“For South Africa, for all who dwell within her borders, and for all who are called to keep her safe”

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. He says: Be still, and know that I am God." – Psalm 46:1,10

To every pastor, elder, deacon, prayer leader, believer in Christ, and to every person responsible for public safety and for those in their care across South Africa:

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Between 16 and 19 June 2026, a delegation of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and its national alliance the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA), alongside like-minded partners, travelled across Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal. We came to learn and to listen. We stood among displaced families at a processing site in Durban. We listened to Congolese men, women and children who had gathered in fear outside the Home Affairs offices on Guevara Street. We sat with Ghanaian nationals, including mothers with infants, sheltered by the Church of Pentecost in Kempton Park. We heard from those responsible for public order, from government officials, from community leaders, from refugee networks, from the founders of one of the largest protest movements, and from ordinary South Africans who carry a weight of legitimate pain.

On Sunday 28 June, we call the whole body of Christ in South Africa, across Africa, and in every community of faith that prays for this continent, to stop, to kneel, and to intercede.

WHAT WE ARE PRAYING FOR AND WHY

1. For peace on and around 30 June

Lord of Hosts, we pray that the day passes without the shedding of blood. We have witnessed violence already: lives lost, families displaced, communities shaken. We pray for every community that stands at a flashpoint. We pray for those who wake that morning with violence in their hearts: turn them. We pray for all who are responsible for public order and the safety of persons on that day, that they will act with wisdom and restraint, and with the equal protection of every person in their care, whatever their nationality or status.

“The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." – James 3:17–18

2.   For every person in fear and in need

Father of the fatherless, we pray for the displaced foreign nationals who have been driven from their homes and livelihoods, who are sheltering in temporary sites and church halls wherever they have found safety. We have seen them. We know their names are not statistics. We pray for mothers holding infants. We pray for those who have lost their papers, their businesses, their savings. We pray equally for the South African family whose doors are locked and whose children cannot sleep, who feel their own community is no longer safe. Fear has no nationality. We pray for its release, and we pray for every hand stretched out in practical compassion: the blanket given, the meal shared, the door opened.

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me." – Matthew 25:35,40

3.   For the Church: that she will not be silent or complicit

Lord Jesus, we confess that the church’s collective voice at a national and continental level has not always spoken clearly, and has at times been complicit by silence, even as many local congregations were already standing with their communities. We confess that across Africa we have been slow. We pray for every pastor who faces a divided congregation, tempted to stay quiet because the politics are complicated. We pray for the courage to preach what the Gospel demands: that violence is sin, that every person bears the image of God, and that the church exists to serve the whole community, not to choose between the citizen and the stranger. We rebuke the use of pulpits to inflame, and we call every church leader to account before God for the words they speak or withhold this Sunday.

“When I say to a wicked person, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood." – Ezekiel 3:18

4.   For the government and all responsible for public order

God of all authority, we pray for those who govern this country at every level, and for all who are responsible for the safety of persons on 30 June. We pray for wisdom in the exercise of that authority: to protect the peaceful marcher, to restrain the violent, and to protect every person whose life is at risk regardless of documentation status. We pray that the gap between what government promises and what happens on the ground will close. We hold before God the words of the Constitution: every person in South Africa is entitled to their dignity, their safety, and their right not to be driven from their home.

“Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason." – Romans 13:3–4

5.   For South African citizens and their legitimate frustration

Lord of Justice, we lift to you the millions of South Africans who are unemployed, who have watched corruption destroy the institutions built for them, who struggle for decent health care and a school place for their children. Their pain is real. Their anger is not manufactured. We have heard it directly, on the ground, without dismissing it. We pray that it will find its proper expression: through lawful protest, through holding those in authority accountable, through demanding implementation of what has been promised. We pray that this real anger will not be turned against those who are also poor, also vulnerable, also made in God’s image. We may grieve at our poverty; we may not make the innocent a scapegoat for it.

“Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream." –

Amos 5:24

6.   For those responsible for immigration and the rule of law

We pray for every official whose work touches the lives of migrants and asylum seekers: for just, speedy and dignified processing of documentation; for a system that does not manufacture vulnerability through delay and corruption; and for the enforcement of immigration laws by all authorized state entities, lawfully and without cruelty. We rebuke the taking of immigration enforcement into private hands. Where a person of any nationality has broken the law, let justice follow through due process, with the rights of every accused person protected. Where a person holds valid documentation, let that documentation be honoured.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." – Micah 6:8

7.   For the Nations of Origin and their Diaspora Communities

Father, we pray for the Ghanaian, Congolese, Malawian, Zimbabwean, Mozambican and all other communities of faith who are part of the body of Christ in South Africa and who are at the centre of this crisis. Give them wisdom to be a blessing where they sojourn, to live lawfully, to serve their communities, and to submit wrongdoing within their own ranks to the appropriate authorities. We pray for the nations from which they have come: that the governance failures and economic conditions that force people to flee will be addressed, and that those who return will be received with dignity.

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." – Jeremiah 29:7

8.   For the Africa God wants

Lord God, you created this continent and you love every person on it. We pray for an Africa where no person’s dignity depends on which side of a border they stand. We pray for the church across the fifty-one nations where the AEA is present, and in every place beyond Africa where believers pray for this continent, to rise to this hour. We pray for the Africa God wants: where the stranger is welcomed, the citizen is honoured, and both are safe.

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." – Galatians 3:28

WHAT WE ASK OF EVERY CONGREGATION THIS SUNDAY

1. Dedicate at least fifteen minutes of your service to focused intercession through these eight points, or in Spirit-led prayer shaped by them.
   1. Read aloud this declaration to your congregation: “We, the people of God gathered here, declare that every person in South Africa, citizen and foreigner, bears the image of God and deserves to live without fear. We condemn violence in all its forms. We call on all to act within the law. We commit ourselves to be peacemakers.”
   1. Call your congregation to fast from sunrise to sunset as an act of solidarity with those who are hungry and those who are afraid.
   1. Share this appeal through your WhatsApp groups, email networks, denominational channels and social media today, so that it reaches the widest circle possible before Sunday.
   1. Identify one act of practical solidarity: food for a shelter, a phone call to a neighbour who is afraid, a donation to a church that is already housing the displaced.

The God we serve is not constrained by our timelines. We have seen, in South Africa’s own history, how a still small voice turned a nation from its path of destruction at the last hour. We believe that the prayers of the church, offered together in faith and in urgency, are not wasted.

Rev. Mestre Oboletswe Matlhaope

Secretary General, Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA)

Bishop Prof. Joshua HK Banda, PhD.

President of the African Christian Transformation (ACT) Forum. President of the

Pentecostal Assemblies of Africa (PAOA).

Rev. Moss Nthla

General Secretary, The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA)

26 June 2026