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- The Limpopo government held a day of prayer in conjunction with faith-based organisations on Friday.
- It prayed for an end to gender-based violence, substance abuse, crime and other social ills.
- Premier Stan Mathabatha said the province faced trying times, which required agility, resilience and prayer.
The Limpopo government on Friday held a provincial "Day of Prayer", seeking divine intervention to resolve the many social ills, which were described as having reached "pandemic proportions".
The event was organised with faith-based organisations to pray for an end to gender-based violence (GBV), substance abuse, road accidents, and crime and corruption, among others.
Addressing the crowd at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Premier Stan Mathabatha said the province was facing trying times, which required agility, resilience and prayer.
"It was during our engagements (with faith-based organisations), which was largely about socio-economic development in our province, that we collectively got touched by the growing number of fatal accidents in Limpopo.
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"Hence, we felt that there was a need to collaborate in this manner and seek divine intervention from the God of our forefathers," Mathabatha said.
He said the abuse of women in the province "was a pandemic worse than Covid-19".
He said:
He was also worried that the province would continue to record a high number of horrific road accidents.
The latest accident claimed the lives of 22 people, including seven schoolchildren, after a minibus taxi collided with a truck and another minibus in Sekhukhune in early March.
Also, late in February, 22 people died when a bus they were travelling in plunged into a river after colliding head-on with a cash-in-transit van on the N1, outside Makhado.
"A dark cloud has befallen Limpopo. It is with great pain that, as community activists, we lose our loved ones every day," Mathabatha said.
Transport and Community Safety MEC Florence Radzilani said motorists were to blame in 80% of the road accidents.
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She said the Vhembe district was leading in terms of the high number of reported GBV cases.
"In the past two weeks (in Vhembe), four women were murdered," she said. "The people of this province and the country are very impatient with one another.
"We should start to respect each other. There should be peace in the society at large."
Various pastors delivered messages to seek divine intervention in Limpopo.
Local gospel artists performed at the event, where the spirit was not dampened by intermittent thundershowers.
