Archbishop Thabo responds to President Zuma's resignation

President Zuma's resignation is an acknowledgement that public power is to be exercised on behalf of and in service to the people of South Africa, rather than for the self-service of the incumbent.

To the Laos – To the People of God, March 2014

Dear People of God

I am writing this letter after a prayer vigil on the steps of St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, where a number of clergy, laity and bishops, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, retired Bishop Geoff Quinlan and Bishop Garth Counsell of Table Bay, joined us for a memorable occasion.

We stood in silence for 30 minutes, the clergy among us wearing our cassocks, holding flowers and posters. This was because the Cathedral had advertised the vigil under the banner, “A Flower for Thuli, A Message for the President”, referring to the South African Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, and her recently-released report on the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private residence at Nkandla.

Our placards called on the President to respond to the Public Protector’s report, and on the public to defend our “Chapter 9” institutions, the independent institutions set up under the South African Constitution to guard democracy.

Following this quiet demonstration, we all went into the cathedral to pray. This is what I shared with those gathered in the Cathedral:

Ladies and gentleman, bishops here present, including Emeritus Arch and clergy from the dioceses of the Western Cape,

We have gathered again on the steps of St George’s Cathedral in the footsteps of our predecessors who stood here in the apartheid era. We gather to say that some things are pulling us apart as a nation and we are pained.

In my letter of invitation to come to this prayer vigil, I said let us gather as Church in its broadest sense for a vigil, to pray that the Public Protector be herself protected by all progressives in the religious and NGO sectors and by all freedom-loving citizens; and also that the President, Parliament and the executive should implement in full all the steps which Adv. Madonsela has recommended in her report.

I requested that we gather in vigil and prayer to ask – in the spirit of Lent, in deep prayer and reflective concern – for the President and Parliament to report in full to the nation on precisely how they will give effect to the Public Protector’s recommendations.

Now as we reflect in vigil and prayer, I want to aid your reflections and actions by posing just a few questions instead of a long speech,especially as it is lunch time and some of you need to go back to work:

1. Acknowledging all the political, social and moral conversations and judgments that have taken place inside and outside the country, what can we as a society in South Africa learn from the Public Protector’s courage?

2. How has the Public Protector’s report helped ring a bell to the importance of our national values?

3. Since our values should guide every decision made by our Government leaders, and our historic Constitution clearly articulates our national values, what can our Government leaders learn from the flawed decisions that apparently didn’t consider our national values?

4. And lastly, when so many in our communities around our country are asking me, “Archbishop, what should the President do?” I tell them that our President must ask himself, “From the perspective of the 50 million South Africans that I lead, what do our national values suggest for me? What have I learned from the Public Protector’s exceptionally thorough and historic work? How can I more effectively model the values-based decisions that our Constitution clearly and unmistakably tells us?”

The President must do what is in our nation’s best interests.

As a spiritual leader, putting my hand on President Zuma’s shoulder, I say, “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?”

So, dear friends, we have seen the swimming pool, the amphitheatre, chicken runs and cattle culvert – now my appeal is that those that surround the President, as a collective, must take responsibility and tell us they will lead us to the truth.

Also my yearning is for a more concerted effort by the entire faith-based and non-governmental organization community not so much to defend the Public Protector as an individual as to defend the rights of the public – which rights are in fact being protected by the Public Protector – and the integrity of the office of the Public Protector.

Furthermore, South Africans cannot be hoaxed into believing that a Government which erred so seriously can investigate itself. Let us then have the moral courage required at this moment to rise up and support the call for the public’s right to know and take responsibility for making our democracy work.

In that spirit and with renewed courage, I now pray:

Lord, God of Hope,
Restore our brokenness and torn fabric
Heal our divisions and our land
But please begin with me.
Amen


Turning to other matters this month, our Province’s Media Committee has reported that the number of subscriptions to our colour magazine, Southern Anglican, is down, raising the gloomy prospect of having to close the publication if we cannot reverse this trend. I encourage all Anglicans to subscribe to the magazine, which – as a place for sharing news and views – is the only general print publication we still have which reflects our identity as a Province.

And now let me end this letter to you by thanking Bishop Dinis Sengulane of Lebombo for his ministry in our Province and Communion, over 38 years as a bishop and 40 as a priest. Bishop Dinis epitomizes the moral courage and great humility that is missing in most of our leaders. May you have a blessed retirement, Bishop Dinis, and be freed to do the things which you would love to do most in service to the world and your country, Mozambique. Thank you for your courage and belief that God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is always ahead of us, whatever we face. May this message resonate in all our faithful this Easter and for evermore.

As we continue to be conduits of peace with justice, I pray that the Risen Lord, whose passion, death and resurrection we will celebrate at this time and always, will renew our strength and make us fly on wings like an eagle even as we offer ourselves in service for the common good.

I send you all season’s greetings, proclaiming that we can move from the passion of an Nkandla to the glorious resurrection of Easter by declaring: Christ is Risen!

God bless you,

+Thabo

In Defence of South Africa's Public Protector

A statement responding to criticism of South Africa's Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela. It was issued the day before she was scheduled to issue a report on public spending at the country residence of President Jacob Zuma:

We in the churches deeply regret that certain clergy have ganged up against the Public Protector in the name of the Church. They have done so without adequate knowledge of her reports and their intervention only serves to undermine the fight against corruption.

It is shameful to see the dirty tactics being employed by politicians against the Public Protector. There is clearly a coordinated campaign by those implicated in her reports to denigrate her office and its work. This threatens to undermine the legitimacy of an institution established and protected by our Constitution.

We welcome the Public Protector's reports on corruption and mismanagement. We thank her for making the country accountable and transparent. Her office's work helps to develop our democracy, and I call on civil society to join the churches in defending it against the current assault.

+Thabo Cape Town

Independence of Faith Communities from Government and Political Parties

This statement was issued by the Western Cape Religious Leaders' Forum on 1 November 2012. No invitation to President Zuma's meeting with 'the religious sector' was received at Bishopscourt.

WCRLF CALLS ON RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES TO BE VIGILANT IN THEIR INDEPENDENCE FROM GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL PARTIES

The Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum (WCRLF) notes with concern the report on “Nation Building through Social Dialogue with the Religious Sector,” a conference convened at the Good Hope Centre on Tuesday 30 October 2012. The conference was organized by the ANC Legislature at which President Jacob Zuma was the keynote speaker. We note with further consternation that the conference purports to ‘strengthen the ANC’s association with the interfaith movement’ and hailed President Zuma as ‘having worked hard to unite the religious people of SA’.

The WCRLF feels compelled to re-affirm one of its founding principles namely, that faith communities should strive to be an independent voice, free of government or party political interference. This is one of the most important lessons that we as religious leaders have learnt from the apartheid crime against humanity, when some churches became the racist National Party at prayer. In light of this tragic lesson, WCRLF has committed itself to resist the temptation of merely being apologists for the political authorities or of being co-opted by political parties to advance their own agendas. We do not need government to unite the religious communities of South Africa. The vital process of inter-religious dialogue and solidarity should and is being nurtured and promoted by the interfaith movement ourselves. The WCRLF and its partner organization the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative (CTII) have been contributing to reconciliation in modest ways by striving to overcome the stubborn racial, religious and class divides in the City of Cape Town for more than a decade. Neither the WCRLF nor the CTII were invited to attend the conference held in our city.

Furthermore, as religious leaders we have a prophetic role of being one of civil society’s strongest partners in holding our government accountable for its political and moral mandate. This is the only insurance for a robust democracy. In this regard WCRLF has recently joined a wide range of public intellectuals and social activists in expressing concern about the growing problem of corruption in public and private life. With half our population living in poverty and millions still without jobs, housing, electricity, adequate sanitation, and medical care the human cost of corruption is widely felt. We thus note with great distress and dismay that the 30 October 2012 conference, cost a reported R2.1 million! The WCRLF supports calls to fully investigate how the event and funding came about.

We call on religious leaders and communities to be vigilant about attempts by government and political parties to co-opt them and to continue their prophetic role of being the independent moral conscience of society alongside other civil society partners.

Sermon on Marikana and 'Towards Carnegie 3'

This sermon was preached at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, on 9 September 2012, following a visit to Marikana, and the 'Towards Carnegie 3' Conference - its themes are still relevant over a month later.

Proverbs 2: 1-8; Ps 119: 129-136; James 1: 17-27; Mark 7: 31-37

May I speak in the name of God, who makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. Mr Dean, thank you for your invitation to preach this morning. As I shall be back again this afternoon, I was tempted to bring a picnic basket and camping stool with me to the pulpit!

But let me turn to more serious matters.

On Wednesday 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 attended the talks at the Rustenburg Civic Centre, between worker representatives, unions, mine management, and the Department of Labour. Almost everyone present was committed to finding a peaceful way forward, and, overall, there was an atmosphere of hope – notwithstanding the ‘robust’ language that many used! I found this very encouraging.

But at the same time, my heart was sore, and my spirit grieved. Driving away later, we went past the Karee West informal settlement, and past the mine area: past Nkaneng camp and Wonderkop and the shaft head. It felt that the land was crying out to me, deep in my soul, saying ‘All is not well, all is not well.’ It felt like the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane.

That part of North-West Province teeters on a knife edge. The dire state of everything from living conditions to the issues in the mining community, stirred up revulsion inside me. This is the stuff from which revolution is far too easily made, if we allow it. Whether in the mines or anywhere else, living and working conditions that – 18 years after the coming of democracy – still deliver neither human dignity nor economic justice, have become like a cancer spreading across our country.

Poverty and its consequences are clearly portrayed in scripture as evil. And this evil all too often arises from structural deficiencies rooted in moral failings. Of course, the problems can be complex. If there were simple, easy answers to poverty, to inequality, to unemployment, someone, somewhere, would have found them by now. This is why we need good research on strategies to overcome poverty and inequality, as encouraged at this week’s conference at UCT, ‘Towards Carnegie 3’. This is why we need comprehensive policy initiatives like the National Development Plan.

But the essence of the problem lies elsewhere – it lies in within us. Jesus cured the deaf and the blind. But he also warned of spiritual deafness and blindness. To the Pharisees, Jesus said ‘Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?’ (Mk 8:18).

This is our problem: the failings of political will, of moral strength, of ethical courage. We see the injustice, we hear the cries of those who are oppressed. Even if we do not know all the answers, there is always plenty we could do. But we do not do it – and we sit back while others, in politics, government, business, and across society, do not do it.

The tragedy of Marikana did not come from nowhere. It arose because we have been content to let things slide. They have slid in policy-making and implementation; in attitudes that allow economic inequalities to grow; in acceptance of high and low level corruption and in ineffectual implementation of good governance and the rule of law. They have slid in the worsening trust between government and citizens, politicians and people.

It is, as Mamphela Ramphele has said, above all a failure of leadership: in politics, but also in business, and in the cosy relationship they too often enjoy. Our leaders are the deaf, who cannot hear the loud cries of the hungry, the homeless, the needy, the oppressed. Our leaders are the blind, who cannot see what is right in front of their faces.

And what of us? Are we the mute, who, despite all this evidence, say nothing? As we heard from St James this morning, we must be doers of the word, not hearers only. We cannot remain silent. What we see and hear, we must speak out.

This is what I, and so many of us, try to do in supporting the task of the Carnegie conference and the National Development Plan; in opposing corruption; in aligning with NGOs and initiatives like Equal Education, the Social Cohesion Summit, and Social Justice Coalition; and through the Church’s own projects, like those at the Cathedral, or the Global Economic Indaba which I am promoting.

It is what I have tried to do, in calling for President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to visit the platinum mining area of North-West Province together. 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.

We also call for Judge Ian Farlam – our own Provincial Chancellor – to receive every assistance, every prayer, as he chairs the Commission of Inquiry. We also 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.

For the prophetic voice of the church must proclaim what is wrong, but, more important, we must always announce the possibilities of God’s redemptive grace into every situation. And although we are frustrated and grieved by all that is wrong, we must not become fuelled by anger. As we heard from St James, our anger cannot produce God’s righteousness, which is what our country, our people, most desperately need.

Rather, our attitude must be of sharing freely, as we have freely received, from God’s generous hand. God’s promise of salvation, in every area of society, must be our vision – our goal, and the touchstone of all we say and do.

Recently, I’ve become very hooked on St Paul’s wise words 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.

The book of Proverbs puts it another way: live in fear – or better, in awe – of God, if you want to know how to live. Cry to God for insight and you will discover what to say and do and find the will to do it. Or, in the Bible’s own words:
‘The LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice ...’

May God indeed grant wisdom, so we may live upright and blameless lives, and guard the paths of justice so all may walk in them. And each one of us, whether or not we are involved in policy making and implementation, can live in awe of God; and strive so that in our own contexts, and in all our dealings with others, human dignity is upheld, justice ensured, equality promoted, and moral courage encouraged. We must also press for governments internationally to take more courageous steps towards fundamental restructuring global economic and financial systems, so we can ensure that the needs of the poor and the planet are put before profit and politics.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, my time in Marikana 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. Yet I remain an optimist, for I have faith in the living God, whose word to us is peace and hope and new life. His gospel promises that a better future is possible.

Therefore, 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.

And so, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, let our prayers be that God will open the ears of the deaf among our leaders, so they may hear and act. May God help us all, who are so often so mute, to open our mouths and speak out. Amen.

For useful background, see http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/winter_04southafrica.pdf.

Marikana Inquiry - Call for Government to Fund Families' Legal Representation

This letter to President Zuma was released to the media on 2 October 2012.

Dear Mr President

Earlier this month, you spoke warmly at the funeral of Sr Bernard Ncube of the role of the religious sector in Marikana. As you will know, in various ways we continue that involvement, according to the unfolding needs of the situation. One of these ways is through encouraging as far as we are able every assistance to be accorded to Judge Ian Farlam and the Commission of Inquiry he chairs. I am sure all agree that it is of vital importance that this Commission should be able to provide the fullest and fairest account possible of those tragic events and all that gave rise to them.

It is on this matter that I am writing to you. For, as far as I understand, the Government, in addition to financing the costs of the Commission itself, is also funding the legal representation of Evidence Leaders, and of those members of SAPS who will appear before it. However, it seems that similar legal support is not being equally extended to the miners themselves nor to the families of those who lost their lives – who, though they may not have been at the mine at the time of the tragedy, nonetheless lived with the reality of the financial circumstances of their dear ones, which is a material consideration in respect of the relationship between employees and employer, a key area within the terms of reference of the Inquiry.

The Commission must be seen to be acting justly, with a level playing field accorded to all concerned parties, and I am therefore deeply troubled at the message of apparent inequality this decision can be seen as conveying. I therefore strongly urge you to reconsider, and to make state funded legal representation available here also.

Please be assured that you remain always in my own prayers, and those of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, that God will bless you with his wisdom and grace to follow his best paths in all you do, so that you might be a blessing to this nation, and to all its people.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

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

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)

A Call for the Return of Police “Services”

This press release was issued on 25 April 2011

South Africa’s Police should be renamed as ‘Services’, and the word ‘Force’ should be dropped, the Archbishop of Cape Town said, in his Easter Sermon.

Preaching at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, at the Easter Vigil Service on Saturday night, Dr Thabo Makgoba called for the police to be consciously focussed on delivering ‘safety and security’, and other ‘life-affirming’ action. In contrast, to speak of ‘force’ was too often to ‘maim and kill’ and be ‘wrapped in brutality’.

The Archbishop challenged South Africans to consider what it means to ‘meet the risen Jesus in Galilee’, through following Jesus’ example in their own lives. He spoke of his discomfort at having ‘to walk alongside wealth-creators or others whom power has corrupted, in order to challenge them’ to live by Jesus’ standards, as well as being pastor to the poor and needy, and promoting care of God’s world.

Dr Makgoba highlighted Jesus’ call for reconciliation and forgiveness, even with those we consider our enemies, in the light of Andries Tatane’s killing, and his own subsequent visit to Ficksburg. He repeated his call for the President and senior Ministers to go and apologise publicly for the unjustifiable violence as well as for the appalling conditions against which residents had demonstrated, and to make concrete improvements in housing and service delivery. While insisting that those responsible for Andries Tatane’s death must face justice, he also called for a process of forgiveness, and, as part of this, encouraged South Africans to demand the change in name for the police.

The Archbishop said people should take to heart the risen Jesus’ call ‘Do not be afraid’, and should be ‘fearless’ in demanding proper service delivery, especially for ‘the needs of the needy and the poorest of the poor’, and in opposing corruption. Everyone should be courageous in using their vote to call elected representatives to meet their promises and obligations.

The full text of the Archbishop’s Sermon follows below. Please note that the Archbishop’s reflections on his visit to Ficksburg, his Easter letter, and other recent statements can be found on his blog at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

May I speak in the name of God, who raised Jesus, His Son, from the dead. Amen. Dear Friends in Christ, dear sisters and brothers at St George’s Cathedral – the Peoples’ Cathedral – Jesus has been raised indeed. Alleluia! We gather on this most Holy Night to acclaim and affirm that Jesus the Son of God was crucified for the sake of the World, and rose to new life, to break the power of death and bring redemptive hope to all humanity and to all of God’s creation. This is the Easter message and story – a celebration of new life which is always awaiting us. A gift of eternal life won through His victory over the cross – a gift which is always there, ready for us to unwrap.

As St Paul writes, ‘Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’ (Romans 6:4-5). Thus, Jesus, by his cross and resurrection, has freed us from the slavery of sin, broken the chains of death, and opened the way to heaven, where in the Lord’s presence, there is fullness of joy and delight for evermore (Psalm 16:11).

So, in St Matthew’s gospel, we read how Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers (sisters) to go to Galilee; there they will see me’ (Matthew 28:10). Galilee was the centre of his earthly activities and ministries, where people were healed, fed, taught and comforted, and where the marginalised were incorporated and the authorities challenged. He invites us also to go there – ‘there you will see me.’ We must ask ourselves, what might your Galilee be and mean to you today – Galilee, a place for Jesus’ context and ministry? Where might Jesus be inviting you to go to today?

Since being Archbishop, I have felt constantly called to be a pastor, to come alongside others in their pain or despair as they face the forces of death and destruction, to affirm them and sometimes challenge their learnt helplessness. I have been called as well, to care for God’s planet, as it grieves the loss of its integrity and respect through the insatiable appetites of a greedy few when the majority go hungry, and too many die due to lack of food, water and energy and basic needs such sanitation. I have also been called – though at times I feel uncomfortable about this – to walk alongside the wealth creators or others whom power has absolutely corrupted, in order to challenge them and mirror the demands of God in Jesus Christ unveiled in the Galilee. I have been constantly called to write and reflect on what might constitute the common good, human flourishing and human dignity and as well as the integrity of God’s creation – or the reign of God in the now and here.

Let me share one example of what reflected my Galilee, this Holy Week – a context and ministry where Christ may have said, tell my brother, the Archbishop, to go there and ‘there he will see me.’ The protest in which police turned water cannons on Ficksburg residents has been such a place – where the police bizarrely drenched locals with gallons of water when they could not get it from their taps. This behaviour should set alarm bells ringing in dysfunctional towns across South Africa.

The story is that of Andries Tatane, a teacher and community worker, and his fellow community members who were demanding simply that justice be done. They wanted to be treated with dignity, to have water and proper toilets instead of the bucket system. They went to present a petition to their elected representatives but were met with disproportionate police force. Andries Tatane had to pay with his life to get the attention of his elected leaders.

The resurrected Jesus says to the Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, ‘Do not be afraid’ (Matthew 28:1ff). Perhaps, He says to you and me and the residents of Meqheleng and others - fear not! Continue the work in this Galilee of challenging authorities, say to Minister Sicelo Shiceka, visit Ficksburg and see the appalling conditions under which God's people live. Minister Tokyo Sexwale visit, also and tell the community what you are doing about their housing. Minister Nathi Mthethwa and President Zuma, publicly apologise for the acts of aggression of the police, and say that the senior officers responsible for the police who killed Andries should face justice too.

Equally and more challenging for us as Christians, as Bishop Anthony said yesterday (and as echoed by Fr Terry and Fr Clive, in their informative and inspiring meditations during the Good Friday Three Hour Service), let us go to our Galilee and learn to forgive even our killers, those who persecute you, even the police who killed Andries. I want to add to their call of yesterday, today’s gospel injunction - do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to make forgiveness a process, wherein the wronged encounter the wrong-doer and together tell their part, and together discover the forgiving and restoring Christ waiting for them both. Forgiveness cannot be a one way process.

I therefore, encourage all of us, the Tatane family, the residents in Meqheleng, to affirm and call for a renaming of our police services back to ‘safety and security’ and not a police ‘force’, for this force seems to maim and kill rather than offer safety and security. Our Police Force is not life affirming. Nor is it wrapped in life giving behaviour – ready for us to unwrap and find abundant life. It seems to be wrapped with brutality and force which Christ overcame by his death on the Cross. Perhaps part of this forgiving process would be to urge their elected leaders to provide new, better homes and living conditions for the people of Ficksburg and also for the poorest of the poor across our country. But to expect the poor to yet again understand whilst the political elite kill and enrich themselves at the poor’s expense, will betray the true forgiveness Christ calls for.

The point of Easter is that Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified for the sake of the world, and rose to new life, to break the power of death, oppression, deceit, tyranny and to bring abundant life, redemptive hope to all humanity and to God’s creation. By his death and resurrection, Jesus unveils for us a Living Hope and fearlessness in demanding that we be served by our elected leaders as we too serve others. I pray we too may come to know our responsibilities to one another. Perhaps this murder may be a positive outcome of the very public nature of this violent tragedy – that we may turn our outrage into actions – actions which will lead to better lives for all our sisters and brothers who still suffer from the indignities which failed delivery of basic services imposes on their lives.

We can all begin by taking our upcoming local elections seriously. In our voting may we prayerfully consider - who will get the job done? And once the elections have taken place and our elected leaders are in place, let us demand leadership with results – especially for the poorest of the poor. They have listened to promises for too long. And those of us who are privileged to have basic services and more - we cannot be silent any longer. We are one family – God’s family – and we have responsibilities to one another.

In my Easter monthly letter, I said, ‘People’s lives are at stake, as we face local elections in May, we must never forget this, especially as we decide how to vote. Will we choose life for all, or opulence for some at the expense of others? We are not a rich country, but what we have should be enough to go round. Everyone should have proper food, shelter, fresh drinking water and sanitation. Every child should have access to a decent education. Affordable, adequate health care should be available to everyone.’ We also need to care for our planet, our earthly home, for it does not have limitless resources of water, food and energy.

This is the Galilee which Jesus calls us to be fearless in standing for, both in words and action. Go and spread this Easter message and do likewise. God calls on all of us, on political parties, politicians, business people, to go to our Galilee and to serve him, and to serve the people of this nation and his broken world: to put the needs of the needy first, especially the poorest of the poor. To bring good news to the poor, loving our neighbours as ourselves, and treating others as we would like to be treated. To have time for the outcasts – the excluded and unimportant people of our day – remembering that every human being is made in the image of God, and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

As we join in acclamations, saying He is risen indeed, let us ensure that God’s good purposes for humanity find expression and fulfilment through us – that the Easter promise of abundant life that Jesus won for us on the cross may be known by all and felt by his creation too. Happy Easter!

Reference: Matthew 28:1-10

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. Inquiries: Wendy Tokata on 021- 763-1320 (office hours)

Visit to Ficksburg and Tatane Family

Tuesday in Holy Week this year was a very long day. As I sat in the Bloemfontein airport lounge, preparing to board the 6:05pm plane to Cape Town I realised that my emotions were very raw as I reflected on the day. I had left Cape Town at 6:00am to fly to Bloemfontein and then to be driven to Meqheleng, outside Ficksburg. It had been a very long Journey - long in kilometres but also long in terms of feeling the longing for justice to be done and for the poorest of the poor to receive even the most basic services as guaranteed them in our Constitution.

The occasion was a very sad one. Most South Africans would have read about it - the tragic death of Andries Tatane, aged 33, of Ficksburg and the injuries to his fellow community members. Andries and his community members were demanding justice to be done. They wanted to be treated with dignity, to have safe drinking water and proper sanitation - not the bucket system toilets.

They went to present their petition to their elected representative, their Mayor, but were met with water cannons, ironically being attacked with the very thing they don’t have the pleasure of in their daily lives. And if that were not enough, then came a disproportionate police force which claimed Andries’ young life. A dedicated teacher and community worker, he paid with his life to get the attention of his elected leaders.

Minister Shiceka should visit and see the appalling conditions under which God’s people live. Minister Tokyo Sexwale should visit too and provide houses. Minister Nathi Mthethwa and President Zuma should publicly apologise for this embarrassing act of aggression by police. And the commander who issued the instruction to shoot must be arrested too. I hope this is not to be accepted as a tacit demonstration of the police policy ‘shoot to kill’.

As we approach Easter, a season of life and hope, I want to send my condolences again to the Tatane family, as I did verbally on Tuesday. I pray that they may have the strength and courage and faith to get through this terrible time in their lives. In addition to the tragedy of Andries’ death, which was ‘shared’ with South Africans and the world through the media, I also pray that the family will have adequate compensation to build a new home and an opportunity to rebuild their lives, and that Andries’s death will ensure that all the Meqheleng residents will also have better houses and adequate services.

I pray for hope and fearlessness in demanding that we be served by our elected leaders. I pray we too may come to know our responsibilities to one another. Perhaps this may be a positive outcome of the very public nature of this violent tragedy – that we may turn our outrage into actions – actions which will lead to better lives for all our sisters and brothers who still suffer from the indignities which failed delivery of basic services imposes on their lives. We can all begin by taking our upcoming local elections seriously. In our voting may we prayerfully consider - who will get the job done? And once the elections have taken place and our elected leaders are in place, let us demand leadership with results – especially for the poorest of the poor. They have listened to promises for too long. And those of us who are privileged to have basic services and more, we cannot be silent any longer. We are one family – God’s family – and we have responsibilities to one another.

NOTE: Archbishop went to Ficksburg in his capacity as Patron of the EMN and chair of the Eminent Persons’ Group of the EMN. The Anglican Bishop of the Free State is the local Bishop and All Saints Anglican Church is located in the town of Ficksburg.

For more information, contact Siya Gidi (EMN) at 0729350892 or Wendy Tokata (Office of the Archbishop) at 021 763 1320. This statement is being released jointly by the EMN Office in Cape Town and the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.

President Zuma's Use of Religious Language, and State of the Nation Address

This statement was issued on 11 February 2011

Let us change the discourse. We are approaching municipal elections and once again we are hearing words and words and more words. At the same time we see very little action which shows that the poor are being cared for and that service delivery is evident in many parts of our country.

Last night we listened to President Zuma deliver the State of the Nation Address. We applaud the emphasis on the creation of more jobs and greater efforts towards service delivery. We were also glad to hear that government will seek to fill its own vacancies so it can be more effective. Will government also ensure that competence and commitment to those in greatest need are requirements of new workers? The plans sound positive, but the question which looms large as always is the same – can our government deliver on these promises? And, will the Alliance work together for the betterment of the lives of those most disadvantaged persons in our country?

Jesus said to Peter, ’Feed my lambs; tend my sheep and feed my lambs.’ The instruction is to serve and not run to eschatology (concerns about the end of time). The command is to love oneself as you would want others to love you and not to have all interest focused on self and family but rather on your neighbours who are without even the most basic services.

Our concern is not to ‘protect’ Jesus from these issues. Jesus calls us into this battlefield we call our society. Jesus reveals his true identity in the demands he places before President Zuma and the ruling party and before all of us. In short, we are called to bring all people into a fullness of life which God has intended for all his children. This is what it means to followers of Jesus.

Naught for your Comfort Award

While President Zuma has the right to hope South African voters will choose an ANC government ‘until Jesus comes again’, his prediction that that ANC would rule South Africa forever was unfortunate, anachronistic, and potentially dangerous, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town has said.

Speaking at the annual Naught for your Comfort Award ceremony held at Sophiatown’s Christ the King Church on Friday evening, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said that the Constitution’s guarantee of the freedom of religion meant anyone could allot to Jesus whatever role they wished, adding that the churches had no desire to ‘colonise’ Jesus, as some claimed. To speak of ruling ‘until the end of time as we know it’ was a political, rather than religious matter, he said, pointing to the enormous poverty and suffering one-party rule had often brought in Africa. He felt such an attitude reflected a ’1960s or ‘70’s view of our continent’, in contrast to perspectives on democracy and governance recently expressed by the African Union. He warned that the President’s comments risked ‘encouraging those who have a strong stake in – and economic motives for – prolonging ANC rule indefinitely’, even by unconstitutional means.

The Archbishop nonetheless assured the President and his government of his continuing prayers that they might successfully fulfil their promises to tackle poverty, expressing the hope that they might ‘follow the leadership of Jesus Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, and who taught us to put the needs of others before our own’.

Archbishop Makgoba was honoured as the first Rector of the parish of Christ the King, following its restoration to the Anglican Church, in 1997. It had been abandoned, and then sold, in the late 1960s, following population removals. Also honoured were the Smith family, whose generous donation in the 1930s led to the building of the church; Bishop Duncan Buchanan, retired Bishop of Johannesburg, who oversaw the church’s reclamation; and the Community of the Resurrection, which has a long history of supporting the parish and provided many of its earliest rectors. Among these was Trevor Huddleston, after whose book the award is named.

Linking the Award to the scriptural call to ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people’, the Archbishop challenged his hearers to consider what nature such comfort might take in today’s society, wherever people were prevented from flourishing. He said the church should press for God’s justice to be realised in the proper remuneration of health care professionals and funding of the health service, as well as in social grants, education, halting human trafficking and in sustainable development. He also called for politicians to be held accountable, and for greater truth and transparency in government, including in relation to the arms deal.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town

Full text of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s speech

Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great privilege and pleasure to be with you this evening.

I am honoured to find myself a recipient of the Naught for your Comfort Award – and more than honoured to find myself in such august company as you, Bishop Duncan and Di, and the Smith family, and the Community of the Resurrection. I offer you my congratulations, alongside my own thanks, as a former rector, for all that you have done for this church, and this community, over so many years. Speaking of rectors, may I also express particular thanks to you, Fr Luke, as our host today – and may I congratulate you on your recent appointment to Christ the King, and assure you of my continuing prayers in this new responsibility. If you find yourself even half as much blessed through the life of Christ the King as I was, during my time here, you will be blessed indeed. And I am sure that you will be a blessing to those entrusted to your pastoral care.

Our theme for this Naught for your Comfort Award Lecture, is ‘Social Justice and the Church’. Since I am an archbishop, I hope you will permit me to begin with some words from the Bible, to set the scene for us. When we think of the word ‘Comfort’, I am sure that for most of us, the words that spring first to mind are from the first verse of the fortieth chapter of the book of the Prophet Isaiah – a passage that we read earlier this week as we remembered the birth of John the Baptist. As the King James Version so memorably puts it, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord.’

So the question I want to consider this evening, is this: ‘What is the nature of the comfort which the Lord is asking us to share with the community around?’ How does God want us to be channels of his comfort, in Sophiatown here and now, when, to quote further from Isaiah, ‘the term of bondage is served’, or, as another translation puts it, ‘they have suffered long enough’.

Well, the term of bondage ended fifteen years ago, for this country, and twelve years ago for this church, where I was privileged to serve as the first rector after the reclamation of the building. Yes, we suffered – we suffered enough. But now the bondage is over – now we have a new freedom to enjoy. So our first response is one of gratitude.

Indeed, in all of life, gratitude should be our first response – for the gift of life itself; and for the reality of God’s promises, that nothing in all creation can separate us from his love, and that there is no situation so terrible that he cannot work in it for good (Rom 8:28,39).

This surely is a source of sure and certain comfort to us all. We look back, and we see how God worked for good in, and through, and despite, our past. And so, when the present, when the future, seem to threaten, we can proclaim our confidence that God will work for good again, as we once more put out hands in his, and trust in him.

This is the first word of comfort that we can proclaim to our community. Yes, God works in all things for good, if we are prepared to let him – and so we dare to give him thanks, in good times and in bad.

Gratitude is the heart of thanksgiving – and thanksgiving is the essence, and the essential meaning, of the Eucharist: the sustaining meal of remembrance through which God’s presence is made real to us, and we lift up our hearts, and as we are caught up into the worship of heaven. As the Prayer Book tells us, this is the central act of the Church’s worship. In Christ, it is also our eucharist, our thanksgiving, to God, for his inexpressible love in giving his only Son for us: Lamb of God, bearer of our sins, redeemer of the world. It is also our communion – as we receive, in and through the consecrated bread and wine, the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice made once for all, and as we in our turn offer ourselves as living sacrifice to God. Now the Lord takes us and blesses us. He breaks us in renewed surrender and gives us as food for others.

And so we have a two-fold movement: the call to come, ‘draw near, and receive’ – and the summons to move out into a needy world, ‘go in peace to love and serve the Lord’.

Tonight, we are gathered here in recognition that we have been able, in so many different ways, in so many difficult circumstances, to ‘draw near and receive’ – though the life and ministry of Christ the King. We are affirming and acknowledging, very particular channels through whom we have been drawn closer to the Lord, and received from his bounty:

* We thank God for the Smith family, for their generous donation of funds that allowed the building of this house of the Lord, this sacred space, in which so many could find a place to draw near to him

* We thank God for the companionship in the gospel, the Christ-like service, and the spiritual nurturing, that we have received from the Community of the Resurrection, over so many years, in running the Church, and in so many community projects – and especially their faithfulness in some of our darkest years.

* We thank God for Bishop Duncan, who, as our Diocesan Bishop, gave leadership, guidance and encouragement, through the complex and often painful process of reclaiming this church, and who has been a mentor to so many people.

Through them all, so many of us, myself included, drew closer to God, and received his comfort.

In turn, we must now also ‘go out’ from here, sharing the peace of God – sharing the comfort of God – as we love and serve the Lord; as we love and serve his people, his world. And so I want to ask tonight – how are you using these lectures, to help you love and serve God and his world, to help you bring the true comfort of God to those around you, who need it most?

Preparing to come here this evening, I did a little homework. I read the text of Archbishop Njongo’s lecture, of two years ago. I wonder if you remember it. I wonder what you have done about it.

In his book Naught for your Comfort, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston warned us about being caught up in words, words, words – saying something along the lines of ‘I hate words, because the church slumbers while the people suffer.’ Archbishop Trevor took the title ‘Naught for your comfort’ from a poem by G K Chesterton. Two years ago, recollecting this, Archbishop Njongo drew on some other words from Chesterton. These spoke of the importance of understanding our own history, of understanding how we got to this place, this moment – in order to understand better how we can go forward.

Archbishop Njongo spoke about how important lament is, in helping us remember our raw and painful past, in ways that transforms us to a place of ‘hopeful recollection’. So, have you been learning how to lament the pains of the past?

* That time of exile as Sophiatown was destroyed, and the people removed to Meadowlands?

* The years of feeling like the ancient people of Israel, deported to Babylon?

* And this church under what felt like foreign domination, as the Jerusalem Temple was in the time of Isaiah?

* The long wait until you could return, and rebuild, as the Jewish exiles finally did?

What have you learnt from your lamenting? What healing are you finding for this painful history?

And how is lamenting teaching you to walk alongside those who are hurting today – walking as Christ the King walked with us, a king who knows what it is to suffer ‘even unto death on a cross’? What has your experience been of following Archbishop Njongo’s call to intentionality in recollecting, in order to create bridges of hope for the future? Or, as Chesterton would put it, What new understandings of the past are you learning, so you can better go forward?

I know that I have been changed in the years since I was Rector here.

In those days when the pain was still so raw, I preached often from the radical experiences of the liberation theologians, who used the images of Jewish Exodus and Promised Land, and of exile and return, very powerfully in their understanding of the God who stands with us in our woundedness, wherever we may be – and yet who ultimately promises to bring us home.

Now we are home – we do not deny our past, but we are not its prisoners. We live in a context where the bondage is over, and God’s comfort has been made real to us. It is our turn to be channels of his comfort.

I am finding this in my own ministry – challenged to a greater balance, a greater breadth, a greater hope, in preaching not just exile and return, but the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who promises life in abundance to everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.

So let me now pick up the key question I raised earlier this evening. What is the nature of the comfort which the Lord is asking us to share, here and now, with the community around us?

We can find some guidance in answering this question by returning to Isaiah chapter 40, and reading the verses that follow. Here, the Prophet speaks of preparing the way of the Lord in the wilderness, making a straight highway through the desert, by lifting up valleys, bringing down hills, and levelling the rough ground – and then the glory of the Lord will be revealed. So, let us ask tonight: where is there wilderness and desert in this community? Of course, I do not mean literally, where is there barren dry land – unlike the barren and vacant plot at the back of the church, which you should consider how best to use!

We need to think more broadly about wherever there is desolation, instead of the flourishing that God desires for humanity – sharing in community, where each of us loves, and is loved by, our neighbours as ourselves. The question then arises of ‘Who is my neighbour?’ within the family of the Church, within our communities – even among our colleagues and business contacts. Yes, everyone is our neighbour. There is no-one who crosses our path who is not our neighbour, someone with whom to share the comfort of God. And so, within these human networks to which we belong, we need to consider: Where is there wilderness, desert, barrenness, where instead there ought to be life, flourishing, growth, development?

And what about straight ways? Where are the ways of life, in your community, in your work, in your parish, not straight? Where is there crookedness – perhaps crime, corruption, bribery, bending the rules, cutting corners, being elastic with the truth, playing it a little too clever, taking the easy way out … How can you bring in the straight ways, and live by the measure of righteousness?

Then there are the valleys and hills – the gaps and the obstacles. Where are the gaps, the shortfalls, between how we are, and what we are called to be? And what obstacles stand in the way of us living the lives God purposes for us? And finally, there is levelling rough ground. Where do we still trip up, even though the way ahead, on the face of it, seems relatively clear?

I am sure with very little imagination, you can provide me at once with all manner of answers!

And we can address these issues with confidence, for we serve a Lord who says, Comfort, comfort my people, and we know his word does not return empty! How then, shall we bring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all these pains of today’s world.

What is the social justice for which our God would have us strive? Some of us do not find it easy to answer this question. The world around is complex and ambiguous, and we do not know where to begin. Many of us grew up with one big simple question, for the church and for the country, to which there was one big simple answer – the end of apartheid. Now, in both politics and faith, we have to deal with complicated and diverse issues, with no big simple answers – and we are not used to the new mindset this requires. You might even say, it takes us outside our comfort zone!

For democratic life is messy. This is a reality. But, for us who are new to it, it can be confusing, and unsettling, as the tides of politics ebb and flow, and personalities and politicians come and go. And often devout and deep-thinking Christians are divided on all manner of issues from the death penalty through to the best way to tackle poverty. But we should not be discouraged. God can work in this democratic world as easily as in the bad old days – for nowhere is outside God’s comfort zone!

Instead of one big question, one big answer, we can find God at work in many detailed ways, answering every question, however it comes. So each of us can ask, within our own circumstances, as well as within the parish, and within the community, the questions I asked above:

* what are the barren deserts,

* what are the crooked ways,

* what are the gaps,

* what are the obstacles,

* and what is it, even when life seems sorted out, that still trips you up in your attempts to go forward?

And then we must ask ‘how can I best be a loving neighbour, in tackling these issues wherever I encounter them?’

Each of us may come up with slightly different answers and priorities, depending on our own contexts, our own callings. The particular challenges facing politicians, business people, journalists, teachers, doctors, clergy and so forth, are all likely to be different – just as our personal and family situations, may be different. But in them all, God wants to make the road forward straight and level, for the glory of the Lord to be revealed in our lives. God wants to bring abundant, flourishing, holy, life – a life of justice and truth – and he will do so in whatever manner is most appropriate for each person, each context.

So do not worry that, with the loss of the big question, and big answer, the Church has ‘lost its vision’. No, in changed circumstances, we must learn to express God’s vision, God’s comfort, differently, appropriately to the complexities and varieties of our lives. Now we face the challenge of discerning the finger prints of God in the ‘little things’ of life, in every time and place. Do not forget – we serve a God who numbers the hairs on every person’s heads. He has made-to-measure promises, that deliver tangible comfort, for every single one of his children.

And so, wherever we are, we can promote God’s comfort, Christ’s gospel, through pursuing the highest moral principals, ethical standards, values of ubuntu, and strengths of democracy. In God’s strength, we can press for God’s justice; expressed, for example:

* in adequate social grants for all who need them, for all who are entitled to them;

* in a properly funded health service, properly remunerated health professionals;

* in safety in schools, in supporting teachers, in helping schools deliver quality education;

* in politicians being accountable to their electorate

* in truth and transparency – not least in relation to the arms deal

* in equitable distribution of the world’s resources, between rich and poor

* in sustainable development and environmental protection

* in halting human trafficking, especially child-trafficking

And in all of this, our desire is for every human person, every child of God – each of us created in, and reflecting, his image – to be treated fairly, with dignity, with respect.

It is a great privilege to live in a country where the provisions of our Constitution, though not grounded in the Christian faith, so fully reflect our beliefs in the intrinsic worth and value of each person, and the fundamental equality of treatment and of opportunity due to every individual.

At this point, let me dare to stick my neck out and risk a remark about President Zuma’s comment on the ANC ruling until Jesus comes again.

Neither the Anglican Church, nor the South African Council of Churches – of which we are a member, and which we strongly support – wants to ‘colonise’ Jesus, as some have claimed.

Of course, our desire is that everyone, everywhere, should know him and follow his ways – because we believe that this offers the best route to human well-being.

Yet we express this desire within the context of our Constitution, which respects freedom of religion – the freedom to believe whatever you want to believe, as long as you do not contravene the basic rights of others. And this means, that you, that anyone, can allot to Jesus whatever role you wish. In this way, Muslims believe Jesus to be one of their prophets, and they are free to do so.

No, the reason that we, and others in broader civil society are unhappy with the President’s comments, is not actually a matter of religion at all. It is a matter of public policy.

Therefore, I believe it is wholly right that, tonight, we should evoke the legacy of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, and tell the ruling party precisely why we are unhappy, even if it does give them ‘naught for their comfort’ to hear us say it.

President Zuma, as leader of the ANC, does have the perfect right to express the hope that South African voters will choose his party as the country’s government ‘until Jesus returns’. But it is another matter to predict the party will rule until the end of time as we know it.

It takes only a glance at history to show the enormous damage that one-party rule has done to too many of Africa’s people; and the poverty and suffering it has caused, not least through encouraging greedy elites to hog resources. In this light, the President’s comments are unfortunate.

More than this, given the roots of one-party rule, the President’s comments are anachronistic, reflecting a 1960s or ‘70s view of our continent. A 21st century perspective on Africa should surely rather reflect, for example, the understanding expressed in the African Union’s own Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.

And, finally, the President's predictions of unending ANC rule are potentially dangerous, to the extent that they might encourage those who have a strong stake in – and economic motives for – prolonging ANC rule indefinitely, and tempt them to take unconstitutional action to preserve it.

But let me say that we wish President Zuma and his government well, and we shall continue to pray that they may be successful in following the leadership of Jesus Christ: who came not to be served but to serve; and who taught us to put the needs of others – especially the poorest, the weakest, the most marginalised – before our own.

May they be successful in the goals they have set themselves: in tackling poverty and crime and unemployment; in building up health and education; and – in so many other ways – bringing tangible, sustainable and lasting comfort to those who stand in greatest need.

Let us not forget how far we have come in 15 years, how much there is to celebrate, how much there is to affirm, and how much there is to continue building upon.

We can rejoice in all that is good and true and honourable and just; in whatever is pure and pleasing and commendable – as St Paul tells the Philippians. Wherever there is excellence, or anything worthy of praise – our minds should rest on these, and our words should encourage them, and our actions support them.

Even if Bafana Bafana did not beat Brazil last night, a semi-final place was quite an achievement, and we congratulate the team. And we can look forward to 2010, knowing that sport builds relationships, and creates better neighbours – as well as providing leverage for jobs, skills upgrades, and all manner of other opportunities for our country and its people.

Remember, God calls us to be a people of hope. As the poem containing the phrase ‘Naught for your comfort’ tells us – God does not give us guarantees of an easy life, but he guarantees us that he is with us, through thick and thin, working his good. And so with confidence we can proclaim his message of comfort, knowing that he will make straight his paths, and level the valleys of despair and hopelessness.

May his comfort be felt in the life of Christ the King, in the life of Sophiatown, and in the life of all those whom you encounter. Amen.

To the People of God – To the Laos, May 2009

Dear People of God

South Africa’s elections fell between Easter and Pentecost, so I have been considering what it means to live as those who are raised with Christ, indwelt with the Spirit, and called and sent to be the salt in this complex messy world of ours. I have been greatly helped by recent conversations with my predecessors – drinking from the well of many years of wisdom and experience in ‘speaking truth to power’. I thank Archbishops Desmond and Njongo for all they have learnt and shared, and affirm my support for the public stance that each continues to take, particularly in South Africa, in calling on politicians to uphold all for which the Constitution stands.

After the leading role churches played in opposing apartheid and supporting the transition to democracy, I have found it extraordinary to encounter so many recent claims in the media that religion should have no place in political life. Of course, I share others’ wariness of political parties claiming God as their supporter; but to believe that faith is irrelevant to the national life is a real failure to understand mature religion, and how much we can contribute to the flourishing of human society. Anglicans have long believed engagement in public debate is inevitable, for God is either God of everything or of nothing. Therefore there can be no area of human activity in which he has no interest, and into which he does not call us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ! Any attempted distinctions between the secular and sacred, the personal and the political, are artificial and unsustainable.

Yet this does not mean that churches should try to micro-manage government policy. Instead, we must help people understand how the eternal truths of the gospel apply in whatever context they find themselves – from the voting booth, to community forums, to a seat in Cabinet! This approach was set out by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942-4, who said it is the church’s responsibility to ‘announce Christian principles and point out where the existing social order at any time is in conflict with them. It must then pass on to Christian citizens, acting in their civic capacity, the task of reshaping the existing order in closer conformity to the principles.’ Because mature democracy offers the best context for debating Christian principles – and more general pursuit of mission and ministry – I see one role of the church as being to act as ‘the friend of the Constitution’. This is why I took a lead role in election monitoring bodies, which encourage political tolerance, freedom of speech, healthy debate, and so forth.

South Africa’s Constitution is a wonderful document, bought at great price – many lives lost, others permanently scarred. Its first commitment is to ‘heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights’. As Christians, we also want to bring God’s healing and wholeness to humanity. Many other principles that we want to promote are also reflected in the Constitution, such as upholding truth, honesty, accountability, transparency, justice, fairness, and all that exemplifies good governance. We also want to prioritise those in greatest need – the weakest, poorest, neediest, marginalised, and voiceless – and in this, to ensure that for them the Constitution’s promises of equal rights and benefits are properly realised. In practice, this includes adequate prioritisation of HIV and AIDS, TB, malaria, safety (I am particularly concerned at present about safety of our young people in school), and many other urgent areas of social need – as well as ensuring that urgent and critical environmental considerations are properly reflected in all policy-making.

Now the voting is over, here at least, though other parts of our Province will face elections later this year. After the counting is done, the church must lend its voice to ensuring that those who are elected pursue the common good of everyone – not only of themselves and their families, friends and supporters. We should be a vital part of the conscience of our nations. As St Paul tells us, we will support our governments, our elected representatives, as long as they are ‘God’s servants for our good’ (Rom 13:4). But where they fall short, we will be unafraid to tell them so – and it is to the best of our Constitutions that we will hold them accountable.

Jacob Zuma, just before the elections, spoke of Constitutional Court judges as being ‘not Gods’ and ‘only human’. Quite so – but the same is true of politicians, and this is why we show loyalty to the Constitution and all its checks and balances, with none of judiciary, legislature or executive holding all the power.

It is for us also to acknowledge that Jacob Zuma is ‘only human’, and affirm that, whatever his flaws, he has now been elected to the highest office in the land through a fully free and fair process (and let me here give warm congratulations to Hlope Bam and her colleagues at the IEC for a difficult and complex job well done). As our new President, he deserves our congratulations, and our prayers that he will discharge the responsibilities now entrusted to him to the very best of his abilities, and for the good of every citizen and resident of this country.

That said, I remain concerned at the many unanswered questions around not only Jacob Zuma and the NPA, but also the entire arms deal. Some politicians say we should draw a line, forgive and move on. But – regardless of whether or not judicial proceedings are involved – one lesson that we learnt through the TRC (and which is intrinsic to all forms of ‘restorative justice’) is that people cannot forgive, unless they know who they are forgiving, and for what. South Africans deserve to know the truth. Unless this is uncovered and acknowledged, it will inevitably remain a festering sore in our political life. I am convinced that the over-riding interests of our country would be best served by a full arms deal enquiry.

However painful revealing the truth may be for those involved, this is the only path to the healing and fresh start South Africa and its new President crave and need. As St John wrote, ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 Jn 1:8-9).

May I end by asking your prayers for another of my predecessors – Archbishop Phillip Russell, who did so much to hold our church together in divisive times, inviting us to receive in greater measure the Spirit’s love and empowerment. Remember him, in the increasing frailty of old age. Please also remember me and everyone participating in the Anglican Consultative Council meeting of 1 to 13 May.

Yours in the service of Christ,

+Thabo Cape Town