Opening remarks by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba to launch a national conversation on the Socio-Economic Future of South Africa:
Friends, good afternoon.
On behalf of the steering committee which has driven this initiative
-- Professor Binedell, Marius Oosthuizen, Charles Robertson and the
Revd Moss Nthla; on behalf of my fellow patrons -- David Lewis,
Russell Loubser, Roelf Meyer, Professor Ndebele and Bishop Siwa; and
of the organisers of the conversations which we will initiate, thank
you for being here.
I don't need to preach to you that South Africa is in a state of
crisis (or epidemic distrust), perhaps one more serious than any we
have faced since those dark days of the early 1990s when we risked
being torn apart by violence. This too is a crisis that threatens to
tear our social fabric apart and to send us into a downward spiral
from which we will struggle to escape.
