Join the Save South Africa movement
OUR young democracy is at a crossroads. Faced with a crisis that spans our entire society, we stand at the edge of a precipice that requires civil society to take decisive action to avoid losing all we have sacrificed in building this country we love and call home.
As has happened so regularly in the past, we – as the Christian church led by our faith in Christ – must take a stand and support the call for change.
Our constitution states: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.” It envisages a “democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people”.
The aim is clear, namely to “improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person” and this is to be done by building “a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations”.
On November 2 members of civil society came together at the St Albans Cathedral in Tshwane to launch the Save South Africa movement. Its message is reflected in the words of Sipho Pityana: “There are very few among us who would dispute that South Africa is in crisis.
“It’s a crisis spanning the economy, society and the political sphere. It’s a crisis fuelled by patronage, corruption, mismanagement, unchecked power and widespread apathy.
“It is a crisis that compels me to persist with my call urging every proud citizen to join the movement to save South Africa.”
As the broad Christian church of Nelson Mandela Bay we have consistently sought to engage with senior leaders within all levels of government to raise our concerns and to call for change. In April, we wrote to the president asking him to step aside, in the interests of our country.
Since then our country has seen our minister of finance charged by the NPA, only for the charges to be dropped three weeks later and at great cost to our economy. We have had students mobilising for free, quality, decolonised higher education with no meaningful response from the government other than ordering police to occupy our campuses – the consequence of which has been violent confrontations and a shutdown of campuses.
Recently, the outgoing public protector released her State of Capture report, which calls for the president to appoint a judicial commission of enquiry to investigate the alleged widespread corruption. Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe has resigned as a direct consequence of being implicated in this report.
Our schools, our universities, our state institutions, our state-owned enterprises, our parliament, our presidency are dysfunctional. Our institutions are not working to serve the interests of ordinary, and specifically, impoverished South Africans.
Instead, it appears that our country is under the control of individuals and groups whose only interest is serving their own personal gain. This is not the South Africa we want, nor the country our sacrifices have sought to build.
We hereby endorse the Save South Africa campaign, and call upon our denominations, congregations and individual believers to join the movement. We repeat the call for our president to step aside, for elected officials to use their power to serve the people, to be honourable in their actions and for those employed in our state institutions to put principle and good governance before vested interest and self-enrichment.
Issued by the SACC on behalf of: Bishop Lunga ka Siboto, Bishop Vincent Zungu, Bishop Bethlehem Nopece, Bishop Andile Mbete, Apostle Neville Goldman, Pastor Johannes Welskit, Ds Danie Mouton, Rev Sipho Ncapayi, Pastor Daan Botha and Rev Howard Hans