Statement on Killings in Norway

This Open Letter was sent to the Christian Council of Norway and the People of Norway on 25 July 2011.

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ and to all the people of Norway, I cannot be silent in the face of the horror and brutality of the bombing in Oslo and mass murder of young people in Norway.

I feel saddened and shocked by this outrageous lack of regard for human life and more angered by stories emerging about the justification for such violence. I trust that firm and tough legal action will be taken against Anders Behring Breivik.

On behalf of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, I send our prayers and condolences to the family members of those who died and those who were injured and to the faithful in Norway at this tragic time. We realise that this eruption of violence has shaken you as a nation to your very core. We hope that you will know that the thoughts and prayers of the world are with you and that you will find consolation and strengthen from this.

For all of us who are people of faith – whatever our tradition – these horrific events must serve as a tragic reminder of our need to continue to witness against intolerance and violence and of our parallel commitment to assist in the building of peace-filled and inclusive communities and nations.

Cape Town Must Set an Example on Sanitation

The following article was published in the Cape Times on 7 July 2011. It can be found at www.capetimes.co.za/city-must-set-example-on-sanitation-1.1095150

City must set example on sanitation

Last Thursday, I joined other Western Cape religious leaders on a “walk of witness” through parts of Khayelitsha to look at sanitation conditions, and the dangers they pose, not only directly to health, but also to people’s safety. I arrived straight from the memorial service for Professor Kader Asmal, and the juxtaposition was almost overwhelming: from the pristine City Hall auditorium, where we were welcomed with a bottle of water under every seat, to Khayelitsha, with its mud and stench of sewage, lacking the very basics of clean water and sanitation. After celebrating Asmal’s life, and the improvements that were achieved through his dedication, it was a shocking reminder of the challenges that remain and the dire situations in which far too many South Africans still live.

Our tour through RR and Taiwan sections was led by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), a local community movement which has for the past two years been campaigning for improved access to clean and safe sanitation services for some half a million Capetonians without access to basic sanitation. It is not easy to grasp such vast numbers, but it is even harder to imagine the impact of seeing and hearing first-hand how the absence of these fundamental services affects residents daily.

The run-up to the recent local government elections saw an explosion of dissatisfaction with the state of municipal service delivery. The unenclosed toilets in Makhaza and Rammulotsi came to symbolise how municipalities across the country and across political parties are failing to uphold residents’ rights to safety, health and dignity. They also prompted wider questions about how our country engages with, and delivers to, society’s most vulnerable. With the elections behind us, sanitation no longer occupies the headlines, but it continues to dominate the lives of the millions of South Africans who continue to live without it.

This particular walk followed an earlier visit last August. I was shocked to see that many of the problems we witnessed then remain unattended to, almost a year later. A toilet which was blocked at the time of my first visit, not only remains blocked but is now in utter disrepair. The community has placed a heavy piece of concrete in front of the door to prevent it being used. Where one toilet can be shared between 60 and more people, it is shocking that those which exist can remain out of order for over a year.

Despite the terrible condition these toilets are often in, many residents would nonetheless rather use a blocked toilet than walk to a functioning one further from home, because of the dangers involved. The shocking truth is that for many, relieving oneself can be a life- threatening activity. We heard how residents are petrified of using the toilet at night, preferring to hold out until sunrise. It is hard to imagine telling toddlers that they must wait until morning to use the toilet, but this is the reality for many.

The fear is justified. Residents are frequently attacked while going to use toilets. SJC member Makhosandile Qezo has no toilet near his home. Instead, he must relieve himself in a desolate field between Lansdowne Road and the N2 highway. One morning last year, he was stabbed in the face while his trousers were around his ankles. Another young SJC member – 14-year-old Zanele – escaped an attack while relieving herself in the same field, but she was hit by a car on the busy Lansdowne Road and was seriously injured as she ran away. Women and children are frequently assaulted and raped.

The health risks of filthy toilets and water sources are also appalling. It is hard to find one family not afflicted by waterborne illnesses such as diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, worms, and severe rashes. When walking around Taiwan informal settlement, I noticed that the bank of chemical toilets on the community’s outskirts was surrounded by waste of every sort. Even at a distance, the stench was unbearable. Several of our party found ourselves battling with sinus headaches after our brief visit.

The provision of sanitation facilities for informal settlements that are in line with national norms and standards will take many years, and requires detailed planning. The city cannot do this successfully on its own. Alongside making the provision of clean and safe sanitation facilities for informal settlements a priority, it must call for public consultation through which experts and stakeholders can plan together. Residents and local authorities working co-operatively is always the best way to achieve effective, lasting results. In the interim there are tangible steps that can be taken to ensure that the existing infrastructure is utilised to its maximum potential.

At present, the city constructs toilets and standpipes, which then become the community’s “responsibility”. But it is completely unrealistic to expect a toilet that is shared, perhaps by over 100 people, to be properly maintained without state assistance. It is critical that the city budgets for and provides regular janitors for existing facilities. It is also unacceptable for the few toilets that do exist to remain in disrepair for months or even years, as we saw last week. Where I live, it takes less than 48 hours for sewerage faults to be repaired. The same level of service is unquestionably the right of those living in our poorer communities.

One lesson we learnt from the unenclosed toilet saga was how quickly delivery fails when there is a lack of meaningful engagement between communities and government. Civil society organisations and the religious community are uniquely placed to facilitate this process. For this reason, today we will join a meeting between the SJC and the mayor of Cape Town. This meeting follows an SJC protest, in which I participated, which was held on Freedom Day, April 27. Approximately 2 500 people symbolically queued behind a toilet outside Cape Town’s Civic Centre to illustrate how, 17 years to the day after we first queued to vote, far too many people still continue to wait for access to basic sanitation. A memorandum, signed by more than 10,000 people and 25 organisations, was handed over.

Mayor Patricia de Lille must be commended for agreeing to meet to discuss this important issue. I want to assure De Lille that I and the broader faith-based community will lend our support to attempts to bring various stakeholders around the table, to work together to ensure the progressive realisation of every person’s right to use a clean and safe toilet. Let us set an example in the City of Cape Town – a city which proudly encourages participation and values the rights of all inhabitants – that can be replicated in municipalities across the country.

Our problems are great, but we must make the needs of the neediest the highest priority of the whole nation, and every part of society. The solutions are neither quick nor easy. Effective consultation and communication, openness, honesty, transparency and trust, are necessary to ease our difficult journey forwards. Let us talk the talk and walk the walk together.

Archbishop joins new Press Freedom Commission

At the nomination of the South African Council of Churches, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has agreed to serve as a Commissioner on the Press Freedom Commission launched today at the initiative of Print Media South Africa (PMSA) and South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). The PFC will be chaired by Justice Pius Langa, and, over the next 6 to 8 months is tasked with reviewing various forms of regulation and best practice, in relation to the print media. Dr Makgoba will serve as representative of the faith communities.

Further details of the Commission can be found at http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/07/07/press-freedom-commission-launched

Dr Makgoba has previously supported the Right to Know Campaign in its opposition to the Protection of Information Bill. Below is an article by him published in the Cape Times on 31 August 2010 (slightly amended).

‘The Truth will Set Us Free’

The Protection of Information Bill now before Parliament and the ANC’s proposed Media Appeals Tribunal threaten to undermine the family of rights – ranging from freedom of expression, to political rights, to freedom of religion – to which we as South Africans subscribed when our elected representatives adopted our Constitution in 1996.

The truth, so the Gospel assures Christians, will set us free. Yet what is notable about the Protection of Information Bill as it currently stands is that it seeks to punish not lies or incorrect information about what our government doing in our name, but rather truthful information based on official documents.

No one contests the need for the Government to keep secret strictly-defined categories of information, the disclosure of which could threaten our national security – for example, troop movements at a time of conflict. But that is not what this Bill is about – as the General Council of the Bar has pointed out, the quite separate Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000 already protects information which “genuinely requires protection from disclosure” and can legitimately be withheld in terms of the Constitution.

No, what the new Bill seeks to do is to give large numbers of government officials the power to classify information as "confidential", "secret", or "top secret" under the rubric that it would contravene a vaguely-defined “national interest.” Even commercial information could be declared secret, which – following media exposes of the activities of “tenderpreneurs” – invites the question: why?

President Zuma has told us that the Media Appeals Tribunal “is meant to protect South Africans, rich or poor, black or white, rural or urban.” He also says that professions such as architects, doctors, engineers and lawyers have mechanisms similar to what the ANC is proposing.

Yet there is a fundamental difference between those professions and the writing and printing of information and opinions in a democracy – the latter is protected by Section 16 of the Constitution. This states that: “(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes (a) freedom of the press and other media; (b) freedom to impart information or ideas; (c) freedom of artistic creativity; and (d) academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.”

Those rights are not limited to journalists – we all have them and we are all subject to the same limitations on them. One of those limitations is imposed on us by the Constitution, which prohibits narrowly-defined categories of speech and writing, such as propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence or certain types of hate speech. Another limitation is imposed on us by the law against slander and defamation.

Apart from those kinds of restrictions, we all have the right to think, to say and to write what we like, and to print our views. Similarly, under Section 19 of the Constitution, every citizen has political rights, which include the right to campaign for a political party or cause. And under Section 15 of the Constitution, “everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.” That is the right which guarantees us freedom of worship, and – again apart from those tightly-defined limitations – to say what we like from the pulpits of our churches and in our mosques, temples and synagogues.

The Constitution and the law do not require those of us who write, proclaim and publish our views – whether journalists or not – to get both sides of the story. Nor do they require politicians to present the views of their opponents, nor preachers to advocate the ideas of other denominations or faiths.

The fact that journalists have adopted a code of conduct in which they commit themselves to getting both sides of a story, and to basing their comments upon the facts, is admirable, but it is not a requirement of the Constitution or the law. It is, rather, the product of pressure from governments over 50 years, of the recognition by journalists that large, established newspapers have more power than small-circulation printed works, and of the desire of many journalists to hold themselves to higher standards in their publications than average members of the public.

What is a Media Appeals Tribunal meant to do to journalists that the law and their own self-regulation does not do already? Just as in other areas of our democracy, the pressure of public opinion can be brought to bear on popular institutions. Journalists acknowledge that they make mistakes, and that apologies and retractions do not have as much visibility and force as breaking news stories Their acknowledgement was reflected by the prominent front-page apology to Matthews Phosa and the ANC in last Sunday’s City Press.

Would a Media Appeals Tribunal fine journalists? Jail them? Ban them from writing, for a period or forever? What about church journalists or religious communicators? Why should they be permitted freedoms other journalists do not have?

As preachers, we exercise a right to speak out prophetically in sermons, in pastoral letters read to tens of thousands of people in churches across the country on Sundays, and in church media. Neither the Constitution nor the law require religious institutions to subject their clergy to codes of conduct. If the Government is going to act against journalists who subscribe to a code of conduct, why not against preachers, who don’t? Will our communication also be gagged and our utterances criminalised if we reveal information or express the kinds of opinion which have made the ruling party so angry with the media?

Tamper with press freedom, and you tamper with the freedom of every citizen to receive and impart information and ideas. Tamper with freedom of expression, and you tamper with political rights. Tamper with the rights of religious institutions – including the rights of Christian churches to proclaim the Gospel as they see fit, in the pulpit or in print – and you destroy freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.

Our freedoms are indivisible. We cannot draw a line around press freedom, restricting the rights of journalists, without limiting the rights of all of us.

Prayer for Sudan

Please join in praying for the people of Sudan, especially the troubled South Kordofan region, which includes the Nuba Mountains, which are experiencing extreme unrest.

Lord of all, we join our prayers to those of your children in Sudan, in their tears and pain, especially those of South Kordofan, and all who suffer conflict or violence.

God of Justice, bring your justice wherever there is strife, killing or displacement.

God of Peace, bring your peace which passes all understanding to yearning hearts.

Move the powerful to compassion and mercy, strengthen the weak even as they face persecution, and raise up the nations of this world and all people of good will in opposition to these atrocious acts.

Hasten the dawning of the day when all your children, and especially those in Sudan, can live according to your peace and harmony.

We pray this in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

To the Laos - To the People of God, June 2011

Dear People of God

I am writing to you on my return from a visit to the Diocese of Niassa, in northern Mozambique. Having had the privilege of working in the mainly rural diocese of Grahamstown, where I encountered both the rawness of poverty and the generosity of people, in many ways it felt like coming home.

Bishop Mark and I travelled around the three Mozambican provinces of his diocese. In some places the roads were non-existent, and at one point we had to find a route across a river, with no bridge, to get to the Cathedral! We began my visit by going to the grave of Bishop Charles Mackenzie, who was first Archdeacon of Natal, and then consecrated in 1861 as a missionary bishop to the peoples near the Zambezi river. He died within a year – and yet today people still speak of his faith and his courage for the gospel. His grave is in a marsh, on a fertile banana plantation between the Rue and Shire rivers. We celebrated the Eucharist under a plastic yellow tent hoisted on sticks, and I felt deeply conscious of the joy of being ‘made one with all God’s people of every age’ (both the living and the departed), and, indeed, ‘all the company of heaven’, as we say in the Eucharistic prayer

After 2 hours’ drive we met parishioners who praised God, with many testimonies of church growth; and then after 4 more hours reached the coastal town of Quelimane, where we ate and slept, after sharing messages of encouragement with the faithful, in a church built by a couple from Nigeria. This small bicycle-filled town has lots of potential to grow beyond the current single parish.

We then flew in a 4-seater plane to Nampula, a more developed town, where, as indeed was so everywhere, we were greeted with joyful singing and dancing. Our theme at the Eucharist, held in an indoor sports hall, was ‘Developing the Journey’, and we focussed on our unity in Christ, building peace, and courage in the face of poverty, disease, and syncretism (being sucked into local, non-Christian, cultures). You may remember that the Mozambican wars of liberation began in the north, and many are still scarred, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, by those times. Yet this is an area of high literacy, forward looking, and with a vision for growth – not only numerical, but growth that is ever-more deeply rooted in our Lord (without which any church risks becoming merely some social organisation).

We then flew to Lichinga, the northern province’s capital, and Bishop Mark’s home. The church is larger and more established here. Near the airport, we visited the diocesan farm (much in need of development), and drove in convoy with truck-loads of parishioners singing joyful songs of welcome, to see two churches currently under construction. We held a service to celebrate St Bernard Mizeki (himself a Mozambican) in an indoor sports stadium. The theme was hospitality, courage and love, reflecting both Bernard Mizeki’s example and the readings of the day. The local mayor – a Muslim, married to a Mothers Union member – and the Provincial President, who is a parishioner, brought greetings, and praised Bishop Mark and the Diocese for their involvement in social justice issues. We had supper with the local clergy and the mayor, and I realised that like Christ and his disciples, so much of the deep fellowship of the visit was experienced through sharing meals together.

On Sunday we took a 2-hour drive to the Cathedral at Messumba. The beautiful lake-side region reminded me of parts of South Africa’s Wild Coast, and areas around Port St John in Mthatha diocese. The vast lake appears much like the sea! It was an amazing day, starting with crossing the bridge-less river, and then we walked – hundreds of us – in procession to the Cathedral, walking fast to avoid the dust and the scorching sun. When we arrived the large Cathedral building was already packed to capacity. We celebrated Trinity Sunday with four exhilarating hours of joyful celebration, singing and dancing, with radio and TV to witness us. Among the overwhelmingly generous gifts that were given to me were 2 doves, 2 fresh eggs, rice, and many crafts. The Bernard Mizeki society sang while we shared lunch. Driving home (accompanied by a bakkie-load of singing, praying, members of St Agnes’ Guild), we saw more churches under construction, and I thank God for the good land with which the diocese is endowed.

The next morning I flew to Lilongwe in a tiny 4-seater, with just the pilot, whose chatty conversation dispelled my great nervousness at being in such a tiny aircraft. He let me sit in the co-pilot’s seat, and it was an amazing experience to cross the vast lake at 20,000ft. Even so, it was a relief to land in Lilongwe and transfer to a larger plane for the next leg of my journey home!

Though the Diocese is 150 years old, I found Niassa to be, like Mozambique itself, full of the vibrant life of a very youthful population. I saw how critical is the role of catechists, in evangelism and building up young congregations so that they learn how to mature and stand on their own feet. Music and storytelling are key in communicating who Jesus is, all that he offers, and the life to which he calls us – which people are hungry to learn. I was also struck by the poverty of the diocese, reflected in the Bishop’s elderly Toyota that I feared might break down at any point and leave us stranded! Yet I saw how great God’s grace is, in challenging circumstances, and came home feeling refreshed and enriched by my visit – feeling the paradox of the kingdom that is, and is yet to come, as I both saw 150 years of history, and felt so much new life that is on the point of being born afresh.

‘Youth’ seems to be my theme this week, writing between meetings of the ANC Youth League and our own Provincial Youth Council. I returned to find the press full of Julius Malema’s statements on reforming land, mines and the whole economy. What he has raised is not new and we should not be alarmed. We need to engage him, and all young people, on what it means to make democracy work. As I discussed in a telephone conference with SACC church leaders, we must have educated public debate on today’s very different sort of ‘struggle’ – the commitment to rightly-focussed hard work that delivers economic justice, and tackles the needs of poverty, education and opportunity which (and Malema is right on this) particularly affect young people so adversely. There is hope, but we must not be afraid of rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. As my visit to Niassa showed, dedication and perseverance, even in very difficult and uncertain times, can deliver new life. So we must go forward with joy and resolve, and speak up for the poor, the fearful, the despairing, in the true hope of Jesus Christ.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

Statement on the death of Kader Asmal

This statement was issued on 23 June 2011.

With the death of Kader Asmal, I have lost a dear friend, a mentor, and a fellow educator – and our country has lost a principled politician, a wise statesman, and a true gentleman. Another of that great generation of struggle leaders has passed on, to receive his just reward.

From his long commitment to law in the service of justice and human rights, through to his resignation over the disbanding of the Scorpions and his outspoken opposition to the draft Protection of Information Bill, he has always pursued, taught and modelled the very highest ethical standards. I shall miss him for his moral stature, his astute mind, his ready wit. I shall miss him for his love of cricket and quality cotton shirts. And I shall miss him for his erudite English and often incomprehensible riddles, with which he so often had us in uproarious laughter – as he did only last December, when we were together at Madiba’s Cape Town home at a dinner to welcome the new Warden of Rhodes House. It is hard to believe we shall not hear that unique voice again.

Lungi joins me in sending our personal condolences to Louise, and to all his family, as well as those of the Diocese of Cape Town and the whole Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Our prayers are with you as you mourn this remarkably accomplished individual, who also always remained such a modest, warm and loving human being. The Bible tells us of Jesus’ words, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted’ for it is in our honest grieving that we open ourselves to receive the tender touch and strengthening of God of compassion. May his love surround you all. And may Kader rest in peace, and rise in glory.

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