”
The National Day of Prayer is an observance held in many countries around the world to encourage people of all faiths to come together in prayer for their nation, leaders and people.