The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to suspend the airing of religious programmes on national television and radio was implemented yesterday, when all sermons were taken off the air.
The ban, for which NBC Director General Gerry Munyama took sole responsibility, is to be enforced until the corporation has met with leading church representatives to discuss the corporation's religious programming guidelines, which Munyama says must be revamped.
Munyama said the reason behind the decision was the proliferation of non-traditional churches in Namibia.
He said the situation was getting out of hand and that "religion is getting out of the traditional way we know it".
The NBC has only approached the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) to set up a meeting to discuss the guidelines.
A date for the meeting has not yet been set.
When approached for comment last week, the CCN Secretary General, Reverend Nangula Kathindi, said she was still on holiday and would only comment once she was back in office this week.
The CCN represents 19 churches, including the four that President Sam Nujoma said were the only ones recognised by his Government - the Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Roman Catholic and the Evangelical Lutheran churches.
The CNN has long been recognised and accommodated by the Government and the NBC, but the programmes of its member churches have now also been affected by the suspension.
According to Reverend Roy Wallace of the Gospel Outreach Christian Community in Windhoek, one of the so-called non-traditional churches not represented by the CCN, a number of churches like his own met yesterday and will meet again today to discuss the latest developments.
An announcement can be expected from them as early as tomorrow, he indicated.
Wallace claimed that non-traditional churches in Namibia have long been discriminated against.
Even registering as a church in the country has been made impossible due to the government's stance, he said, and most of them are registered as non-profit organisations.
Nevertheless, many of these alternative Christian faith organisations have continued to do their work despite the unfriendly official environment and Wallace noted that more than half of all the social work done by churches in Namibia is carried out by these non-traditional groups.
"Our contribution to the country is not being recognised and instead we are penalised," he said.
Gospel Outreach, which has been active in Namibia since 1985, is a global faith-based organisation with congregations as far afield as Pakistan, Ghana and Rwanda, Wallace said.
It has 26 churches and three Bible schools in Namibia.
Nevertheless, it is still considered an "Oshiveva" church by the President and is treated as such by government, he said.
Wallace used to serve on the NBC's religious advisory board, which guided the corporation on its religious programming.
That board ceased to exist after the broadcaster's religious programming department was disbanded some years ago.
Reverend Steven Nell of the Khomas Community Church, who until now has preached regularly on the Afrikaans radio service, stressed the importance of the role churches play in Namibia, where almost 90 per cent of the population believe in Christ.
He said the electronic media, and especially radio, are important to get the message to remote places in the country where pastors cannot go.
"The Christian message of moral upliftment is important and they cannot rob our people of that.
A couple of individuals in top structure are concerned but they shouldn't rob the nation," he said.