The Catholic community in Zandspruit, west of Honeydew in Gauteng, began as a choir in 2011. The choir gathered at the Masekane Primary School and grew into a larger worshipping community.
Over the next few years, Holy Mass was celebrated twice a month in a building shared by various denominations by the Parish Priest at Sts Cosmas and Damian Church in Cosmo City, Father Andrew Thomo. As the Catholic community grew in Zandspruit, the need for a permanent and place of worship became necessary.
A suitable property for a new church was identified in 2018 and a motivation to purchase the property was submitted to the Archbishop of Johannesburg by Father Emmanuel Wafula with support from the Justice and Peace ministry in neighbouring parish, St John’s Catholic Church, in Northriding. This culminated in the purchase of the property in late 2020.
The property is a small holding which has a house and a few cottages built on it but there is no church building at present. In view of the growing Catholic community in the Zandspruit area, it is imperative that a church is built in the relatively near future. Holy Mass and other services are already being celebrated in a marquee tent which was made possible through a generous donation from the Rosebank Catholic Parish. The basis of the purchase was that the Archdiocese would purchase the property and that the Zandspruit community would fund the building and running of the proposed church.
The Zandspruit community is essentially a large informal settlement in which there are more than 70,000 residents. It is a very low income area which will not be able to fund the new church so there will be a dependency on fund-raising activities and generous donors.
The vision of the Zandspruit Catholic community is to build a new, church which will also enable aspects of social upliftment, in the area by 2027. Please visit our fundraising page for more information.