Stand bravely for what is right

THIS is an open letter to the ANC Members of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa: My dear brothers and sisters, Not a day goes by that one will not hear about some criticism or other about the failure of our President Jacob Zuma to uphold the values of his office. And in a few weeks, you will be called upon to participate in a vote of no confidence intended to expedite the removal of President Zuma from power. There is the view that as ANC MPs, you would use your majority to maintain the status quo.

Until November 2016, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu used to preside at our St George’s Cathedral’s early morning mass on a Friday. We would pray before processing into the chapel. Reflecting on that time, I wrote:

I shall go unto your house / I sought and found comfort in words / and the pleasure it brings./ Then I heard you call me back to where you stood, waiting. / I felt your hand touch and lead me to myself.

Be mindful that our struggle always begins on the holy ground of our private and personal approach to the burning bush of justice. At the end of our days we will stand in front of our Creator and no party mandate will be asked of us. We will be required to account for our wounds obtained out of love for others. If we bear no scars we will be asked, “Was there nothing worth loving enough to fight for?”

The ANC has been the womb of the Struggle for freedom. But we joined the Struggle for justice out of love for our people. And the liberation movement was born out of an organised response to the cry of the oppressed.

The term “shepherds of the people” refers not only to priests and pastors, to rabbis, imams and the gurus of our faith communities. It also speaks to your calling, which is that of being our elected representative.

Our shared calling is best exemplified by a life that proclaims what Chief Albert Luthuli termed the “gospel of service and sacrifice”. Chief Luthuli uttered these words in 1955 at a congress of the ANC in Natal, where he admonished those who failed to accept fully “the basic truth enshrined in the saying ‘no cross, no crown’.”

This year is the 50th anniversary of Chief Luthuli becoming the first South African to receive the Nobel Prize. How would you mark this moment, O you servants of the people, if not with a sterling act of discipleship which is that of standing for the truth?

When you cast your vote out of a conscience lit by love, and not by anything which diminishes the bright cause of freedom and the hopes of the poor, you will not be standing on your own. You will be in the company of the saints of our revolution. Basil February and the other martyrs of the Wankie campaign will be with you. As will Helen Joseph, Ahmed Timol and Dora Tamana.

They will be holding your hearts and will steady your hands in truth’s name.

Steve Biko will be there, reminding you that we are never on our own. And hark the voice of Vuyisile Minyi, his gallow-sung “Basopa!” Oom Reg September and Alex La Guma, Cissie Gool and those colossi of our hope and dreams, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo, OR Tambo and our Madiba will be smiling down upon you.

May your witness proclaim Parliament as a place where, as Saint Paul writes in Ephesians, there is no falsehood. Where the truth is spoken and where there is no “room for the devil”.

As from Monday, we will pray at each of our two daily services for each ANC MP by name. I share with you this prayer which will be prayed before the statue of the African Madonna throughout the day: