Let faith be a means of uniting our SA, not a platform to sow division

THE announcement of the outcome of Election 2019 on Saturday concludes a bitter decade of political division and economic inertia in which the extent of public malfeasance and the gulf in living standards, between rich and poor South Africans, were thrown into sharp relief.

As political parties prepare their teams to occupy the benches of our national Parliament and provincial legislatures, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation appeals to party leaders to re-kindle the spirit of tolerance embodied in their predecessors of 25 years ago.

While political parties tend to highlight their differences with each other, rather than similarities, they are collectively responsible for fostering an environment in which all South Africans feel a dignified part – irrespective of race, class, culture and religious belief.

It is, therefore, hugely regrettable that as the Independent Electoral Commission was calling media together in Midrand to announce the final results of the fifth free and fair election in democratic South Africa, members of the historic Muir Street Mosque in District Six, Cape Town, were called to an emergency meeting to discuss a noise complaint relating to the Call to Prayer.

Muslims are in the midst of the holy month of Ramadaan. The Muir Street Mosque has been calling the faithful to prayer for 100 years. Together with the other churches and mosques, Muir Street stands today as a symbol of the multiculturalism and non-racialism.

Cape Town has a proud legacy of religious tolerance and interfaith cooperation. In the 1940s, the formation of the Muslim Judicial Council was announced in St George’s Cathedral and, in the 1980s, priests, imams and rabbis led protest marches together. There was a common understanding that tolerance was the antithesis of apartheid – an understanding later personified by Nelson Mandela.

Over the past 10 years, tolerance has been bumped off its pedestal.

It defies logic that anyone living in District Six – whether they are members of the small group of restitution beneficiaries or people who have chosen to invest in the still largely undeveloped area – would consider the Call to Prayer worthy of complaint.

As South Africa settles down after 10 bruising years, let’s give tolerance a chance.

Distributed for Acting Chief Executive of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Ms Razaan Bailey, by Oryx Media