National Convention Launch: Churches sign up to restore SA’s dignity

The South African Council of Churches launched the National Convention of South Africa in Johannesburg this week. The initiative is the church’s response to the national challenge of capture of the country’s organs of state, corruption, inequality, poverty, and the other ills. By BHEKI C SIMELANE.

“The church is acting as a needle that will burst this wound for the puss to come out.” This is how a member of the Imilonji Ka NTU Choral Society, which rendered some emotional songs at the launch on Tuesday, described the significance of the National Convention of South Africa.

The initiative is led and informed by civil society partnerships to offer solutions in the context of a wounded nation, according to its founding statement.

SA Council of Churches General Secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana emphasised that participation of the church was important over and above Constitutional mechanisms. “We want to ensure that in future, the country does not lose sight of its values again,” Mpumlwana said, adding that it was a myth that politicians were the sole custodians of our political discourse.

A steering committee has been set up to oversee most the tasks of the convention.

Mpumlwana expressed concern about a range of issues including the threat by some in the ruling party to purge ANC members of parliament who voted for the opposition party motion of no confidence in the President. Mpumlwana said the ANC’s MPs’ action was rooted in Constitutional Democracy.

He called for unity in dealing with the culture of corruption, poverty, and greed.

There will be an interactive website to register stakeholders’ input on the challenging issues confronting South Africa. The steering committee has also been tasked with the branding of the website.

On 18 May 2017, the SACC, which is an inter-denominational forum uniting 36 churches, disclosed the findings of its research into state capture. The SACC’s investigation followed successive complaints by senior government officials that they were coerced into doing business favours for the Gupta family.

The ANC launched its own probe, but only one person made submissions to ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe.

The religious community has been vocal in their participation in the country’s political space, especially since the revelations of the extent of the influence the Gupta family has in the running of state-owned entities and the family’s proximity to President Jacob Zuma.

The SACC report outlined a number of ways through which the President’s power elite undermines the state, namely:

Securing control over state wealth, through the capture of state-owned companies by weakening their governance and operational structures;

Securing control over the public service by weeding out skilled professionals;

Securing access to rent-seeking opportunities by shaking down regulations to their advantage, and to the disadvantage of South Africans;

Securing control over the country’s fiscal sovereignty;

Securing control over strategic procurement opportunities by intentionally weakening key technical institutions and formal executive process;

Securing a loyal intelligence, and securing apparatus; and

Securing parallel governance and decision-making decisions that undermine the executive.

The churches report also highlighted the key players in the capture of the country’s SOE’s, including President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma, the Gupta brothers, embattled Former CEO at Eskom Brian Molefe, Former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh, and incumbent Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.

The announcement of the launch of the National Convention of South Africa comes at a time when the Guptas are involved in selling off their assets in the country. The launch also comes just days before the deadline for the closure of the Guptas’ accounts, and also at a time when another close associate of the Guptas, Duduzane Zuma, is crying foul over the closure of his of his own bank accounts.

“We need to deal decisively with the culture of corruption and the lack of constitutional accountability and impunity in the public sector, while at the same time trying to get diverse sections of the South African society to move towards a common centre of South African social and economic mutuality.” Mpumlwana said.

The initiative aimed to ensure that never again would the country surrender its public values to the whims of self-serving politicians. The convention would also hasten the establishment of a reconciled social and economic dispensation for the realisation of the post-apartheid promise of South Africa. The SACC said the proposed establishment was in keeping with the pledge the church made to late former president Nelson Mandela on his hospital bed, and said the move was all the more momentous especially on the eve of the centenary of Madiba’s life.

The first sitting of the year-long convention will be next week on Tuesday.

The convention is also tasked with looking at healing and reconciliation, economic transformation, and how to anchor democracy.

Anchoring democracy will address the reforms necessary to plug the corruption holes in the country’s systems by professionalising the civil service, and ensuring effective oversight over the executive and government by both the legislature and citizens.

The convention will also look at transparency in political party funding. It will also seek to prevent the abuse of justice institutions and security services. Means to ensure the credibility, independence and competence of the criminal justice system was restored will also be other topics of discussion, as will societal problems like violence and protests.

The reversal of gross inequality, including the need to take seriously and explore best practices in incorporating into the formal economy some of the economic survival measures of poor communities, will be another matter on the agenda.

The convention will also seek to address land reform and sound economic development.

There will be urgent engagement for a comprehensive quality education for economic participation, and to enhance economic productivity in the context of economic transformation.

The convention will seek to strengthen the comparative advantage of the region in areas and commodities in which the country has relative economic advantage. DM

Photo: Amid mounting revelations of state capture and ongoing poverty, the SACC launched a National Convention of SA this week.