From Standing for the Truth to Standing Up for Good Governance

Twenty-five years ago, religious leaders gathered regularly in Cape Town for both silent protests on the steps of St George's Cathedral and public processions through the streets of the city to call for an end to apartheid and the beginning of negotiations to bring about democracy.

The protests were conducted under the banner of what the leaders called the “Standing for the Truth Campaign” and they culminated in the more widely-based Defiance Campaign of 1989, in which thousands of people defied apartheid laws in the weeks before President F W de Klerk took power.

Five months later, Nelson Mandela was released and political organisations were unbanned. Negotiations followed soon after, resulting four years later in the inauguration of President Mandela, then two years after that, the adoption of our first democratic Constitution.

Chapter Nine of that founding document of our new nation established a number of state institutions whose purpose is to “strengthen constitutional democracy in the Republic” by promoting good governance. Among them are the office of the Auditor-General, whose jobs include auditing and reporting on the finances of all national and provincial state departments and administrations, and the office of the Public Protector, who is tasked “to investigate any conduct in state affairs, or in the public administration in any sphere of government, that is alleged or suspected to be improper or to result in any impropriety or prejudice...”



Twenty years after our political liberation, it is right to celebrate the gains of democracy: the right to vote for all, our achievements in housing, in some of our infrastructural programmes and in repealing the apartheid laws that demeaned us. But the governing party's responses to recent reports of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector threaten not to strengthen but to undermine constitutional democracy and good government.

Year after year, the Auditor-General reports billions in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending, yet in some government departments nothing seems to happen. And now the African National Congress and its leaders in and out of government have adopted a barely-concealed hostility to the Public Protector's report on the mis-spending of our money on Nkandla.

At the end of March, as part of the church's Lenten observances, I called upon people of faith to return to the steps of St George's Cathedral and once again to join a silent vigil there. We were joined at short notice by an encouraging number as we stood in the footsteps of our predecessors, holding flowers and posters which illustrated the theme of the vigil, “A Flower for Thuli, A Message for the President”, referring of course to the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, and her report on the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private country estate. The placards called on the President to respond to the Public Protector’s report, and on the public to defend our Chapter Nine institutions.

After the vigil, I voiced in the cathedral an appeal for the entire faith-based and NGO community to gather, not to defend the Public Protector as an individual but to defend the rights of the public and the integrity of her office; in short to stand up for good governance. Since then, we have been wrestling with how do to this, engaging in the deep reflection which Lent enjoins the Christians among us to engage in.

This led to the call that I and other Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders issued yesterday (Tuesday) to the public of Cape Town to join us in a Procession of Witness at 10 am on Saturday, April 19, walking from District Six to Parliament, to call our leaders to account and to appeal them to live up to the national values established by the Constitution. The call was supported by the full spectrum of the inter-faith community, from the Muslim Judicial Council and the Union of Orthodox Synagogues to the Methodist Church, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, the Uniting Reformed Church and the Uniting Presbyterian Church.

Our intention is to evoke the spirit of the 1980s, when the faith community intervened to promote and defend democracy. Anyone who shares our objectives, including members of political parties, is free to join our procession, but no political party posters or insignia will be permitted, and it will be led by religious leaders, not by politicians. And your concerns need not be limited to the Public Protector's report – since consulting community leaders on our intentions, the crises brought about in our communities by gangsterism, drug abuse and poor education have also been raised.

In recent conversations with leaders in politics, business, education, civic life, civil society and religion, I have been exploring the issue of what national values should be guiding us by posing questions to them. At the core of these questions is, how can we challenge those in power and governance by pointing them to our national values, their institutional values and even their personal values? How can they serve with these values in mind and use them to transform all into being loving and compassionate interacting and interdependent communities sharing common interests, common goals and shared values? How can they put themselves into the shoes of those at the receiving end of their governing?

In that spirit, I want to ask of ANC leaders and the Cabinet: What do you have to do to bring our country together at this critical point in our democratic history? What do you have to do to create a renaissance in trust?

One of Madiba's greatest characteristics was his ability to revisit his positions and decisions and to change course when it seemed right to do so, not in his own personal interests but in the interests of building and holding the nation together. Our political leaders are challenged now to reset their moral compasses and to follow his example.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

This article was published as an op-ed in the Cape Argus, Cape Town on April 16, 2014

Remarks at the Funeral of Judge Pius Langa

This is an edited version of the remarks made at the funeral of Judge Pius Langa on 3 August 2013.

Thank you for this opportunity to share deep condolences with the family of this ‘gentle giant’ whom we remember today. I do so, as a representative of the Christian ecumenical and inter-faith communities – and thanking Fr Molo, for being our preacher today.

I’d like to share some words from Psalm 37, which reflect my own personal journey with Pius. In March last year I was privileged to bless his new house. I referred then to these Bible verses, which also speak to us again today, as we mourn the death of this remarkable, and lovely, man. Psalm 37 contains these words:
‘If a man’s steps are guided by the Lord: and he delights in his way,
Though he stumble, he shall not fall headlong: for the Lord holds him by the hand …
For the Lord loves justice: he will not forsake his faithful ones.

Today we are celebrating the life of a man who, like our God, loved justice. And he loved justice in the way that God loves justice – true justice, which serves the genuine wellbeing of all people, ‘without fear or favour’. Perhaps better than anyone else I have ever met, Judge Pius understood the true meaning of the rule of law. He understood how the letter of the law must deliver the spirit of the law; in the service of Constitution, country and all its citizens. His view of justice, like God’s view, was that it must uphold the rights of the weak, the poor, the voiceless, the marginalised. It must pursue truth. It must promote – yes, I will use a religious word here – it must promote righteous living. It must encourage each of us to be the best we can be, for the good of all our brothers and sisters in South Africa. True justice does not lie in us using the law in order to justifying the maximum we can get away with, nor for our own advantage, regardless of the consequences for others. Nor should it ever become a screen behind which we can hide dubious actions.

I was privileged to get to know Judge Pius when I served on his Press Freedom Commission. From him, I learnt new insights into the inseparable nature of truthfulness and honesty – in both our speaking and our actions – and justice. It is clear that he let himself be guided by God’s own principles in his own highly principled life. We thank God for the gift Judge Pius was to our country, at a time when we most needed his insight and judgement, his generous spirit, his deep wisdom, his unwavering commitment to the highest possible standards of integrity and service.

If we are serious about honouring his legacy, then we too must ‘love justice’. We must choose the path of truth, of all that is good and right, of faithfulness to God, not only in our professional lives, but in every part. And we must speak up against anything less.

As I remember Pius, and all he meant to me, it is not so much what he said, but how he made you feel, that sticks with me and has lasting impact. And he made me feel valued, accorded God-given dignity, respected, someone with true equality before the law. He epitomised the scripture passage I have read – reminding me of Jesus’ promise that ‘blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it’ (Lk 11:28). Many of us today will say fine words, but will we keep them? Will we follow Pius’ example, and live by what we say, especially when we speak of lifting up the poorest of the poor, and embracing the most marginal? We speak also of offering our condolences, yet surely the greatest consolation we can offer to those who have loved him, is to learn from Pius and do as he did – living by the highest ethical standards, administered with truth, justice and fathomless mercy.

Today we mourn not only one of the finest legal brains our country has ever produced and an amazing intellectual, we also mourn a gentle, kind, delightful man, whose mind was always informed by his true heart and his faithful soul.

Therefore, though we are so sad he has left us, we draw comfort from the Psalmist’s words: ‘the Lord loves justice: he will not forsake his faithful ones’. Pius, true to his name, was a faithful child of God: and God will not forsake him, but will surely welcome him into his heavenly home, where there is fullness of joy and delight for evermore.

Well done, faithful servant of God. May you rest in peace, and rise in glory. Amen

Celebrating Joyce Piliso-Seroke's 80th Birthday

This is an edited version of the Sermon preached at the Eucharist held on 13 July 2013 in celebration of the 80th birthday of struggle stalwart, and staunch Anglican, Joyce Piliso-Seroke. You can read more about this Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab in gold at http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7585

Ezekiel 37:1-14, James 2:14-26, Matthew 5:1-12

Scripture says ‘just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.’

May I speak in the name of God, who creates us, redeems us, and sustains us in life. [Words of thanks.] Me Seroke, Mam Jwara, it is a particular delight to be celebrating your life today with you. You will remember, I am sure, that after Judge Fikile Bam’s funeral, you told me that you were booking me for your funeral also. Well, I am sure I am not the only one who rejoices that today is certainly not a funeral – and that you are alive and well and more than thriving!

For this we give thanks to God. Indeed, today’s service is so much about gratitude. We have heard so much about all the achievements of your long life. Our country has honoured you – as Grand Counsellor of The Order of the Baobab, in gold. Now is our chance, as the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, also to honour you.

We give thanks to God for all you have done, for all that he has enabled you to do. We also give thanks for all that he does for us. The word ‘Eucharist’ itself, of course, means thanksgiving. We give thanks for Christ’s for his victory over sin and death, over all that threatens to distance us from his love; and give thanks for God’s sustaining presence through all of life. We give thanks that he calls all of us to live lives of significance – lives, like yours, that bear the fruit of the kingdom: the fruit that lasts, and makes a difference into all eternity.

Though today is a celebration of your birthday and of your life, today is also a challenge. It is a challenge: issued by you, Mam Jwara, and by your life, and by your God – to the rest of us. It is the challenge to let ourselves be used by God, as you have let yourself be used by God, so that we might make a lasting difference in God’s world and among God’s children.

It is the challenge to be people of faith and works. For, just as faith without works is dead, so too works without faith risk being only an empty shell, without the living beating heart of God within them.

The Churches need to hear this encouragement in these challenging days of consolidating democracy. Our faith and our works find themselves in very different contexts to the bad old days of apartheid. Then, God, in his grace, gave us the conviction that the dried bones of our situation could be given new life. And so we did not lose courage, and dared to persevere, even when we might have felt helpless, or the situation might have seemed hopeless, to those who lacked the eyes of faith.

In today’s South Africa, there are also temptations to helplessness and hopelessness. Perhaps we were naïve – in imagining that democracy would automatically bring a swift end to all our social and economic struggles. Perhaps we were naïve – in failing to realise quite how much hard work it would take, how much education at all levels, how much capacity building, to turn our country round. Perhaps we were naïve – in assuming that the self-sacrifice that drove so many in our darkest days would continue to outweigh the attractions of self-interest.

Whatever the reasons, it does seem that we have taken our eye off the ball. And though much has happened in the last two decades which we can applaud, there is also too much that falls short of, and even betrays, the vision for which so many gave so much.

It is easy to name the issues – education, freedom of information, corruption in its myriad forms, and crime. Me Seroke – you worked so hard, especially with the YWCA, for the rights of women. Gender equality is now enshrined in law, but our attitudes, our habits, and our practices still have not caught up. We know this, from the reports of abuse and violence we see on TV, and even from the depictions of women in the advertising that punctuates the news broadcasts.

Then there are drugs, and gangs, and the health sector, and the failures in land reform, and environmental protection … I could go on.

Worse, I think, is our complacency – we have, for example, become used to dire poverty in all its manifestations; and the weaknesses of our political sector. There is a lack of urgency about completing the unfinished business of our transformation to democracy.

All these are the dead bones of today’s South Africa. God asks us today - Can these bones live?

What is your answer, Mam Jwara? What is the answer that you give? What does the testimony of your life cry out to us? It is surely the answer that the Lord himself gives. ‘O, my people, I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.’

This is why we need both faith and works. We need prayer and action. We need God’s Spirit, working through us. Ours is a valley of very many dried bones. We are none of us called to tackle everything. If that were the case, we would all feel completely overwhelmed.

But all of us are called to do something. As we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God by his Spirit will show each of us where to direct our energies, so that we might know blessing – for ourselves, but most of all, for those areas which need justice, which need God’s redemptive hand upon them.

We have heard how Me Seroke directed her hunger and thirst for righteousness particularly through the YWCA, and blessing came to so many through that work. In those days, many might have thought that safeguarding the status of African women was not the most important or priority task in the fight against apartheid. But God saw that it mattered – and enabled you, Mam Jwara, to make a lasting difference that improved the lot of thousands, even millions.

We don’t have to make a big song and dance, or hit the headlines, to bear the fruit of eternal significance. When I think of you, Mam Jwara, I think of your quiet, dignified presence (so often found in the company of the rather more talkative Hlope Bam!). I think of your gentle warmth – especially to the young clergyman I used to be, and to so many other young people. I think of your enormous generosity – so often behind the scenes. And I think of your calm but iron-willed resolve – to stick with what God called you to be and to do; regardless of whether it was centre stage, or whether it was with those whom society marginalised – as was so often the case with African women.

You have shown us that what matters is God’s particular call, and being faithful in response. We must all look to whichever dry bones he leads us to face.

Since becoming Archbishop, I have found education increasingly becoming a context of dry, dry bones where I believe God is calling me to help breathe his Spirit of new life.

And it is important to recall that the word for ‘spirit’ and the word for ‘breath’ are the same in Hebrew. We need to be filled with the Spirit, in the same way we need to fill our lungs with the breath of oxygen, in every moment of every day. Too often I have seen people, wonderful people, launch themselves on projects they think will do good. But unless they let the Spirit guide each step, unless they let the Spirit empower their speaking and acting – then, all too often they soon become burnt out; and do not have the impact they ought.

On our own, we can look at the dry bones, and see which ones fit. We can even bring them together. But only God’s Spirit will restore their sinews, their flesh, their skin, and breathe new life into them.

Dear friends, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, our God is the God who desires to bring new life wherever death is at work, to bring light to our darkness, hope to our discouragement. Today we give thanks, for the powerful way he has demonstrated this, through the life of our sister. We see her faith at work in her actions. We have seen the blessing that comes daring to follow the God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness. We have seen that, though reviled and persecuted for doing what was right, God used her experience of incarceration redemptively so that she might bring depths of compassionate insight to her work with the TRC, and the Human Rights Committee.

Mam Jwara, we give thanks to God for all you are, all he has made you, and all that he has done through you. We have seen your works, we have felt your faith. May our God give each of us here today his grace, that we might also follow his call with obedience, with faithfulness, and with fruitfulness – for the blessing of his people and his world.

Amen.

Statement on the Death of Pius Langa

This statement was issued on 24 July 2013

Statement from the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town on the death of Former Chief Justice Pius Langa

I learnt with great sadness of the death earlier today of former Chief Justice Pius Langa, and offer my own condolences and those of my wife Lungi, and those of the Anglican Church of South Africa, to his children, grandchildren and wider family. We offer them our love at this time, and our prayers that they may know the compassion and strength of God who is Father of us all, at this sad time.

We have lost one of the most outstanding legal people this country has ever produced. He was an amazing intellectual, yet always ensured his mind was informed by his heart and his soul. He understood, perhaps better than anyone I have ever met, the true meaning of the rule of law, and how the letter of the law must deliver the spirit of the law, in the service of Constitution, country, and all its citizens.

On a personal level, I shall deeply miss this dear, humble, man. I count myself privileged to have got to know him while serving on his Press Freedom Commission, and in the contact we maintained since then.

I give thanks to God for the gift of this remarkable man, at a time when we most needed his insight and judgement, his generous spirit, and his deep wisdom. May this faithful servant rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Celebrating Madiba’s vision of unity

Celebrating Madiba’s vision of unity

This opinion piece was published in the Sunday Independent on July 21 2013

Happy Birthday Madiba. I could almost feel the whole country breathe a collective great sigh of relief – and joy – as Nelson Mandela reached his landmark 95th birthday on Thursday.

How did you celebrate Mandela Day? What did you do for your 67 minutes?

I spent Thursday lunchtime as part of a human chain along the Klipfontein Road in Cape Town. This runs from just under Table Mountain, eastwards across the Cape Flats. In the bad old days it was like a thread, on which sat three separate beads, of white Rondebosch, coloured Athlone, and black Gugulethu. Three different communities, each at a distinct distance from one another.

On Mandela Day, Klipfontein Road became something else – an artery that connects our lives with our neighbours, as we stood together, hand in hand and arm in arm, united in our diversity. Waving our South African flags and singing, despite the slight rain, we made our stand as a way of pledging to break down the old divisions and build up a new connectedness that transcends the gulfs of the past.

When the idea was first put to me, I admit that I thought twice. Was this just “gesture politics”, and a soft way out of spending my 67 minutes on more tangible acts of service? But on reflection, I came to a different conclusion. On Mandela Day we are supposed to take some action that will help change the world, in ways that honour Nelson Mandela’s own example in his life of service for the good of the nation and its people. And what drove Madiba’s servant heart was his dream of a united, democratic, non-racial, South Africa. We must never lose this vision. If we can share his perspective, his motivation, then we can each walk our own journeys, however long, towards freedom, and encourage others along the way.

If we don’t pursue his dream, and uphold the values of the constitution, we risk undermining all our good deeds and acts of service. For we need to be wary of “sticking plaster” charity that provides superficial panaceas without tackling the underlying issues on which our problems thrive.

Our greatest priority still remains overcoming divisions of economic class and race and community, and forging a greater sense of common life – even of shared vulnerability to the fate that awaits us all if we fail to create a single nation. Standing together affirmed our belief in the tangible hope of newness of life – a hope shared by people of all faiths and of none. There truly was a sense of celebration as we held hands along Klipfontein Road.

And I was delighted that all around the country, from country towns to university campuses, others also formed human chains and committed to a common future. We all need to keep on investing in our future in this way, and stick with it for the long haul. There are few quick fixes for the profound wounds of the past – but courage to keep on persevering, and not to lose heart, just as Nelson Mandela stuck to his own principles, will help us get there.

Even if I have to make my apologies for encouraging children out of their classrooms, I was particularly glad that schools along the road brought their pupils to join our human chain. For I hope that they will have learnt this deeper lesson of directing their lives towards the values, now enshrined in our constitution, for which Madiba strove. Madiba himself said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”, and it is so important that our younger generations are equipped with the ethical foundations, as well as the factual knowledge, that they will need for taking our country into a better future.

Madiba’s life reflected the lasting legacy of his own solid education at Healdtown, the Methodist-established college. Another exemplary student of those excellent historic mission schools is Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, our country’s only woman deputy president, and recently appointed executive director for UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women. She too has followed Madiba’s footsteps in demonstrating what it means to serve others and dedicating one’s life to making a positive contribution within the world.

Following his example in our own lives is surely the best way to show our love and appreciation of Madiba, especially now in his frailty. May he know that all he has stood for, all he has done, will not be wasted or forgotten. Let us commit ourselves to making his vision our own, as we continue to pray for him, for his physical comfort, for peace in his soul, and for, in God’s own time, a “perfect end” – and pray also for all who love and care for him.

On Mandela Day we pledged to do this, in the words below. Will you make this your pledge, too?

Mandela Day Pledge at the Human Chain

I, one link in this human chain, pledge to do all I can to build an undivided South Africa, free from poverty as envisioned by Nelson Mandela. I will observe and study his conduct and seek to emulate his actions that have helped to bring peace to our country.
A simple smile, a handshake, kindness, a listening ear, encouragement, spreading hope, giving a helping hand, taking action, not tearing down another – that is the Madiba way.
I reject anything or anyone who sets to demean or divide us and place our focus only on the ugliness that forms part of our lives.
Instead of focusing on ugliness and hatred, I choose to focus on beauty and love.
By doing this, I will have the strength to deal with the difficult challenges that I face to make Madiba’s dream a reality.
I am committed to being the best person I can possibly be. The stronger I am, the more I can help heal my family and my neighbourhood.
I am committed to the values of our constitution, which says that our country belongs to all who live in it. We have in Madiba one of the world’s greatest leaders. It is not always in the life of a people that they are so blessed with inspirational and visionary leadership.
Madiba’s maternal side is Khoisan, the earliest people who lived at the Cape, at least 2000 years ago. His paternal side is Xhosa, whose people intermingled with the khoisan over many centuries.
The merging of these two strong human strands has given us a man who has not flinched in his resolve to set his people free.
I commit to encourage all of those I come into contact with to study and emulate his conduct so that we draw on the positive example he has set for us and never forget that our fragile psyches need nurturing and tenderness to bring healing to this tortured nation.
I am proud of how far we have journeyed on the road to self-determination as a people and will continue always to be inspired by his example.
* Thabo Makgoba is the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.

http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/celebrating-madiba-s-vision-of-unity-1.1550062

Mandela Day Pledge - Afrikaans and isiXhosa

Here is the Mandela Day Pledge for the Human Chain, in Afrikaans and in isiXhosa

Eed

BY DIE MENSLIKE KETTING OP MANDELA DAG,DONDERDAG 18 JULIE 2013

Ek, ‘n skakel in hierdie menslike ketting, belowe om alles
te doen om ‘n onverdeelde Suid-Afrika, vry van armoede
soos beoog deur Nelson Mandela, te bou.
Ek sal sy optrede fyn bestudeer ten einde sy dade na te volg
wat bygedra het om vrede in ons land te bewerkstellig. Deur ‘n
eenvoudige glimlag, ‘n handdruk, goedgunstigheid, ‘n gewillige oor,
aanmoediging, die verspreiding van hoop, en n helpende hand on aksie te neem,
nie om ander af te kraak nie, – dit is die Madiba manier van doen.
Ek verwerp enigiemand of enigiets wat strewe daarna om ons te verneder of verdeel
en slegs ons fokus te plaas op die lelike dele van ons lewens
In plaas daarvan van om te fokus op die lelike en haat, kies ek om te fokus op liefde
en dit wat mooi is.
So doende, sal ek die krag he om die moeilike uitdaagings te hanteer wat ek teekom
om Madiba se droom te bewaarheid.
Madiba is een van die wereld se grootste leiers. Ons is so geseёnd om deel te wees van
sy inspirerende en visioenere leierskap
Ek verbind my daartoe om die beste persoon moontlik te kan wees. Hoe sterker ek is,
hoe beter is ek toegerus om my familie en gemeenskap te help genees.
Ek onderskryf ons grondwet wat se dat ons land behoort aan almal wie hier woon.
Aan moederskant is Madiba Khoesan, die vroegste mense wat in die Kaap woonagtig
was, ten minste 2000 jaar gelede. Aan vaderskant is hy Xhosa, wie oor baie eeue heen
met die Khoesan vermeng het.
Die samesmelting van hierdie twee sterk menslike strome het vir ons ‘n leier gegee wat
nie weggeskram het in sy voorneme om ons te help bevry nie.
Ek verbind my daartoe om almal aan te moedig om hul fokus te plaas op die positiewe
voorbeelde en om nooit te vergeet dat ons brose psige koestering met sagtheid benodig
om genesing te bring aan ons gefolterde nasie.
Ek is gevul met trots op hoe ver ons tot dusver gereis het op die pad van selfbeskiking
en sal aanhou om altyd geїnspireer te word deur sy voorbeeld

Isibhambathiso

KWITYATHANGA LULUNTU NGOSUKU LUKA MANDELA,ULWESINE UMHLA WE-18 KU-JULY, 2013

Mna njenge nxalenye kwikhonkco loluntu , ndizinikela
ukwenza konke endinakho ukwakha uMzantsi Afrika
omanyeneyo ongenantlupheko ngokombono kaNelson Mandela
Ndakuyiqwalasela, ndiyifunde indlela aziphethe ngayo, de ndizame
ukuhamba ekhondweni lezenzo zakhe ezizise uxolo kwilizwe lethu.
Uncumo, ukubambisandla, ukulunga, ukumamela, inkuthazo, ukwandisa ithemba,
ukunceda, ukuthatha amanyathelo, ukungasengelani phantsi – yindlela kaMadiba leyo.
Ndichasa konke okanye nabanina ofuna ukusithobela ezantsi okanye usohlula–hlula
ngokugxininisa kwizinto ezimbi eziyinxalenye yobomi bethu.
Endaweni yokugxininisa kwizinto ezimbi nakwintiyo, ndikhetha ukugxininisa kwizinto
ezintle nothando.
Ngokwenza oko ndakuba namandla okumelana nemiceli-mingeni endinayo ndiphumeze
amaphupha kaMadiba
uMadiba yenye yenkokheli ezibalulekileyo ehlabathini.
Sibabalwe ngokuxhamla ubunkokheli bakhe obunenkuthazo nemibono.
Ndizimisela ukuba ngumntu ogqwesileyo endinobanguye.
Okuye ndisomelela kukhona ndingakwazi ukuphilisa usapho lwam noluntu ekuhlaleni.
Ndakuwuhlonela umGaqo-siseko othi eli lilizwe lakhe wonke ohlala kulo.
Ikhaya lakulomama kaMadiba ngamaKhoi namaSan, abantu bokuqala ukuhlala
kweliphondo leKapa kwisithuba seminyaka engamawaka amabini edlulileyo.
Kwelakulotata ikhaya, ngamaXhosa, abantu abayebehlalisana namaKhoi kwezi
nkulungwane zidlulileyo.
Oku kudibana kwezi ndidi zimbini zabantu abakhaliphileyo kuko okusinike le nkokheli
engakhange ithingaze ekuzinikezeleni ekusikhululeni.
Ndiyazibophelela ekukhuthazeni wonke umntu ukuba afunde kulo mzekelo mhle, yaye
angalibali ukuba izimo zethu ezibuthathaka zifuna ukunonotshelwa ukuze kubekho
ukuphila kwisizwe sethu esingcikivekileyo.
Ndiyazingca ngendima esiyihambileyo ukuzama ukuzimela, kwaye umzekelo wakhe
uyakusoloko undikhuthaza ukubopha amanxeba kwisizwe sakuthi esingxwelerhekileyo

More on the Human Chain for Mandela Day, and our Pledge

Here is my statement from today's press conference - and below it is the text of the Pledge we shall all make tomorrow.

I am delighted to lend my support to this exciting initiative to create a Human Chain on Mandela Day, linking previously divided communities of our city.

At the heart of all that Nelson Mandela has done for this country, was his dream of creating a new, united, democratic, non-racial South Africa. We must not lose sight of this vision – and there can be no better way to honour him and all he has done for us, on his birthday, than to commit ourselves afresh to making this the foundation of our lives, the touch-stone of all our policies and actions, the lens through which we speak and act.

If we do not have this as our overarching goal, as the firm foundation on which we build, then all our other acts of service risk being undermined and diminished.

Cape Town has such a divided history, so clearly demonstrated along the Klipfontein Road, running between separated communities of Rondebosch, Athlone and Gugulethu. Our Human Chain is a living demonstration that we are breaking down past divisions and building a new reality in which we all belong to one another – joined in the common life of our city, and in the shared future we create together.

At 1.30pm we will all join in declaring this commitment in the words of the Pledge that is being publicised today.

So I invite everyone who shares Madiba’s dream to join with me, and those spearheading this initiative. Here let me thank the core organising team - The Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum, The Cape Cultural Collective, the Athlone and Gugulethu Advice Offices.

Bush Radio 89.5fm – a community radio station, reaching 275,000 people – is acting as our media partner, for the human chain. They have brought other community stations such as Voice of the Cape (100.4 fm) on board the organising team. They – and we hope, many other radio stations across the city – will be broadcasting the Pledge, at 1.30pm.

So let us all be part of this. Come, tomorrow – to Gugulethu Police Station, to Athlone Stadium, to Rondebosch Common! Come, if you can, waving the South African flag, or wearing its bright colours! Come and stand up for the new South Africa for which Madiba dreamed and gave his 67 years of service.

And to those who cannot come to the Klipfontein Road, I say – make a human chain wherever you can; and make your own commitments to this pledge.

Together we can break down the barriers of the past, and build a new nation of hope.

Bishopscourt, Cape Town 17 July 2013

For further information
Imam Rashid Omar, Claremont Main Road Mosque at 021 593 8998
Ruschka Jaffer (Co-ordinator) 072 964 081; Zubeida Jaffer 076 983 1893
The Office of the Archbishop of Cape Town: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones 082 856 2082 (Archbishop’s Office, out of office hours)


PLEDGE AT THE HUMAN CHAIN ON MANDELA DAY, THURSDAY 18 JULY, 2013

I, one link in this human chain, pledge to do all I can
to build an undivided South Africa free from poverty as envisioned by Nelson Mandela.
I will observe and study his conduct and seek to emulate his actions that have helped to bring peace to our country. A simple smile, a handshake, kindness, a listening ear, encouragement, spreading hope, giving a helping hand, taking action, not tearing down another - that is the Madiba way.
I reject anything or anyone who seeks to demean or to divide us and place our focus only on the ugliness that forms part of our lives.
Instead of focusing on ugliness and hatred, I choose to focus on beauty and love.
By doing this, I will have the strength to deal with the difficult challenges that I face to make Madiba’s dream a reality.
Madiba is one of the world’s greatest leaders. We are so blessed to have enjoyed his inspirational and visionary leadership.
I am committed to being the best person I can possibly be. The stronger I am the more I can help heal my family and my neighbourhood.
I will uphold our constitution which says that our country belongs to all who live in it Madiba’s maternal side is KhoiSan, the earliest people who lived at the Cape, at least 2000 years ago. His paternal side is umXhosa, whose people intermingled with the Khoisan over many centuries.
The merging of these two strong human strands has given us a leader who has not flinched in his resolve to set us free.
I commit to encourage everyone to draw on his positive example and never forget that our fragile psyches need nurturing and tenderness to bring healing to our tortured nation.
I am proud of how far we have journeyed on the road to self-determination and will continue always to be inspired by his leadership.

Integrity in Leadership

This address was given on 22 May 2013, in response to the Free Market Foundation's Luminary Award “…for lifelong dedication to all the peoples of South Africa and for ceaselessly demonstrating the highest level of integrity”

May I express my thanks to the Free Market Foundation for this award, and say how honoured I am. (And may I also express my gratitude for your patience in waiting for me after I missed my earlier flight today.)

I am particularly humbled to be honoured in this way by the Free Market Foundation, as we all know that those of us within the religious sector are not generally the strongest champions the free market! But I take it as a sign of your recognition that the market is just one player among many; and that all of us must have our place, and adequate space, to flourish freely – each playing our complementary roles – if we are to contribute to a nation of flourishing individuals within flourishing communities.

For, to put my entire talk into a nutshell, this is the essence of what I believe leadership, and integrity of leadership, is all about. It is about our commitment to promoting contexts and processes for human living that are in service of the people of this and all nations, and of our planet. And it is about paying particular attention to the well-being of those who are in greatest need, and least able to help themselves.

Furthermore, this is the task of all of us, not merely those who are most obviously in the business of caring for society’s needy. And this is not just a moral question – though it is this. But in addition, when everyone has a chance to live decently, this creates a context where business too does better. Therefore, taking the moral course is actually in the best, long term, interests of the private sector.

Let me now unpack these assertions in greater detail.

My starting point is, not surprisingly, to consider what we mean by integrity. It is often said that ‘integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.’ True indeed. The dictionary provides a richer interpretation of what ‘doing this right thing’ is. ‘Integrity’ comes from a Latin word which literally means ‘untouched’, and so conveys wholeness, completeness, soundness, coherence.

From the perspective of South African citizens, therefore, this means that integrity, doing the right thing – whether in our personal or professional lives – is whatever contributes to making South Africa a ‘whole’ country, a country of wholeness. After the woundedness of the past, our desire should be to work for greater healing and wholeness, in the lives of individuals, in the lives of communities, in the life of the nation as a whole.

How do we recognise such wholeness, so we may pursue it? One of the first places I go looking for answers is the Constitution, and particularly to its Preamble. I hope you know what it says. I’m very supportive of the proposal that every learner should recite it regularly at school, so they know it off by heart. We need the values it upholds, and the goals it sets before us, to become an automatic part of every citizen’s self-understanding of what it means to be a good South African. It is something I would like us all to ‘read, mark, learn and inwardly digest’ so that it becomes an integral part (there’s that ‘integrity’ concept again, in a different form!) – an integral part of the way we look at the world, and the way we automatically act.

As the English philosopher, Francis Bacon, said, ‘It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.’

The Constitution’s Preamble begins by recognising the injustices of the past, and that many suffered and struggled for justice, freedom, and to build a new nation. It then affirms that we ‘believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.’ A whole country has a place for everyone, with all our distinctive differences – so we may be enriched by all the latent potential among us.

It then describes the nation which we aspire to build, through our constitutional democracy. Together we commit ourselves (and I quote):
• to ¬heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
• to lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
• to improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person;
• and to build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.’
And it ends, ‘May God protect our people.’

So then, what makes for wholeness? What should we pursue if we want to be leaders of integrity?

Our Constitution gives us the following touchstones for our policy-making, for our business plans, for our programme setting:
• what helps heal past divisions?
• what strengthens democratic values and democratic practices?
• what promotes social justice and fundamental human rights?
• what improves the quality of life, not of some citizens, not of the privileged few, but of ALL citizens?
• what frees the potential – what provides tangible, realisable, opportunities – to each and every person; not merely those who already have a good start in life?
• what helps us grow in a sense of unity, of belonging to one another, while respecting and valuing our differences, whether they be linguistic, cultural, and racial, or educational and economic?

All of these contribute to the sort of society I described earlier – of flourishing individuals in flourishing communities. It is about healthy living. I don’t just mean physically health but also emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, cultural, health and wholeness – which we should each be able to live out in our own ways, provided that we also allow equal space and opportunity for others.

Now perhaps you were surprised when I mentioned the Constitution before I turned to the Bible! But I hope that you are now realising why the faith communities throw our weight so much behind the realisation of all that the Constitution promises. For we too want to promote these healthy, wholesome, ways of living. Jesus himself said ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10).

The mark of integrity in leadership is the preparedness to commit one’s life, in whatever field one finds oneself, to pursuing this abundant life for all.

So let me now look at the other side of the coin – what undermines abundant, flourishing, wholesome life, within South Africa? It is easy to think of candidates for a long, long list! There’s the whole Gupta saga and the attitudes that let it happen. There’s the Marikana tragedy and too many stories of police brutality – what makes them possible? And what about Anene Booysen and the thousands and thousands of cases of gender violence that never make the newspapers? What about the scandal of undelivered text books, mud schools, and teachers who don’t know their subjects or won’t pull their weight? What about the apparent tender irregularities in Gauteng at City Power? We could go on and on.

But where are all these rooted?

We must start by naming our inherited lacking wholeness – not least so that we do not compound it now.

For example, given the way that the apartheid regime drove wedges between all South Africa’s communities, I am concerned by the increase in what some have called the ‘zulufication’ of political rhetoric. We don’t want to send ourselves down the path trodden by Hutus and Tutsis.

We also need honesty around the interplay of past legacies on the one hand and current weaknesses and failings on the other. I don’t want to get into the polarising row that engulfed Trevor Manuel recently, so let me say, very carefully, that these two biggest issues are inextricably linked. We must acknowledge that the past has left us with terrible legacies of poverty and inequality. And at the same time, government has not done all that it might, to overcome them.

There are practical reasons for this – we have inherited appalling skills shortages and capacity constraints. And sometimes politicians and civil servants at all levels of government from national to local have just felt overwhelmed by what they face and at a loss to know where to begin. In this they need our encouragement, far more than our condemnation.

But we also know that corruption is a massive problem. It comes hand in hand with a wider loss of moral compass. This creates an atmosphere in which all sort of dubious practices somehow become accepted. Leaders with integrity, across all sectors, must join forces, to face down this scourge at every level, including through the protecting of whistle-blowers within our own organisations.

Integrity means creating contexts, promoting cultures, where those who do good, who uphold moral high standards, are rewarded – even if it sets them against more narrowly self-serving practices that have become normative. There is a huge challenge to us around questions of what is merely getting away with the extremes of what the law will allow.

We see this in the current rows about tax being paid by multinationals like Amazon and Apple and Google in the US and various European countries. Now, in one sense, they are not only within their rights, but entirely sensible, to arrange their affairs within the law so that they pay the absolute minimum taxes that they need to. But having the right to do something does not make it the right thing to do. We need to ask more fundamental questions about whether the sort of schemes that companies and government treasuries have allowed to develop, are truly moral in the sense of serving not merely shareholders, but the societies in which they do business.

There is a quote going the rounds on Facebook at the moment that highlights the heart of the problem. It says, ‘People were created to be loved, and things were created to be used: and the reason why the world is in such chaos today is that things are being loved and people are being used.’ It’s a bit simplistic, but we have to ask ourselves whether it does reflect a pernicious and growing attitude.

And it challenges us also to ask ourselves whether we are behaving with integrity when, as global and national economic actors, the financial, business and government sectors develop ways of behaving that exacerbate the gulfs between rich and poor. All around the world, the Gini coefficient (measuring the disparity between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’) has been rising – and South Africa is among the worst.

Integrity in leadership cannot just stand idly by and allow this to continue. Martin Luther King Junior put it this way, ‘Every man [and also, of course, every woman] must decide whether he [or she] will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.’ The challenge is how you serve not only owners’, and share-holders’ interests, over the short term – but how you do so in ways that also serves the interests of nation, and all (and I mean ALL) its citizens, in the mid- and long- term.

Looking at that horizon, I must mention the National Development Plan, with its visions for where we could be by the year in 2030. I believe that this, and other planning exercises, like the Dinokeng scenario, are entirely right when they say that we can only become the healthy, whole, society of which our Constitution speaks, if we go forward together.

We need to ‘fly as flamingos’. If we do not act together, we are bound to fail.

Government, business, civil society – none of us has the capacity to make the necessary differences on our own. We must each pull our weight, and contribute what we can, in constructive cooperation.

Now, constructive cooperation does not mean that we must give up criticising, and criticising sharply, when we believe government, or the private sector, or civil society, has got it wrong. Government, in particular, needs to beware of promoting a culture where it is unacceptable to speak out – whether by means of the appalling Protection of Information legislation, or through the stick and carrot of only granting contracts to friends.

For all of us need the perspectives of others, if we are to be helped to become the best that we can be. I hope that by speaking here today as, I trust, a constructive critic, a critical friend, I am being a good example of this!

All of us need to hold one another to account. The private sector and civil society must hold government to account, but they too can ask the same high standards of us. We all need to be held accountable, above all else, to the standards and aspirations, of the Constitution. This helps us understand what it is for each of us to pursue integrity in our own sectors, and in our own leadership. Does what we do contribute to bringing our nation closer to the picture the Constitution paints, or is it directed towards some other goals – that may help some, but actually hinder others in ‘freeing the potential of each person’ as the Constitution puts it?

As Archbishop, but also as a professional psychologist, I want to stress the importance of us not losing sight of the wonderful vision of our Constitution. For we risk becoming so focussed on all the problems and negative stories around us, that we lose sight of what we should truly be aiming for. And this just drags us further down.

We should instead be deliberate and intentional in ensuring that a vision of a healthy, flourishing, engaged citizenry, becomes the magnet that draws us – towards which our business plans, our programme-setting, our short, medium and long-term goals and planning are directed. If the good is at the centre of our imagination, our very souls, then it will find expression in our attitudes, in our thinking, our speaking, our acting. This is what it means to live lives of integrity.

The Bible understood these psychological dynamics close on two thousand years ago. St Paul wrote, in the letter to the Christians at Philippi, in today’s Turkey, ‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things’ (Phil 4:8).

Let us be clear in analysing the difficulties that we face, and the obstacles that need to be overcome. But in doing so, let us never take our eyes off the prize that lies ahead of us. Let us never become downhearted, and doubt that we can direct our lives to all that is good, all that promotes wholeness, all that reflects integrity.

For all of us can be leaders of integrity – people who promote the wholeness and flourishing of those around, and across wider society and nation. It is becoming fashionable to talk about ‘thought leaders’, and certainly, I believe that we need to get right our thinking, and more than that, our deep-seated, often unspoken, attitudes. And right attitudes and right thinking will inevitably lead to right words and right actions. Mental, moral and spiritual, integrity breed trust, breed confidence, breed social cohesion – they breed the building blocks that are necessary to deliver wholeness in our nation.

This applies as much to our personal lives as to our professional lives. As Confucius said, ‘The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.’ We too can pursue integrity at every level.

Let me give an example from my own life. As you may know, having spent time in academia as well as the church, I’ve always had a deep concern for education. I now find myself caught up into all sorts of action that have really encouraged me in understanding that all of us can make a difference at all sorts of levels. I’m now acting individually, through the Church or other community action, and in supporting national initiatives. So, on an individual level, a group of us who grew up in Alexandra are helping rebuild Pholosho school, and funding bursaries. Others I know support schools where employees children go. It puts a human face on our problems, and helps open our eyes to the real needs of communities. In Gauteng, Anglicans have the growing Vuleka school initiative, with which I’m also involved. Our next project is building a boys’ boarding school.

And on a wider level, I’m adding my voice to the call for the Minister of Education to issue proper, decent, specific and measurable, minimum infrastructure norms and standards for all schools. As part of this campaign, I visited the Eastern Cape last month, with a delegation including academics, writers, and human rights activists. Though we encountered heroic efforts by many educators and learners, we were also shocked and appalled by much of what we saw. So we will not rest, but keep up the pressure on Provincial and National government. And the good news is that this really works. Within days of our visit, there was an official statement saying the President had directed the relevant department within the Presidency to look into the matter. Now we must ensure this is followed through, by keeping up our lobbying.

Chinua Achebe said that ‘One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.’ But we know this is a tough ask, and none of us will get it right all the time. Sometimes we may find our decisions have negative consequences that we had failed to foresee. Sometimes we will exercise poor judgement in other ways, perhaps taking risks that we always knew were unwise. We may also make poor choices out of weakness.

But we can still aspire to integrity, and we can still encourage integrity in one another. Indeed, in today’s world, we have a great need for people who can stand up and admit that they have made mistakes; and take responsibility for them, and say they will make reparation and commit themselves to do better in future. This is a model of which we need to see more – so that all of us, when we fall short of what we might be, can nonetheless take heart, and make a fresh start, and persevere. This too is demonstrating integrity in leadership.

So then, to conclude: let our commitment to integrity find expression in commitment to pursing the glorious vision of healthy, whole, flourishing individuals, in a healthy, wholesome, society. This is the true legacy of our forefathers – for all that we battle with our difficult social and economic inheritances. This is the promise of 1994. This is the treasure that is ours to earn, if we have the courage to reach for it together. This is what integrity in leadership is all about. Let us strive for it together.

I’ll end with words from the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius. ‘Waste no more time arguing about what a good man – or woman – should be. Be one.’

Church Leaders' Message to President Zuma and other Leaders

You can read the letter that Church leaders sent, earlier this month, to President Zuma at http://www.sacc.org.za/content/SACC%202012%20DOCS/DEC%202012/JOINT%20letterhead_dear%20president%20Zuma_final.pdf.

We sent similar letters to Premier Helen Zille and other key figures in the political and economic world.

The message we enclosed is at http://www.sacc.org.za/content/SACC%202012%20DOCS/DEC%202012/The%20church%20speaks%20_Final%20%2030%2011%202012.pdf.

To the Laos - To the People of God - Advent 2012

Dear People of God

‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus’ is a well-known Advent hymn which goes on to describe Jesus as ‘hope of all the earth … desire of every nation … joy of every longing heart.’ Advent has been described as a ‘season of desire’. It is a time for us to listen to the yearnings of our hearts, our souls: our profound longing for Jesus to come with the fullness of his redemption, into our lives and the situations around us. It is a time for giving voice, in prayer, to the ache we feel for every person, every circumstance, which needs the compassionate, loving, healing, touch of our Lord and Saviour. It is also a time for giving thanks for all that we have seen of God at work in our lives, and fervently asking that he may be present in ever greater abundance.

I have been pondering this, particularly as I look back on November, which was a truly remarkable month, diverse and full. When it began, I was in New Zealand, participating in the Anglican Consultative Council, with other Anglicans, nearly bishops, clergy and laity from around the world. We shared deeply together around all aspects of the Anglican Communion’s ministry and mission – often from very different perspectives, but in a way that I felt was healing to relationships. Please pray that it may be a turning point for moving ahead united in Christ, even where we do not wholly agree; and especially that the ‘Continuing Indaba’ and ‘Bible in the life of the Church’ projects will keep on bearing fruit. Please pray too for God to further guide and bless major issues which we tackled: the environment; violence especially against women and children, and churches as places of safety; and Christian witness in a multi-religious world. There is much here that we can pick up on, to enrich our own lives, and equip us in our own calling to be faithful witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ. You can find out more through the links at www.anglicancommunion.org

It was the last Anglican gathering with our beloved Archbishop Rowan before he steps down and returns to academic life. My heart was full to overflowing – and so were many others – as he gave his final address to us. We give thanks for his remarkable servant ministry over the difficult times of the last decade, and ask God to bless him, his wife Jane and family, in their move, and to continue to make him a blessing to so many others. In the same vein, we thank God for Bishop Justin Welby, who will succeed him in the new year, and pray for him, together with his wife Caroline and their family, as he prepares to take on the great responsibilities that lie ahead. I am reminded of the ‘Charge’ in our service of ordination and consecration of a bishop, which says ‘No one is sufficient for these things’ but then says ‘May the God who makes us able ministers of his new covenant equip you with grace and give you his blessing and joy.’ This is surely what we long for, for the new ‘ABC’.

And I am sure it is our prayer also for our newest Bishop in Southern Africa, Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya, whom we consecrated in Swaziland with such joy on 17 November – the first Anglican woman in Africa to be made a Bishop! We rejoice with her and her diocese, and ask the ‘long-expected Jesus’ truly to be ‘Emmanuel’, God with her, and her clergy and people, as they go forward into this new chapter of life. We pray also for The Ven. Margaret Vertue, who will be consecrated Bishop of False Bay on 19 January; and the Revd Dintoe Stephen Letloenyane and Revd Stephen Moreo, who will be consecrated Bishop of the Free State and Bishop of Johannesburg, respectively, in two services in March.

As we thank God for, and pray for, those he calls forth as leaders, shepherd of his flock, in every generation, let us also pray for the Church of England, so traumatised by their long synodical processes around the consecration of women to the episcopate, and the failure of last month’s vote. May God give them light in their darkness (a powerful Advent theme), to show them his path ahead.

For our part, we are moving forward on the path we believe God has set before us, the path of our Vision, ‘Anglicans ACT’, which we celebrated in a service in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town at the end of November. You can watch it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-9b7tWFFw, and copies are being made available via Dioceses on DVD. The various teams are making progress in their work – watch this space in the new year, as plans unfold for helping equip dioceses and parishes in our priority areas!

So, within the life of our church, at home, and globally, we have much to thank God for, even as we desire to grow more into the newness of life that is his promise. But when we turn our eyes to look at the world around, our yearning for God’s redemptive touch becomes much more urgent. In South Africa, we have had the tragedy of Marikana, now being investigated through the Commission of Inquiry headed by Judge Ian Farlam who is ACSA’s chancellor. All involved need our prayers. There is also the complex situation around farm workers’ salaries in the Western Cape, where we yearn for just living wages. We also anticipate the ANC conference in Mangaung from 16 to 21 December. With a vote on the ANC’s, and hence the country’s, presidency, it is of major importance to our future, and our ability overcome trends of corruption and self-interest among political leaders, and return to putting the needs of all citizens at the top of the agenda. Elsewhere around our Province, countries battle with consolidating democracy, with food shortages, with wise use of mineral resources, with the scourge of HIV and AIDS, and with the ongoing long slow struggle to overcome poverty and all its consequences.

Therefore, especially for those in South Africa for whom 16 December is the Day of Reconciliation, I am calling for a day of prayer and fasting. Let us not be afraid to pour out our hearts to God – bringing before him all our hopes and fears for our countries, all our yearnings and desires for his kingdom to come and his will be done among us. In Advent we look forward to God’s promise to reconcile all things in Christ to himself (Col 1:20); and we also recall how he has entrusted his ministry of reconciliation to us also – so let us make this a day truly of God’s Reconciliation.

Let us plead that we may know the fuller coming of Christ, ‘risen with healing in his wings’ within our nations and our communities, especially where there are divisions – whether of history, politics, economics, language or race, personality, or through some unhappy force of circumstance. Let us pray fervently that God will meet us in all our needs, in Jesus Christ, so that there may be good news for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, liberty for all who are afflicted (Lk 4:18). May those who walk in darkness find a new light dawning (Is 9:2), and may all of us have the wisdom, the courage, the commitment, to walk in the paths God lights before our feet (Ps119:104). May justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24), and may God’s kingdom be found among us.

This Advent-tide, let us wholeheartedly pray for Jesus Christ to come to us, ‘Come, O come, Emmanuel!’

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

Call for Prayer and Fasting on Reconciliation day

The following statement was issued on 12 December 2012

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town is calling on South Africans to fast and pray for the nation on Reconciliation Day.

In a call made first in The Sunday Independent on 25 November, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is urging people of all religious communities to tap into the strength of their faith for the sake of the country, much as they did in apartheid years. ‘It is too easy to feel hopeless, even despairing, after the Marikana tragedy, unrest among Western Cape farm-workers, crises in education and unemployment, failures in service delivery, and endless reports of crime and corruption’ said the Archbishop. ‘But we are not helpless, and should not let ourselves feel overwhelmed.’

‘Prayer and fasting are concrete actions, which connect us with the strong foundations of our beliefs: the power of God, eternal moral guiding principles, however we want to describe them’ he said. ‘They will provide new focus and energy, to work for all that is right and true and wholesome for South Africa, in which all people of good-will can join us. Standing together and speaking out together, as so many did before, is the best way to ensure that the vision and promises of the struggle are achieved.’

‘Reconciliation Day is entirely appropriate for such prayer and fasting, especially for Christians’ said Archbishop Makgoba. ‘In the weeks before Christmas, we think about Jesus coming not just as a baby, but also as the one who reconciles all of creation in the love of God the Father. In Jesus Christ, God promises to overcome divisions, heal relationships, mend our brokenness, defeat evil, and ensure that all that is good and right and loving finally triumphs. Furthermore’ he noted, ‘as St Paul tells us, God also entrusts this “ministry of reconciliation” to all who follow him. So we have to play our part too.’

The Archbishop added ‘Therefore, we are truly in the business of promoting genuine, eternal, reconciliation. Perhaps the government did not realise how profound it was to rename 16 December ‘Reconciliation Day’! Yet I like to believe God guided their hand, because I know that true reconciliation is one of God’s greatest desires for our nation. May he bless us, and help us to grow in authentic reconciliation, based on our best hopes for the future, for the sake of all South Africans.’


Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)

Deaths of Prof Jakes Gerwel and former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson

This statement was issued to the media on 4 December 2012

With the deaths of Professor Jakes Gerwel and former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, we have lost two great figures of the struggle, who also showed us what it means to uphold the highest of the principles that shaped and drove those years, in the new era of democracy.

In academia and education, and in law, they reached the top of their profession, demonstrating the much needed lesson of how this can be done in the service of our nation and all its people. Speaking out at the heart of the establishment, they served the voiceless and marginalised. They set an example from which we should all learn. We offer thanks to God for their life and witness, and the indelible influence for good that they have left us. We pray that by God’s grace we may follow in their footsteps, and uphold their legacy.

On behalf of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, I extend my condolences to their families and all who loved them, and assure them of our prayers for these good and faithful servants of freedom and justice of our times.

Sermon at Funeral of Zwelakhe Sisulu - The Truth Will Set Us Free

This sermon was preached at the funeral of Zwelakhe Sisulu on 13 October 2012.

1 Pet 1:3-9; Matthew 5:3-10

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, dear President Zuma and Deputy-President Motlanthe, dear Sisulu family, clergy and all distinguished people, I greet you all in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer. Let me also thanks program directors Comrade Duarte and Mr Makhura. In his summation Mr Makhura reminded us of the refrain from Zwelakhe’s poem, ‘Lest we forget’. Comrade Duarte mentioned the cost of apartheid. In the light of these, I want to adjust the theme of my sermon: I want to speak about ‘Lest we forget’ the human face to the cost of apartheid in our times, and ‘Lest we forget’ that the truth will set us free.

We have just sung Zwelakhe’s favourite hymn: ‘This is my story’. And it is in the story of Jesus Christ that we find a place for our own story. Within the story of his birth, his life and ministry and teaching, his death on the cross, his resurrection and his ascension to heaven where he now prays for us – in this story of his, we find a place to make sense of our own story, our lives and our deaths.

As St Peter wrote in his first letter, ‘By God’s great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.’ It is kept in heaven for us, it is kept in heaven for Zwelakhe. Zwelakhe’s story is now one with the story of Jesus Christ.

And so today we celebrate the life of Zwelakhe Sisulu, we mourn his death, we commend him to the everlasting love of God, and we share our own grief. As we do this, we also place ourselves within the story of Jesus Christ, so that we too may know that death has been defeated, and find the comfort that he offers to all who seek his solace in their mourning. Finding our story and Zwelakhe’s story in God’s story gives us confidence, and allows us to be honest in our joys and in our sadnesses, as we remember this special man, this child of God, and give thanks for him, even as we grieve his passing.

As the tributes have reminded us, Zwelakhe packed a great deal into his 61 years. When I think of him – as I think also of Tata Walter and Mamma Albertina Sisulu, and so many of your family – other words from our first reading, strike a loud chord. St Peter writes of us suffering various trials, in which we dare to rejoice, because, he says, the genuineness of our faith is being tested, and is being found, through this fiery testing, to be more precious, more valuable, than gold.

Zwelakhe’s faith, Zwelakhe’s life, were ‘the real deal’ – they were certainly tested, but, by God’s grace, the quality of this man kept shining through. I am reminded of that saying that our characters are like tea-bags: we only discover their strength in hot water. Well, in one way or another, hot water – or at least, the heated politics of the last half century and more – shaped Zwelakhe’s life as they have shaped so many lives. And he was found to be strong in rising to the challenges, even when it came at personal cost.

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled’ said Jesus. Righteousness is a word we don’t hear very often outside of church – but it is a word we could do with more of, especially in public life. Righteousness (very different from self-righteousness) is about reflecting the character of God, of Jesus – reflecting Jesus’ story in our story. It is about promoting God’s best, in all circumstances. It is about all that is upright, virtuous, just and good, excellent and true.

Zwelakhe showed us that to live in pursuit of excellence, justice, goodness, truth, certainly does bring a deep and lasting fulfilment and satisfaction – those who hunger for righteousness will be filled. And though he was in many ways larger than life – as I well remember from the time when he was running the New Nation out of rooms in our church complex – he was also content to be active behind the scenes. He let his life speak for itself – just as, as a journalist, he let the words speak for themselves, as he sought to make the truth known.

Jesus said that the truth will set us free (John 8:32). Today I want to emphasise, ‘Lest we forget – it is the truth that sets us free.’ Zwelakhe fought for the truth, as a means of fighting for freedom and for justice – so that our whole country could be set free. He inspired a generation of journalists, both in the written press; and across the entire media, as he took the helm of SABC. He demonstrated the value, the importance, the absolutely vital role, of an independent, intelligent, engaged media in the development and sustaining of healthy democracy through open, informed, debate.

My prayer is that we will never forget this.

Truth and transparency are the most effective tools we have for building the society, the nation, for which so many gave so much, even their own lives. Open and honest debate is our most powerful weapon, in combatting all that threatens to undermine the vision of our Constitution. It is indispensable for creating a united nation, in which we can find healing for the divisions of the past; and pursue a just and equitable society, based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights: a society which delivers a decent quality of life for all citizens and frees the potential of each person.

Truth will help us all pursue this. Because truth is the corner-stone of trust. And without trust, the different sectors of society cannot work well together – as the National Development Plan rightly tells us we must work together – in order to achieve the vision of the Freedom Charter, and of the Constitution.

For all of us need to stand together and play our part. Politicians, government, have their spheres of responsibility and action. Others of us have ours – Zwelakhe showed us something of the best contribution that the media can make. Business, academia, civil society, the church – all of us have our places, our responsibilities, our roles. And while none of us can do government’s job for them – we must all be ready to ‘stand in the gap’ and ensure that where politics and government fail, our people and our nation are not failed.

Truth helps show us what is needed; and helps us highlight that need, to ensure it is not forgotten, overlooked, ignored. And truth will help us all find the best way forward.

Truth, about how difficult this task of nation-building is, and about what can realistically be achieved – rather than inflated promises designed merely to win votes – will help our politicians to be the people we need them to be, and to do the job our Constitution asks of them.

Truth about the nature of problems we face, will help us find realistic, workable, solutions, that are rooted in the reality before us.

Truth around financial and commercial dealings – everything from tender processes to wage settlements – are the necessary first step to defeating the scourge of growing corruption – and also to overcoming the corrosive effect that suspicion increasingly has, even where due process is followed.

The humorous playwright, Noel Coward said ‘It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty, how few by deceit.’ We might laugh, but this is not the sort of society for which Zwelakhe strove. It must not become a valid description of the new South Africa.

Truth in the financial sector is necessary for overcoming international structural distortions, that fuel global instability in the economic sector that overflows into social unrest – for example over food stability.

Truth about our economic practices is also the foundation stone to reversing increasing inequalities between rich and poor, and in ensuring that the wealth of this country is made to serve those who are in greatest need.

US President, Franklin D Roosevelt, in his second inaugural address, said ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.’ Mr President, sir, if you should, post-Mangaung, find yourself making your own second inaugural address, we trust that you too will make the alleviation of poverty your first priority, in your words and actions.

Truth is what brings the cries of the hungry, the lament of the poor, the grieving of the bereaved, the voice of the oppressed, to the ears of those who have: who have power and influence and material well-being, and the capacity to make a difference that benefits those who are without.

Truth is what will touch our hearts, change our minds, and shape our actions – so that we might become channels of blessing to those who are in greatest need.

Truth is the oil in the wheels of genuine democracy, which allows the voice of every citizen to be heard, and treated with dignity and respect.

Truthfulness in debate is what will rebuild relationships across the chasms that have opened up around Marikana, and the wider mining sector. We pray for Judge Ian Farlam and the Commission of Inquiry, that they may deal in the truth that sets people free – free from the ignorance about what happened, what went wrong, how we can do better in our employment practices, in our policing, in our dealings with disputes.

Truthfulness, and the trust it can bring, are also needed for spanning the gulfs between service providers and those who need – and who have a right to – these services.

Truth is the bridge across which we will have to walk if we are to meet with one another again, and find common solutions to the ills of our nation.

Truth is also the basis of education – of bringing understanding at every level of society. Above all else, our children and young people need to learn. We need to overcome the shocking standards of education which far too many receive (and too often in wholly inadequate facilities); and which leave them with so little hope of finding stable employment, with a decent wage, so they can support a family with dignity.

And though truth puts the spotlight on those areas where we are failing – truth is to be welcomed, because truth truly does set us free. We must never fear truth – even if it may be painful to hear at first. Because truth will take us forward to a better life.

Truth lights the banner of hope – because truth is what tells us the good news stories, of what is being achieved, by so many people, even with such few resources.

Truth tells us that we can make it: with hard work, with effort, with commitment, with perseverance, with cooperation and collaboration.

Truth can bring a smile to our faces, and joy to our hearts, when we hear of triumphs against the odds; of generosity of spirit; of communities uplifted; of courageous men and women, young people and old, who have stood up for what is right and seen good triumph.

Truth tells us that we need not despair – that we are not condemned to lives of uselessness in a failing society.

Truth is the signpost to a better future.

This is the truth for which Zwelakhe stood, the truth for which he strove. And though it breaks our hearts that he has died, facing the hard truth of his passing will help us deal with our sadness and sorrowing.

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ said Jesus. If we dare to face our grief with honesty, and bring it before God, opening our hearts to him, then he will reach out to us with his tender, loving touch. Zodwa – our hearts go out to you, your children, to all the family, and to everyone who loved Zwelakhe. We mourn with you, we grieve with you. And we pray with you also, that God’s eternal arms of love will surround you with their compassion, so that you might know his full consolation, even as you are not afraid to weep and mourn. May you find his blessing, his comfort, in your sorrow and sadness.

God the Father watched his own son die on the cross – he knows what it is to mourn. Jesus himself wept at the death of his friend Lazarus – and then himself experienced dying, in pain and suffering. He has gone before us through those gates that lie at the end of the valley of the shadow – and he holds his hand out to us all, in our mortality, assuring us that we need not be afraid.

We know that Zwelakhe is now safe, in the eternal love of God. He has run the race, he has finished his course. I am sure that he will hear the words ‘well done, good and faithful servant.’ Rest eternal grant to him, O Lord – and let light perpetual shine upon him. May he rest in peace – and rise in glory. Amen

Message for our Times: God Listens, God Saves

This is the opening devotional reflection shared with the Church Leaders' Consultation on 15 October 2012

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me share some reflections on what it might mean to ‘read the signs of the times’ through God’s eyes, at this time in our nation.

I shall begin with a verse which was part of the Old Testament passage set today within the lectionary of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. As you might know, we have a two year cycle of readings for Morning and Evening Prayer, which takes us through the whole of the Bible – well, apart from a few genealogies, and some of the more duplicative parts of the books of Kings and Chronicles! Today, we were reading from the book of the prophet Micah – and chapter 7, verse 7, says this: ‘As for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.’

There are two key points to note here. First, God listens. Second, God is the source of our salvation, our redemption. They are obvious – but they bear repeating, and applying to our own context.

Recent months have been very hard. I have been to Marikana a number of times – as have some of you. Though I grew up in dire conditions in Alexandra, I was shocked - my stomach was turned – at the conditions in which workers and their families are expected to live. And though I found a deep desire for solutions to be found, I also felt my soul deeply troubled. It was as though the very ground cried out, with all the sorrow, the despair, the anger, not only at recent deaths and violence, but at a long, long history of inhumanity and inequality, oppression and exploitation – not always by the employers, but also by loan sharks and others who feed off the needy and vulnerable.

Then, on Saturday, I presided at the funeral of Zwelakhe Sisulu – a man of high principle, a son of all that was best about the struggle. His death seemed to me to represent how so much of the values, the standards, the excellence, of the past are being lost to the present and the future.

Well, these are just two instances of what we face in South Africa today. We could compile a long, long, list of all that is wrong. It is easy enough to do. Journalists do it, commentators do it, opposition politicians do it – and so often, we do it too.

Criticism is easy. But then what?

Christians are called to something more. We are called to bring another narrative to bear: one that is not content to rest with the stories of all that is going wrong; all that is undermining the best for which so many strove.

Our task is to say God listens, and God saves. For we know that while our God is a God of both judgement and hope, ‘mercy triumphs over judgement’ as St James writes (Jas 2:13). Though God judges, the message of redemption that comes with judgement is always greater, louder, stronger. When I recall John 3:16, I always want to add John 3:17: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’

God is love – and it is through love that he implacably opposes all that diminishes humanity; and it is through love that his overwhelming desire is for the redemption, salvation, renewal, healing and wholeness of all humanity, and all human society.

This is what our country most needs to hear from us now. It does not need to hear how bad things are – everyone knows this. People want to be reassured that there can be a better way; and that things are not inevitably going to get worse and worse and worse.

St Paul wrote to the Philippians ‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’ – or, as another translation puts it, ‘let your mind dwell on these things’ (Phil 4:8). Behavioural science tells us the same as St Paul: when the positive vision is central, it becomes magnet that draws us forward. If we always focus on problems, we lose sight of where we are going, and get dragged down.

So we should encourage people not to be focussed on the failings to uphold the values of the Freedom Charter, and the Constitution – but rather to continue to ensure that the vision they encapsulate remains the centre of their lives and the life of this country. We must let this be the touchstone that shapes all our words, our actions, our policy-making, and that draws us all forwards.

I started preaching in this way about two months ago – before the shootings at Marikana – and I was surprised at the strength of the response I received. People are hungry to hear us state God’s promises of new life, new hope, so clearly. People express such a sense of relief, when we say that ‘Yes, there can be a better way – and this is what God wants to bring. All we have to do is align ourselves with this, and God will help us.’

Earlier this month, we had a large conference of Anglicans from across Southern Africa, called Anglicans Ablaze. It was a wonderful time, with a sense of God’s comprehensive renewal in ways far broader than the evangelistic terms in which we often see renewal. It was as if God was wanting to breathe new life into us in a holistic way that encompasses evangelism and discipleship and mission and social justice.

As part of this, it seemed his message to us was that we must step back from criticism – from criticising and pulling down those who are different within our church, but also from criticising and pulling down our nation. We should ‘bless and not curse’, as St Paul writes to the Romans (Rom 12:14). In these dark days, our calling is to be beacons of hope and channels of blessing – to remind the world of God’s better way; and to say that this is a tangible, realistic, achievable, option before us.

Perhaps this is seems like a ‘big ask’ in these troubled times. But I am reminded that today, many of us celebrate the life of St Teresa of Avila. This visionary woman of the sixteenth century said this: ‘You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.’ So let us dare to pay him the compliment of asking him to help us be these beacons of hope, channels of blessing, to our nation.

Let us not be afraid to proclaim, with the prophet Micah, that God listens, and God saves. Let us be confident, and share our confidence with our nation – even if we feel ourselves challenged by the ways he calls us to live out this faith, in tangible and concrete ways.

And let us also pray with confidence, the famous prayer which St Teresa wrote:
‘Christ has no body now, but ours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but ours.
Ours are the eyes through which
Christ looks with compassion on the world.
Ours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Ours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world. Amen’

To the Laos - To the People of God, September 2012

Dear People of God

‘Cry aloud to the Lord!’ writes Jeremiah in his Lamentations, ‘Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night … Arise, cry in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!’ (Lam 2:18,19).

South Africa has been rocked by the tragedy at Marikana mine – the death of 34 miners at the hands of the police, after a further 10 deaths, including of police, in the preceding week. But this is only part of a greater tragedy: the tragedy that the situation could be allowed to deteriorate so far; the tragedy of appalling working and living conditions; the tragedy of such a breakdown in relations between employers and unions and employees and government; and the tragedy that across our country similarly dreadful situations are festering. They are like smouldering logs that, if left unattended, are ready to ignite. What should be the church’s response to this?

First, we should know how to lament – how to cry out to God, in our pain, our frustration, our anger, our distress, our deep, deep hurt. We should not hold back in speaking the truth of what we see, what we feel, what we fear. We bring before the throne of grace all that is broken, all that is awry, all that ought to be better but is not. And in opening our hearts to God, we call on God to step in, to act, to respond to the great need in which we find ourselves. ‘Weep with those who weep’ wrote St Paul to the Romans (Rom 12:15), and so we must. Now is a time to weep. We mourn for all who have died; and we mourn for all else that grieves us. We bring it all before God with a purpose – we come to ask him to take it all, and redeem it, to change it, and to change us, and give us a fresh start, so we may make a good and godly difference.

And so we are not left helpless in our weeping, and we must not despair. St Paul also writes ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Rom 12:21). Though I have been twice to Marikana since those terrible shootings, and found conditions that shocked me, nonetheless I am optimistic, for ours is a God who shines light in every darkness. Though I felt the very ground crying out to my soul that ‘All is not well’, and though it felt that the whole area is on a knife edge, still I am hopeful. For this can be to us not a prophecy of doom, but a wake-up call.

All South Africans must rekindle the vision of a free, fair, just, South Africa which inspired the peaceful transition to democracy, and we must work and pray to bring it about. It is a task that we must all shoulder together – government, politicians and the public sector; with business; with civil society; with media and academia and all other networks and organisations; and, of course, faith communities. This is the vision encapsulated in 1994 and in our Constitution. Its achievement lies in our hands, if we recommit ourselves positively, and work hard, rejecting complacency and hopelessness in the face of the country’s challenges. God wants what is best for all his children, and will help us, if we strive for all that is good and right.

We should not be afraid to hold fast to his promises of hope. For when his vision for good is at the centre of our lives, it will shape us and our society. This – this ideal of human dignity and flourishing, at the heart of our Constitution – defines who we are, who we truly aspire to be, rather than any of the difficulties, challenges, setbacks that we experience. So, even as we mourn, let us ask God to bring his light into our darkness, and guide our feet into his life-giving pathways. May he bring comfort and blessing to all who mourn, and fresh courage and hope for tomorrow.

Please keep Judge Ian Farlam – our own Provincial Chancellor– particularly in your prayers, that he might receive every assistance, as he heads the Commission of Enquiry.

And now some more joyful news: the Revd Stephen Moreo of St George’s Parktown has been elected to succeed Bishop Brian Germond as Bishop of Johannesburg. Please pray for him and his family, Liziwe his wife, and their children Siyabulela Onalerona, and Bontle, as they prepare for him to take these responsibilities.

Finally, on behalf of us all, let me pay tribute to another Bishop of Johannesburg, Duncan Buchanan, who died at the beginning of September. He was a great friend and dear brother in Christ, who was also for me – as for so many – a father in God who deeply influenced my life and ministry. I offer heartfelt thanks for the rich life of this faithful servant of God, whom was successor to Desmond Tutu, as both Dean and Bishop. He was also a great teacher and pastoral counsellor, especially in leading, guiding, and shaping so many of our clergy, who trained with him in Grahamstown.

As Bishop he encouraged my vocation, made me a deacon and ordained me a priest. He pressed me to keep on growing; and exposed me to many ministries within and beyond the church – for example, as his representative on the Council of St John’s College. Indeed, he never stopped mentoring me. When I was first a Bishop, he loaned me his pastoral staff and gave me my first vestments. And when I became Archbishop he did not stop mentoring, advising, giving me feedback and commenting on these ‘To the Laos’ letters. He was a rare soul-friend, offering both caution and encouragement to press on. He would send messages, ‘Thabo, phone me!’ and remind me ‘God is not in the business of rushing – slow down and take time to discern the mind of God!’ I shall miss him deeply, and am filled with gratitude for his influence upon my life.

So I give thanks to God for his wisdom, his humour, his strong presence in any gathering. I thank God for his courage, and readiness to confront things that needed to be confronted, including in his leadership during the struggle to overcome apartheid. I am sure many around the Anglican world will also thank God for his significant contribution to the 1998 Lambeth Conference, helping a very diverse group to wrestle deeply together and produce the clear, yet sensitive, report on human sexuality that stands behind the resolution that was ultimately passed – a report that deserved far more attention than, sadly, it received. He was also a keen ecumenist, committed always and everywhere to building up the body of Christ. I am especially thankful I was able to spend some quality time with Duncan, connecting and reminiscing, at the Diocese of Johannesburg’s 90th anniversary celebrations, just a few months ago.

‘Dunc and Di’ as he and his wife were known to so many of us, were a wonderful team, a formidable team, in life and in ministry. We hold Di in our love and prayers, together with everyone else who loved Duncan and mourns his death. We are so sad that we shall not hear his laughter again, but we know that heaven will be a livelier place! Yet in our pain and grieving, we entrust him into the eternal arms of the Lord he loved so deeply, confident that ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ our Lord.’

Hamba kahle, faithful priest in the church of God. May he rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Yours in the Service of Christ,

+Thabo Cape Town

President and Deputy Must Act Together on Marikana

The following media release was issued on 6 September 2012

‘President and Deputy Must Act Together on Marikana’ Says Anglican Archbishop after Visit

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town has called on President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to pay a joint visit to the platinum mining area of North-West Province, warning that the region is ‘on a knife edge’.

Dr Makgoba said, in a statement issued after sitting in on peace talks in Rustenburg, ‘It would be of great symbolic importance for our country's leader and a former union general secretary to be seen working closely together to address the issues of workers and local communities.’

Professing himself ‘optimistic’, the Anglican Archbishop nonetheless added ‘I could not help but fear in Marikana yesterday that we are living through the calm before a storm.’ He warned that ‘the living conditions and issues in the mining community are the stuff of which revolution is made. There is real urgency in these matters, and I pray that the Presidency and all business leaders will act quickly and effectively on these cancerous developments. ’He called for Judge Ian Farlam to receive every assistance in the Commission of Inquiry.

He commended the progress made towards a peaceful way forward, and the constructive role of the South African Council of Churches and local clergy, and called on all South Africans to rekindle the vision of a free, fair, just, South Africa which inspired the peaceful transition to democracy, and to work and pray to bring it about. ‘Never again must “blood bath” become a possibility’ he said.

Full Text of Archbishop’s Statement

On 5 September, I returned to the North-West Province, with the President and General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC). We visited Marikana and then the Rustenburg Civic Centre, to attend the talks between worker representatives, unions, mine management, and the Department of Labour. Finding a peaceful way forward was the prime concern of almost everyone present, though the atmosphere of hope was accompanied by the sort of robust speaking that can sound threatening, even terrifying, to those not used to South Africans’ frank talk.

As we drove away later – passing both Karee West, and Marikana Mine, Nkaneng camp, Wonderkop and the shaft head – it was as if the land spoke deep in my soul, saying ‘All is not well’. I could not help but fear we are living in the calm before a storm. We are on a knife edge. The dire states of everything from living conditions to issues in the mining community are the stuff from which revulsion follows and revolution is too easily made. We wish the peace efforts ‘Godspeed’, upholding all those involved, and those like the SACC and local clergy who are doing so much to support the process. Judge Ian Farlam deserves every assistance, every prayer, as he chairs the Commission of Inquiry.

I call on President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to pay a joint visit to the platinum mining area of North-West Province. It would be of great symbolic importance for our country's leader and a former union general secretary to be seen working closely together to address the issues of workers and local communities. I pray that the government will also act quickly and effectively, together with business leaders, to overcome these cancerous developments that have not only fuelled the Lonmin tragedy, but which infect every place where living and working conditions fail to deliver human dignity and economic justice.

Because I have faith in the living God, whose word to us is peace and hope and new life, I am optimistic that a better future is possible. But this visit left me with the sense that this country is like a smouldering log that, left unattended, lies ready to ignite at the slightest wind. There is real urgency in these matters. This is not a message of doom – it is a call to wake up and act. All South Africans must rekindle the vision of a free, fair, just, South Africa which inspired the peaceful transition to democracy, and we must work and pray to bring it about. Never again must talk of ‘blood bath’ become a possibility within our country.


The Archbishop will be available to talk to the media on 071 362 8510

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)