S. Africa 'approaches Church for informers'

From Rent Albert In South Africa
Cape Town: THE recruitment of informers among the clergy and Christian congregations by the South African Government's security police has become a part of the country's way of life, according to Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist Church leaders.
Canon Robert Jeffrey, chaplain to the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, said that a "relatively large number" of Anglican clergymen and theological students had been approached during the past three years to act as informers.
"This sort of thing has been going on all over the country," he said. He had based his information on those who reported the government approaches to their Church superiors.
He added: "We don't know now how many people, through fear or for some other reason, have agreed to become police informers in the Church."
Writing in the Anglican newsletter Good Hope, the Anglican Archbishop. of Cape Town Dr. Robert Selby, said: "The use of informers in this way is offensive to the Christian conscience."
Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban said : "We in the Catholic Church have learned to live with the system in South Africa of informers, tapped phones, and opened mail, but we regret that South Africa has descended to this level of espionage on its citizens."