Programme Director,
This month of December represents South Africa’s recommitment to the fight against HIV/Aids, the empowerment of people with disabilities, and it is also our reconciliation month.
We will soon be concluding the stipulated 16 days period during which to observe and highlight the plight of children and women who suffer abuse and violation by society.
The campaign against the abuse of the vulnerable in our society is indeed a year-long programme and must be a theme in our daily interactions.
The choice of the venue for this occasion was therefore very deliberate in that we wanted to drive home the message that the time has come that the Voortrekker of the last century and the freedom fighter of the last two decades ago are today working together to build a new nation.
We come together in the Freedom Park and the Voortrekker Monument to declare for our country and the world to know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
The social foundation has been laid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and other reconciliation projects have come and gone.
We are gathered here to soil our hands as we continue to put bricks and mortar to take the nation-building programme to a higher level.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We take this opportunity welcome you all to the City of Tshwane’s hecatombs, The Freedom Park and Die Voortrekker Monument.
It is at this moment propitious for me to mention a special person in our midst, Dr Mongane Wally Serote, who has given midwifery to the Freedom Park, and the idea of joining this two heritage site into a heritage one-stop shop.
We thank you, Dr Serote and your generation for this inheritance that you have, whilst still alive, bequeathed to us, the young ones, to enjoy and to cherish.
The President of our country Dr JG Zuma has during 2009 pronounced that a new department responsible for traditional affairs shall be established to attend to, promote and protect rights of the cultural, religious and linguistic communities. Our mandate as the Department of Traditional Affairs is derived from the following provisions of the Constitution Act:
- Section 6 – Rights to use own languages.
- Section 15 – Right to religion, belief and opinion.
- Section 30 – Language and culture.
- Section 31 – Rights of the cultural, religious and linguistic communities.
- Section 34 – Access to justice and the courts.
- Chapter 12 – Recognition of traditional leadership and customary law.
These constitutional provisions and mandate are exercised in collaboration with other departments within the heritage and social cluster such as the Department of Arts and Culture, Social Development and all others as the affairs of government and the people are all interlinked and inter-related.
We are a constitutional secular state that recognises that the majority of our people belong to one religion or another. Some amongst them, according to Statistics-SA, even practice dual religions and do not find any contradictions in their lives.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On the 27th of October this year, our country hosted the Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa (IFAPA) consultative conference in Kempton Park.
The religious leaders from across the continent had converged in our country to discuss how best to spread the message of collaboration, democracy and peaceful coexistence throughout the continent of Africa and the world.
They had gathered to reaffirm their commitment to supporting good governance and democracy across our continent.
They also wanted to mobilise more of their kind to participate in peace and elections observer missions whenever there are political feuds or elections anywhere on our continent and where possible, in other countries of the world.
The African religious leaders vowed to not only observe the elections and declare their freeness and fairness or otherwise, but they have unanimously agreed to do all in their means to support the post-elections governments to stabilise and deliver good governance to their populations.
The IFAPA delegates informed us on the work they are doing to combat the internecine religious conflicts in Nigeria, Libya and other parts of the continent.
They warned us to guard against and avoid religious bigotry, fundamentalism or extremism from any of the faiths in South Africa.
All of them said to us that they envied the peaceful coexistence of South Africa’s various faiths, with none claiming supremacy over the other.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For us as South Africans, the IFAPA gathering was a rehearsal of what we know religious leaders to be capable of.
They are unifiers, counsellors and teachers.
The role played by religious leaders, across the faiths, to encourage the young people to fight on, to inspire the elders to persevere, and to spur the young combatants to deliver hammer blows against apartheid ideology is immeasurable, and can never be forgotten.
In those days, young people would visit oSangoma to get the motivational talk and some imithi and mishonga to gather courage.
They needed counselling and courage on how to defeat fear of the otherwise mighty apartheid security establishment of the time and soldier on.
Some went to the various churches to get holy water to sprinkle them for sanctity, and laying of hands for protection as they went out to face the ferocious apartheid mercenaries.
Bishops and Pastors, Sheiks and Immams, Rabbi’s and elders gathered in their churches, mosques and synagogues and in their many places of worship to pray and call upon divine intervention against the heinous crime of apartheid.
We believe that even today, the religious community can contribute, as you are doing, to the consolidation of democracy by raising consciousness and mobilising communities to embrace good governance and promote peace and harmony.
For this to accelerate and become possible, you need to unite across the partisan religious affiliation or denomination and recognise that we, as congregations, are one people with a common destiny irrespective of our individual way of linking with Unkuklunkulu or Shikwembu.
Bafudzi and BoGogo,
We are calling on all of you to cooperate with government in building a cohesive society.
We are encouraged by the willingness of some amongst you to intervene wherever there is social strife.
Your active involvement at Marikana recently and during many other social upheavals or service delivery protests is appreciated and encouraged.
We encourage and implore on all of you, as religious leaders, to intervene and call for restraint wherever the protests are hijacked into violent and destructive mayhems.
Talk to the people as you preach to them, and as you teach, lead and counsel them during your faith interactions to exercise restraint and to know that this is their government.
The protestors must be urged to stop arson and malicious damage to public property and infrastructure, for they belong to them.
The right to protest is a constitutional right for all South Africans.
Programme Director,
This gathering pleases us in that we are converged here as the faith community through the Department of Traditional Affairs, to ask the Supreme Being to bless our country and the continent, raise her horn and to listen to and hear our plight.
We pray today that the All Mighty blesses us, her children.
We are gathered here to collectively and individually ask the Supreme Being to help us to end the strife and suffering, and to preserve us as a young democracy as we seek to secure a better future for the youth.
We are gathered here to renew that social contract between the state and religious community.
We remained convinced that the religious community, representing the people of South Africa, have a bigger role to play in taking our country forward, forging moral regeneration and building a new South African.
Working together we can build a country free of all forms of prejudice, of racism, xenophobia and all other forms of discrimination against their fellow human beings.
Programme Director,
We recognise that religious formations have a wider reach than any political party can do.
In this regard, the message of social cohesion, self-preservation from diseases such as HIV/Aids, various sexually transmitted and other lifestyle diseases, and the building of better and peaceful communities cannot be complete without religious input and leadership.
Programme Director,
It is against this background that we are today going to formally sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and the National Inter-faith Council of South Africa (NICSA).
This MoU will be distributed in all government and religious organisations’ offices - to all chemists and herbalist tents, and to all sangomas’ consultation rooms.
The MoU must serve as a constant reminder that all of us, pagan, heathen or believer, atheist or agnotist, African religious practitioner and Sikh follower, all have a common destiny.
For as long as we all breath the same air, and mingle in the same space, we then have a duty to ensure peaceful coexistence, to preserve our environment, and keep it clean and sustainable.
Programme Director,
This gathering today is an affirmation to our forebears who formed the liberation movement, the ANC.
Most of the leaders at the time were Christian scholars who were mostly educated by the missionary schools.
They all worked together as traditional leaders and healers, Christian and other faith leaders to form an organisation, the African Native National Congress, later to be known as the African National Congress (ANC).
The ANC was formed to unite all Africans across language barriers and other races in a common fight against and defeat the evil apartheid system.
They always believed, and to this day, the ANC still respects and recognises that the majority of its members, supporters and the population of South Africa believe in the possibility of positive divine intervention in the life of the country by the All Mighty, Allah, uXamatha, Badzimu and the Supreme Being.
As we celebrate the constitutional secular state they bequeathed to us, let us all commit to building and consolidating this democracy into a strong and unwavering source of hope for the future of all us, irrespective of religion, race or creed.
We have heard about the ongoing debate amongst the religious folks on the public holidays in our country.
Your government is paying attention.
We however continue to rely on the collective wisdom of all our people, particularly the interfaith community in unravelling even the most convoluted conundrums.
We believe that you will ultimately provide solutions as you find a balance between culture, tradition or heritage preservation, and the building of a cohesive society based on an economically productive population able to work effectively to sustain itself.
We have full confidence in the leadership of the various religious communities that they will provide guidance and counselling to their adherents to make proper choices in this debate.
A diverse society such as ours should be inclined to finding solutions than being prone to drifting into confrontation for whatever reason.
Programme Director,
Government is deeply disturbed by the on-going slaughter of our rhinoceros which are our heritage and source of revenue through tourism.
We are told that the horn is mythically marketed as a source of traditional medicinal properties for various diseases.
Our traditional health practice must all come out and condemn this scourge as part of our campaign against these crime syndicates.
We appreciate the high level of social mobilisation, led by the Lead-SA in partnership with our law enforcement agencies, in condemning and putting in place measures to fight back in defence of our rhino.
We support all initiatives that are being taken to fight this grotesque campaign by faceless sadists, hell-bent on plundering our natural resource.
Let us all expose these criminals wherever they are hiding, be it in our villages, suburbs and everywhere.
Programme Director,
May I implore on the leaders of this congregation gathered here today, and those at home to continue to pray for this government, for its Ministers and leaders at various levels.
Let us all pray for the good rains this season, for the good harvests and the prosperity of our country.
Keep us in your prayers during this month of December as we travel to our various holiday destinations and to visit friends and relatives.
Let us pray that our roads become safe and that all behave themselves responsibly and Arrive Alive.
Let us pray for the criminals to repent and realise the value of hard work and the pride that comes with it.
Let us all heed the LEAD – South Africa call by reporting crimes and exposing corruption wherever it rears its ugly head.
May your Gods be with you during this festive period as you find time to reconnect with yourselves, your kith and kin.
Drive safely and Arrive Alive!!
I thank you!!
