Sunday Times

God wants us all to join the crusade against corruption and the revolution for justice

One struggle ended in 1994, but another has begun — and none of us can sit on the sidelines

- By ARCHBISHOP THABO MAKGOBA This is an edited version of Archbishop Makgoba’s Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr in Cape Town

● A few nights ago, I watched the ANC’s new leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, promise us that his party will be more responsive and more accountabl­e and that it will reach out to community organisati­ons and other organs of civil society. Moreover, he told us that the ANC will act against corruption, collusion and other economic crimes, whether they be in the private or public sector. Most importantl­y, he told us that the people of South Africa want action, not words.

Whether he acknowledg­es it or not, he knows, and we know, that that means he has to act in the matter of President Jacob Zuma. He knows and we know that Zuma and his cohorts of corruption have been behaving as if they own the Treasury. But they don’t: the resources of the Treasury are the common property of all South Africans, to be deployed for the common good, not for the interests of a few. Shame on Zuma for allowing people with dirty feet to walk through his mind and heart. And shame on his fellow leaders in the ANC for allowing him to get away with it until now.

Christmas gives us a lens through which we can see each other, through which we can see our neighbour and see God. Just as the birth of the Christ child brings new life and the hope of new beginnings to our personal lives, it can bring hope to our corporate lives, even to the lives of political parties. But bringing new life into the world means cutting the umbilical cord immediatel­y after birth.

If Ramaphosa wants the ANC to get a new lease of life, he and the new leadership will need to cut the umbilical cord that ties them to the Zuma era, quickly and decisively. Our economy is flounderin­g, unemployme­nt is rising and those cohorts of corruption who see they are losing influence are making ever more desperate attempts to loot what they can before their party is over. On top of that, the divisions in the ANC have led to a paralysis in decision-making and the implementa­tion of policy. It is time to say: “Enough is enough.”

I cannot see how two centres of power — one centred on the party and the other on the state — can collaborat­e when their values seem diametrica­lly opposed. I cannot see how the ANC will make a clean break with the past and set us on a new course unless the new leaders elected at Nasrec, supported by their MPs in parliament, act boldly and quickly to replace Zuma as president of the country, and to follow that up with a carefully targeted cabinet reshuffle. If they don’t, we can see their fate written in the histories of other liberation movements that have failed to adapt: they will lose power.

No matter how bad things are in South Africa, each of us, each of you, have a choice. You can make things worse, or you can make things better. Paraphrasi­ng what someone once said, you can’t outwit fate by standing on the sidelines and placing little side bets on the outcome of life. You have to play the game — if you don’t play there is no way you can win. One way in which we can join the game is to join the debate on land and economic reform: the ANC’s resolution supporting the expropriat­ion of land without compensati­on cries out for the establishm­ent — which I suggested from this pulpit last Christmas — of a kind of Codesa process to negotiate just, rational and broadly accepted reforms on the ownership of land.

Christmas remains the story of recognisin­g God in unexpected places and naming God in the faces of those who occupy those places. A fortnight or so ago in an emotional meeting with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Pope Francis told them that “the presence of God today is also called Rohingya”. In these words, he recaptured the ancient spiritual insight that the very act of “naming” challenges a culture of indifferen­ce. It gives to the poor and marginalis­ed visibility and agency. He reminds us that for those who have had their rights trampled upon, and who have been denied the fruits of the earth — that for them, naming is indeed a touch of new life. It is the Incarnatio­n.

Can we dare tonight to see South Africa through the eyes of the poor, and to name our country accordingl­y? On this holy night let us frame the Christmas story in the greater narrative of God’s presence in the poor, in those outside of the norm, in the discarded. Matthew, in the genealogy that prefaces the Nativity story, lists the generation of men who carried forward Israel’s chequered history, but in Matthew 1:16 there is a startling rupture of this male lineage when he records that “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” Matthew shows that it is Mary who provides the locus for God’s promises to be manifest, for Israel’s hope to be restored. In that genealogy Mary is listed alongside Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah, women who are not the norm, who take risks, who love in the most unconventi­onal ways.

We often miss the place where God is birthing something new because like the three wise men we instinctiv­ely go looking for God in the places of power, in the courts of Herod, when all the while God is stirring to life in a borrowed stable. But God names the unconventi­onal, recognises them and honours them. God reminds us that it is those who shape history. Insignific­ant, illegitima­te, defenceles­s, tabooed people are loved by God and God’s grace is in them. That is where God’s love is being born. That is where the Christmas story continues.

Joseph moved beyond his momentary confusion and fear and took Mary into his home, giving space for the nurture of this new initiative of God. The shepherds found tongues with which to worship and give testimony to God’s presence in the world. We too are called to leave this manger with its symbols of exclusion and vulnerabil­ity and give witness through our service to the Lord’s presence in ways that allow the poor and excluded to find words and deeds of hope. When we do this, then Christmas will have found a lasting echo in our world.

Let me return to South Africa and what I have repeated over many years from this pulpit and cathedral. After our liberation, too many of us folded our arms and waited for the government to fulfil our dreams. We didn’t take lessons from other democracie­s; we didn’t realise that good Picture: Gallo Images government­s are there to create the environmen­t in which we are guaranteed equality of opportunit­y, guaranteed the space in which we can get our hands dirty, do things for ourselves. God expects us to stand up, to speak up, to fight corruption and maladminis­tration. We need a revolution in our thinking and our being, a revolution in which we use our numbers to promote moral and ethical values and to bring about the flourishin­g of all

South Africans.

We should all commit to ensuring lives for equality for all.

Who doesn’t deserve equality in education?

Who doesn’t deserve equality in service delivery? Who doesn’t deserve equality of access to clean water?

Who doesn’t deserve the equality of excellent healthcare?

Who doesn’t deserve the equality of opportunit­y? South Africa needs you. South Africa needs your voice. And most importantl­y, South Africa needs your collective action.

We are fighting a new struggle.

The struggle for the equality of equality.

A struggle for the equality of opportunit­y.

We are in this fight together. We dream of a better South Africa. To dream by night is to escape from your life. To dream by day is to make it happen.

 ??  ?? Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has called for the speedy removal from power of President Jacob Zuma.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has called for the speedy removal from power of President Jacob Zuma.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa