Radical call for new prophetic activism in SA
Bold, strategic hopeful leadership needed to pull us out of malaise
structural unemployment and despair.
South Africa is the richest economy in Africa, with the most advanced infrastructure, most elaborate tertiary education system, and is the most diversified economy. But, in keeping with our sub-Saharan peers, our rapid birth rate has meant that relative economic development has not kept pace with the expansion of our population. Add to this basic demographic fact the devastating legacies of colonialism and apartheid, and we have a massive cohort of young, poorly educated, unemployed citizens.
To accommodate them we have to build a bigger economic home.
What use is an eight-lane highway through Gauteng if there are no on-ramps for the youth of Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Tembisa and Alexandria? We need more avenues for a young person to go from school, to work, to financial independence and a dignified quality of life for their young family.
This process of human and socio-economic development has not been the core business of the faith communities for a long time. Of course, the faith communities have at times in history built schools and hospices to educate and heal, but we have never built a nation. If we do not, we are left to survive on the islands that will remain of our churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, as the political elite and business tycoons negotiate a deal that serves their usually competing interests.
If the 1980s and 1990s were the decades of transition, and the 2000s and 2010s the decades of turbulence, the 2020s and 2030s have to be the decades of construction of a better table of inclusion at which to seat our young nation.
I am firmly of the view that the faith communities have a role to play in setting this table. To open the gates of justice will require of faith communities, not only leaders, a new prophetic activism. This cannot be a voice of judgement, but must be of hands that can lay better foundations for our crèches, schools, clinics, hospitals, municipalities, courts and, critically, our businesses.
We need to build a culture of honesty and responsibility in these institutions. These institutions, so critical to our national welfare, cannot thrive without one or the other.
In the next three years, critical years in our national trajectory, the politicians will grapple with a national election, intra-party politics and personal interests. The business community will probably cut costs to improve efficiency and profitability, explore the role of technology and automation and seek to reduce their exposure to industrial action and labour militancy.
These two predictable responses will not serve our nation. Our nation needs bold, strategic, hopeful leadership to pull us beyond the malaise of recent years and into an epoch of inclusive progress.
The question is: where will the inspiration come from to look beyond the precipice of populism and the self-defeating pursuit of self-interest? It must come from among the people. It must come from a prophetic activism that models the way to a better future through honesty and responsibility, the bedrock of a functional society.
I know that many faith leaders are fatigued and overburdened. So I do not naively believe we can add this call to the many calls to which you have already responded. No, I am suggesting something much more radical than that. May this call to prophetic activism become our
… OR PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW THOSE WHO BELIEVE WE CAN STONE, AND BURN AND HATE OUR WAY OUT OF SYSTEMIC EXCLUSION AND DESPAIR
Peace cannot be bought by an afterthought.