Prophetic witness for SA

by Editor · Published May 2, 2007 · Updated October 5, 2017

The forthright examination of the present state of South Africa by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale (which we reported last week) makes for sobering reading.

In his homily to the annual general meeting of the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng, the bishop of Johannesburg strongly criticised the governing African National Congress (ANC) for its programme of social engineering which has seen the rise of a new elite through government legislation and patronage while the poor have not seen a change in their status of poverty.

It must sting the ANC that Archbishop Tlhagale would describe the party’s slogan Batho Pele (People First) as an empty charade.

Archbishop Tlhagale’s prophetic homily also condemned corruption in its many manifestations, greed, violent crime, and a general culture of death in South Africa.

The ANC cannot glibly dismiss Archbishop Tlhagale’s critique as the utterances of a counter-revolutionary (which often is a gratuitous but meaningless smear), because the archbishop’s credentials as an active opponent of apartheid and racism are beyond reproach.

Nor can the ANC accuse the former parish priest of Soweto’s Regina Mundi church, a citadel in the anti-apartheid struggle, of doing the bidding of its opposition (a slur that in itself undermines democratic discourse).

Least of all can the archbishop be accused of seeking the limelight, for many in the local Church wish the usually reserved prelate would in fact raise his public profile.

Archbishop Tlhagale’s homily should be seen as a meaningful service to the ANC and the government it leads. He expressed the frustrations felt by many in the ANC’s core constituency. Most of these will probably vote for the ANC again in 2009. They will likely do so not out of conviction, but because they perceive no viable alternatives on their ballots.

There remains much to be confident about in South Africa. Archbishop Tlhagale’s menu of pressing issues must not be read as articulating a lack of faith in our collective future. The alarm the archbishop does sound is that our hopes may become compromised by our failure to heal what he evidently sees as festering wounds to our maturing democracy.

Archbishop Tlhagale’s warning that South Africa could go the ruinous way of Zimbabwe if this nation does not rediscover its moral fibre may sound alarmist, even shrill. It may even be said that the analogy is irreconcilable with precise political analysis. And yet, the archbishop’s warning must be heeded. Zimbabwe presents itself as a cautionary tale of a country that once was regarded as Africa’s breadbasket gone wrong.

South Africa may not have a Robert Mugabe to drive its disintegration (though not every candidate proposed to succeed President Thabo Mbeki inspires immense confidence). Nonetheless, the problems raised by Archbishop Tlhagale and some he did not raise, such as land reform signal a very real danger that we may yet be led towards Zimbabwe’s path.

It is imperative that South Africa’s leaders make the right turns before this nation loses its way.