Global Centre for Peacebuilding and Business Launched to Promote Socially Responsible Mining

 St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town

Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany

The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba

Archbishop of Cape Town 

Launch of the Global Centre for Peacebuilding and Business

February 8th, 2026 

Isaiah 58: 1-9a; Psalm 112: 1-10; 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12; Matthew 5:13-20

May I speak in the name of God who calls, informs and transforms us. Amen.

Thank you, Dean Terry, the Church Wardens and the staff of the Cathedral for your leadership and your welcome today. To our ecumenical friends, fellow clergy and bishops, and colleagues a special welcome. To the regular members of the Cathedral congregation, today’s launch of a Global Centre for Peace-building and Business represents an important step forward in an initiative in which churches, including the Church of England, the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and the Methodist Church in England are working with actors from the mining industry to promote ethical, sustainable mining.

Turning to today’s readings in the light of that introduction, Isaiah’s challenge, the Psalmist’s blessing, Paul’s witness, and Jesus’ salt-and-light vision, frame our purpose today: that is, to pursue justice and peace in contexts all too often marred by extraction and exploitation.

The Story of Mining in Our Lives

Mining has shaped human flourishing since our ancestors chipped flint for tools. Today, minerals power everything from our toothpaste to the digital devices that connect remote rural areas to cities, and one continent to another—and will even drive spacecraft like NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars. In my own family, faith and mining intertwined: my father, a self-supporting priest of the Zion Christian Church, was a travelling salesman who travelled from mine compound to mine compound, selling clothing to West Rand mineworkers; my maternal grandfather hailed from the platinum fields of Bapong. As a psychologist, I’ve sat beside miners in a Johannesburg hospital, bearing witness to their pain and trauma after their spinal cords had been crushed in rockfalls deep underground, rendering them paraplegics and quadriplegics.

However, I must confess that we in the churches have fallen short in our ministry to the mining industry. Although our congregations include people from all sectors of the industry – owners, managers and workers – we have, for example, often failed to minister to miners living in hostels. So we have had a limited understanding of the needs, including the spiritual needs, of those who work in extreme heat on stopes two or three kilometres below the surface of the earth. And we have little understanding of the impact on managers and owners of the volatility of commodity prices, of the relentless pressures from shareholders for better results every quarter, and of the demands posed by technically sophisticated and complex mining operations.

Faith-based institutions speak with unique authority

But by joining the initiative which has led to today’s launch, we in the faith community, besides acknowledging the shortfalls I have referred to, have declared that it is not too late to remedy our past failures. Across Africa, faith-based institutions speak with unique authority. The leading continent-wide opinion pollster, Afrobarometer, has reported that a survey of 53,000 people across 39 African countries showed that two in every three Africans trust religious leaders, while fewer than half trust political leaders. In Central Africa, where the mining of strategic minerals is widely associated with child labour, environmental degradation and conflict, religious leaders are the only institution trusted by a majority. 

The words of Christine Firer Hinze, a theologian at the Jesuits’ Fordham University, sum up effectively the task we face. She has written that “in a world of radically unequal power and opportunities, one way towards justice and a better life for all is... about cultivating... practices of solidarity...” And her words challenge us here today to discern, in her words, “the interdependency of all peoples within earth’s habitats” and to work “collaboratively for the shared good of all people and the planet.” 

It is within this context that in South Africa and elsewhere, faith communities and the mining industry have begun to work together to ensure that the industry develops in ways that are in harmony with new patterns of human thought and behaviour, so that mining is seen as a welcome and valued partner in society, accepted as promoting the common good. 

Since 2013, we have been convening at Bishopscourt here in Cape Town what we have described as “Courageous Conversations” with mine CEOs, community leaders and NGOs. Beautifully, the conversations have been faith-led, starting with Evensong here at the cathedral, featuring the choir of St Cyprian’s Church, Langa. Morning Prayer has followed at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Protea, a site of apartheid forced removals. Key at these courageous conversations is seeking safe spaces to explore how the pursuit of business, the promotion of human dignity and caring for the environment intersect.

The challenges we face

Today the world confronts multiple fractures. Global norms are under strain, as the forum at Davos recently highlighted. Conflict is rising: in 2024 the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme recorded 61 state-based armed conflicts, the highest since 1946. Across Africa and beyond, local disputes over mineral wealth fuel ethnic tensions, insurgencies, and human suffering. The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to an estimated $24 trillion in untapped minerals, has seen six million deaths since 1996. And rebel groups profit from revenues from coltan, the mineral used in the manufacture of products such as smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles. 

We in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa have a special place in our hearts for our sisters and brothers in Mozambique, and I am glad that Bishop Manuel from Nampula is here today. This is because they used to be part of our church and because the apartheid government helped sponsor a destructive civil war there for nearly two generations. Now, the discovery of gas and rubies in northern Mozambique, combined with tensions born of past central government neglect of the region, and further fuelled by Islamic militancy, have generated a vicious insurgency. Thousands of civilians have been killed and over a million people displaced from their homes. On top of that, the legitimacy of a government which is being called upon to bring peace is in doubt because of a disputed election result.

In mining areas across the globe, we also confront the destructive legacy of past operations: abandoned mines, toxic waste and the failure of tailings dams containing the waste left over from mining. The collapse of these dams releases floods of mud which overwhelm communities: in 2019, 272 people died in Brumadinho in Brazil; in 2022, three people died in Jagersfontein in the Free State. In response, an independent Global Tailings Management Institute has been established in South Africa, backed by the United Nations, the mining industry, and the Church of England Pensions Board’s global safety initiative. There are these little initiatives that say we cannot be overwhelmed by darkness. As the song which we sung today says so beautifully:

Christ be our light! Shine in our hearts,

shine through the darkness.

Shine through the darkness.

Christ in your Church gathered today.

The challenges will grow over the next two decades as areas are mined out and the mines there begin to close. Old mining sites will need to be cleaned up and stabilised, hazardous material removed, waste dealt with and ecosystems restored. New mining ventures will need to adopt truly sustainable practices. At a meeting of investors and mining experts on Friday, our Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, underscored this point. Observing that it is the sweat and blood of workers which transforms investment into wealth, he said investment needed to be accompanied by social responsibility, points that I would like to underscore too.

The Global Centre for Peacebuilding and Business

It is against this backdrop—over twelve years of prayer, study, and dialogue at Bishopscourt—that the Global Centre for Peacebuilding and Business has been conceived. The details have been fleshed out since a meeting at Bishopscourt two years ago, following a challenge I issued at the London Stock Exchange arising from the relationship between mining and conflicts.

Today, from this People’s Cathedral, we launch the centre. Our calling is to let our light shine, to be salt that seasons and preserves, to witness against injustice in mining practices, and to foster equitable partnerships that honour people and our planet. Our work will interrogate the questions: How shall we remain lamps and lamp-bearers in dark times? How shall our salt retain its flavour? I invite you now to join in this vital and ambitious work. 

We will focus especially on regions where extraction fuels conflict: Goma in the DR Congo, Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, communities in Madagascar, parts of Brazil, and areas plagued by the Zama-Zamas in South Africa, the informal miners who work abandoned shafts. We will continue the Marikana renewal project, of which I am a patron, which we launched more than decade ago in response to the massacre at that mine.

Together, through prayer, advocacy, dialogue and innovative finance, we can promote the rehabilitation of old mine landscapes, prevent new harms, and build local infrastructures for peace. We will build permanent infrastructure for dialogue. We will nurture the Peace Huts we have established in the DR Congo, the Peace Clubs in Mozambique and the Courageous Conversations in South Africa and Madagascar. My challenge today is: Will you commit your voice, your influence, your resources, your prayers to this project?

As president of the Centre, I pledge to walk this path with you—speaking boldly against oppression, illuminating injustice, and stewarding God’s good creation. Let me end with the words of the prophet Micah: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?” Let us answer that call today.

Amen.

* * * * * 

Blessing & Dedication of Parish Hall at St Andrew’s Parish, Newlands, Cape Town

 Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

St Andrew’s Parish, Newlands

Service for Blessing & Dedication of Parish Hall

1st February 2026 

Readings: Colossians 3: 12 -17

May I speak in the name of God who calls, informs and transforms us. Amen.  

Sisters and brothers in Christ, the family of St Andrew’s, it’s a real joy to be with you to celebrate this important day. A warm welcome to Bishop Josh, Archdeacon Reeva and to all the clergy present and your spouses, as well as to the guests who are here to grace this occasion. A special welcome to our visitors and the benefactors of this beautiful project.  

Thank you especially to the Rector, Archdeacon Mkhuseli, and to all who worked to prepare this service. Thank you, Church Wardens, for your practical arrangements and your warm welcome on our arrival here this afternoon.  

In the letter to the Colossians, Paul refutes what is called the Colossian heresy, which – we can infer from his letter – included teaching which downplayed the divine nature of Christ. To accomplish his goal, Paul first exalts in Chapter One the supremacy of Christ. In today’s passage, having called his audience to renewal and to a new ordering of their hearts and minds, Paul proceeds to define more precisely what he means. To offset the lists of vices he has named in previous verses – vices which cause harm to others – he gives a list of virtues. In doing so, he focusses attention on the spiritual qualities which God’s chosen ones should display – virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, all of them virtues which require us to care for others and to put them first. Note that three of the qualities Paul lists – namely kindness, meekness and patience – feature in Paul’s list of the fruits of the spirit in the Letter to the Galatians (Gal. 5:22). 

This week we celebrate Candlemas, the presentation of Christ in the Temple, a light to lighten the world and show the glory of God. It is an important festival, a time of encounter, of light replacing darkness, hope replacing despair and the new replacing the old. As we consider the current situation in our community, our city and our country today, what kind of candles or lights should we be holding up today to show to the world the saving, the renewing power of faith in Christ? 

Every day we see around us the consequences of joblessness, of addiction. Across our city everyone suffers from crime fuelled by drug addiction, which might explain the smashing of a stained glass window and the theft from a collection box at St George's Cathedral a few nights ago. In neighbourhoods not too far from us, we hear and see evidence of extortion, gang violence and the tragic deaths of young people in the crossfire. And across the country, we read evidence nearly every day of nepotism and corruption, including within our police service, as those who are well-connected line their pockets. Abroad we read of the suffering of the people, just to take a few examples, of Sudan, of Gaza and the West Bank, of Ukraine and Burma/Myanmar, and in recent days of Minneapolis in the United States. 

One of the greatest temptations we face is to build walls or sanctuaries and withdraw from the world, especially when disillusionment prompts a desire to disengage from public life. I understand this feeling, as the prospect of speaking out can be overwhelming, particularly when we feel unheard or betrayed. However, as moral and spiritual leaders, we are called to resist this temptation and remain engaged in public discourse. If we retreat, the space will be filled by those motivated by self-interest rather than the common good.

About 18 months ago, during an interview with UCT's Graduate School of Business, I was asked how to navigate prophetic leadership in a disillusioned democracy. I responded that silence is not an option when corruption, violence, and inequality become the norm; moral voices must speak. But the leadership we provide as the church requires care. In choosing courage over caution, we need to provide moral clarity, not claim moral superiority.

Prophetic leadership cannot simply echo public anger or adopt an outrage-driven narrative. If we do that, we risk becoming just another voice in an already polarised environment. I have learned in my 18 years in this office that prophecy is not about being the loudest or positioning oneself as morally superior. Instead, prophetic public ministry emphasises both truth-telling and truth-seeking, recognizing my own frailty. We should not foster a theology that solely focuses on individual spirituality but rather one that encourages us to consider how we can interface with others and improve our world. Truth-telling must be rooted in the spiritual qualities of which St Paul speaks, those of love and humility, and of being in relationship with others and holding one another accountable. It requires carefully listening to the pain and frustrations people carry without allowing such pain to devolve into cynicism or despair.

In sum, our responses to the ills we see and experience in society must be rooted in a firm faith in God, in a loving God who cares equally for each one of us, of a God who says in Jesus that each of the hairs of our heads are numbered (Lk 12:7; Mt 10:30). Once we accept that, once we actually feel it and know it deeply in ourselves, it gives us the confidence, the energy and the certainty that in God no problem is insoluble, no challenge is too big for us. It empowers us to deploy the science and the expertise that God has gifted us with to come up with practical programmes to address our challenges.

So as we dedicate this hall, in the sentiments of the Collect we used in the introduction to our service, we thank God for all who worked to have this hall built, and pray that it will become a centre for the nourishment and renewal of parish and community life; a resource which enhances joyful relationships among all who use it; and a place which helps us to nurture moral clarity and courageous leadership as we prayerfully confront our current context.

People of St Andrew’s, as you gather and direct mission and ministry from this historic parish with its beautiful worship space and this new facility, know that Jesus lives, and because he lives, we shall live also. Believe this, and we shall see the glory of the Incarnate Christ. 

Now may the Holy Spirit that God’s people experienced like a rushing mighty wind on the Day of Pentecost, transform our lives to be living stones which provide a firm foundation for God’s church in this place.

May God bless each one of you, your loved ones and this whole community. 

God loves you and so do I. 

* * * * *

Institution of the Revd Nicolette Segeel at St Luke’s Church, Diep River

Readings: Isaiah 49: 13 -18; Psalm 36; John 5:30-47

May I speak in the name of God who calls, informs and transforms us. Amen.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, dear family of St Luke’s in plurality with St John’s Wynberg, it is a joy to be with you this afternoon and celebrate this important day – the institution of your new Minister-in-Charge.

It’s very good to see you all, and thanks especially to Bishop Josh, Archdeacon Mkhuseli, other clergy present and your spouses, as well as the guests who are here to grace this occasion. And of course a warm welcome to the Revd Nicolette Segeel, as she comes to this Parish and our Diocese from Johannesburg.

Thank you to everyone who has worked hard to prepare this service. Thank you, Church Wardens, for your arrangements and your warm welcome on our arrival here this evening.

In the Gospel passage from John today (5:30-47), Jesus asserts to the religious leaders of the day that he is one with God, but he doesn’t do this through self-testimony, meaning that he cannot witness to himself, since self-witness would be false witness. Instead he points to evidence from a number of different sources, from John the Baptist and what was foretold in the scriptures, to the evidence of his own miracles, the evidence from Moses, and indeed that from God.

Jesus first cites John, described as the “burning and shining lamp” whose evidence, because it was true, led people to Jesus. But although John’s testimony came through a brilliant lamp, it had nevertheless to be distinguished from the light itself. So although people rejoiced at John’s message – and had they believed John, they would have been saved – he was not the source of the light.

Jesus then turns to the testimony of his miraculous works, underlining how they works were of a special nature because the Father had commissioned them. The works bore witness, therefore, to the One who commissioned them. As someone has said, because Jesus was doing things which we see in the scriptures that God previously did, that is by doing the works of God, Jesus proved that he is God. So the testimony provided by what Jesus actually did in the world is greater than that of John’s words.

Yet, these indications of the divine nature of Jesus had fallen on unproductive soil when it came to the religious leaders of the day. Despite God having spoken through the Son’s deeds, they had not heard it nor seen any evidence of God in those deeds. The blunt truth was that, through unbelief, God’s word was not accepted by those leaders.

Sisters and brothers, those who love God will seek God’s glory, not their own. However, by their attitude to Jesus, it is clear that the religious leaders to whom Jesus was addressing his message were not doing this. It goes without saying that it is a moral impossibility to seek one’s own glory and God’s glory at one and the same time. Those leaders did not lack enthusiasm in studying the law, but they lacked insight into its true significance. It was no wonder they did not believe the words of Jesus.

As people of St Luke’s and St John’s, what are the implications of this Gospel story for us today, in Diep River, in Wynberg, in Cape Town, in our beloved country? What does Jesus say to us as we contemplate the challenges we face in our daily lives as individuals, as a community and as a country? We see around us every day the consequences of joblessness, of addiction, and not too far away from us in Diep River, we hear or see reports of extortion and gang violence. Almost every day, we read evidence of nepotism and corruption as the well-connected line their pockets. Abroad, we read of the suffering of the people, just to take a few examples, of Sudan, of Gaza and the West Bank, of Ukraine, and in recent days of Minneapolis in the United States.

To respond to these challenges, we must above everything be rooted in a firm faith in God, in a loving God who cares equally for each one of us, of a God who says in Jesus that each of the hairs of our heads are numbered (Lk 12:7; Mt 10:30). Once we accept that, once we actually feel it and know it deeply in ourselves, that gives us the confidence, the energy and the certainty that in God no problem is insoluble, no challenge is too big for us. It empowers us to deploy the science, the expertise and the capacity for analysis and creative thought that God has gifted us with to come up with practical programmes and solutions to our challenges.

Today’s reading from the Psalms (Ps. 36) reinforces this message, presenting to us as it does the loving-kindness of God. If we apply the first four verses of the Psalm to those in our world who are currently causing the suffering I have enumerated, the following verses go on to assure us wonderfully of God’s care and love for us and for all of creation.

Listen again to some of those wonderful words from the NRSV translation:

"Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains;

your judgments are like the great deep;

you save humans and animals alike, O Lord."

And the following:

"How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light we see light."

The psalm ends with a prayer for deliverance, and the assurance through faith of the overthrow of the wicked. The psalmist also looks forward in prayer to the glories awaiting God’s people. The keynote is one of certainty.

Revd Nicolette, it is my prayer that your life here at St Luke’s should be like a new song – full of new possibilities, with the re-assurance that God will provide for the needs of your congregation and bring you the prospects of greater blessings yet to come. You do not lack experience, but you will nevertheless need God’s help and support to advance his will for St Luke’s Church. As you take up your new responsibilities, on behalf of the Diocese and the wider church, I bring you our congratulations on your appointment.

At times, your and the church’s calling will require tough discernment and discipline. For God requires us to practise self-examination to correct our faults. God’s discipline is evidence that we are God’s children. Far from being a reason for despair, discipline is a basis for encouragement and perseverance. Received in the right spirit, it provides a framework for wholesome individual and corporate lives.

As you all know, this church and parish seek to challenge and inspire parishioners to advance the kingdom of God through teaching ministry and evangelism. To achieve that objective requires a discernment that produces good decisions based on divine principles. It is therefore our shared prayer and hope that you, together with your team, will discern the common good in whatever decisions you take.

The concept of the common good is one rooted in God’s desire that humans may flourish, each according to their own particular circumstances, and that all will enjoy spiritual growth and strength, as well as having a liveable standard of material well-being. In its widest sense, a society organised for the common good is one which is stable, safe and just, a society which accords everyone respect materially, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually.

Once again, congratulations, Revd Nicolette on your appointment, and as I institute you in this church, I pledge my support for your ministry here for the common good.

God loves all of you and so do I. Amen.

* * * * *

Commemorating St Thomas Aquinas with a Prayer for Gaza, Sudan and the United States [audio]

 On the Commemoration of St Thomas Aquinas, Archbishop Thabo has released this prayer:

On_St_Thomas_Aquinas_Commemoration_We_Pray

Amidst the sea of need in today’s world, we hold up for prayer today the peoples of Gaza, Sudan and the United States:

• For Gaza and Israel, we give thanks for the return of the remains of the last of the hostages taken by Hamas in 2023, and we pray that a peace plan which will bring peace, security and self-determination for all the people of the Holy Land will now be implemented;

• For Sudan, we pray that outside powers supplying weapons to the warring factions will end their sponsorship of violence, that the combatants will cease their fire and enter peace talks, and especially that sexual violence against women will be brought to an end;

• For the United States, we pray for those who face the same fear of government brutality when leaving their homes that we experienced under apartheid, and we declare our solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the Episcopal Church who are rallying against the erosion of their democratic rights.

This we pray in the name of the God of justice, peace and equity. Amen

Sermon for a Family Day Service, Diocese of Eswatini

Family Day Service, Diocese of Eswatini

30th November 2025

Readings: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13: 11-14; Matthew 24: 36 -44

May I speak in the name of God, who is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, people of God in the Diocese of Eswatini, it is an honour and a privilege to have been asked to share with you the Word of God here at today's service. Thank you to you, Bishop Dalcy, to your leadership team and the whole community for inviting me to join your Family Weekend—it's been a joyous and inspiring time for me following a busy schedule in the Eastern Cape, to come and visit you here. Thank you too to those who have worked hard to prepare for the weekend. A special welcome to our distinguished guests, fellow clergy, and to all of you, the whole wonderful diocesan family.

eNCA on the Archbishop's call

 

CAPE TOWN - Stand up for the truth and work relentlessly for justice.

This was part of Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s Christmas message.

The archbishop of Cape Town called out government for the corruption that entrenches poverty and suffering for so many South Africans.

eNCA’s Ayesha Ismail was at the midnight mass at St George's Cathedral and has more details in the video >>