ANC chaplain stripped of officiating role
Reverend who made derogatory remarks about women to be replaced for party’s anniversary celebrations
EMBATTLED ANC chaplain-general Reverend Vukile Mehana yesterday remained tight-lipped about his future in the ruling party.
This comes as the party resolved to remove him from officiating at this year’s January 8 anniversary celebrations in Durban next week.
The decision comes as a blow for Mehana who has been actively overseeing the religious activities at the celebrations for over a decade.
ANC acting national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Mehana had been the party’s chaplain general since 1997.
His removal from officiating the events stem from derogatory remarks he made about women in a recorded conversation leaked on social media between himself and another man.
Contacted yesterday, Mehana said: “I am under instruction not to talk to the media, and you can talk to Zizi Kodwa about it.”
Earlier, reports maintained Mehana was sorry for making the comments.
Kodwa, meanwhile, told Independent Media that the party had not yet decided who would replace Mehana at the event to be addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa at Moses Mabhida Stadium on January12.
“The ANC chaplain has a number of structures, that is why even when we took a decision that he is not going to officiate in Durban it is not a crisis, because we have a provincial chaplain in KZN and in all provinces.
“This does not mean that the event of the ANC will not have a chaplain,” said Kodwa.
He said when the ANC’s national leaders gathered in Durban, they would discuss whether Mehana should be removed permanently from his position.
He said the position was “important and historical” in the ANC, and started when the party was still banned.
“We are disappointed about the utterances, which are really derogatory against women in a country where the ANC has led the struggle for non-sexism. For anybody to make such utterances is unacceptable and disappointing,” said Kodwa.
Mehana’s church, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, was the one that had approached the ANC requesting his removal from participating in the ANC’s Durban event.
The church’s presiding bishop, Bishop Zipho Siwa, said Mehana’s remarks were “shocking”.
“We note with dismay the blatant disrespect and portrayal of women who are characterised in a dismissive, humiliating and degrading caricature.”
The objectification of the anatomy of women and its link to culture and religion was not only unacceptable but distasteful, said Siwa’s statement.
South African Council of Churches Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana said the views which Mehana claimed to have formed “in the name of African theology” were misplaced and “have no bearing on the Christian faith”.
“For him to disparage women ministers to the extent of referencing women’s breasts is absolutely disgusting and must be condemned unequivocally.
“Mehana’s views are in contrast to the human rights prescripts of the South African Constitution that should be binding on all citizens. His views on women deserve the urgent attention of the Commission for Gender Equality,” said Mpumlwana.