South African lawmakers on Tuesday stressed the need for tougher legislation to regulate churches operating outside the law.

In light of the religious sector's failure to regulate themselves, there is urgent need to tighten legislation, Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

This came amid a public outcry over sexual abuses in disguise of religion. A case in point is the ongoing trial of Nigerian Pastor Timothy Omotoso and two co-accused by the Port Elizabeth High Court, Eastern Cape Province.

Omotoso is charged with rape and human trafficking, while the two co-accused women are accused of recruiting girls from all over the country for purposes of sexual exploitation.

The trio are facing more than 60 charges which include racketeering and rape.

The 58-year-old televangelist allegedly trafficked more than 30 girls and women who were from various branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal Province, where he allegedly sexually exploited them.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, also known as CRL Rights Commission, proposed self-imposed rules and peer review mechanism to regulate churches, while briefing lawmakers on the commercialization of religion and the abuse and exploitation of people's belief systems.

But Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency said it is of the view that religious leaders will not be able to regulate themselves.

While a peer review mechanism has advantages, it will not work in this case, as the church works on a system of forgiveness, the committee said.

The growing problem of abuse within some churches must be dealt with, said the committee.

"A much more stringent system must be devised," the committee said.

The committee recommended a religious act, a registration with a council within a regulatory framework and provision for a complaints procedure to strictly regulate churches.

Furthermore, municipalities must enforce by-laws and prevent churches from operating in areas that are not demarcated for religious services, the committee said.

Implementing and enforcing by-laws can be done immediately to shut down churches operating outside the law, the committee added.