Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

MR BERNARD SPONG: Sir, the fact is that there is no strategy of that kind.   It is one of those issues that constantly comes before us. There are plans,   which may be heard in other ways during the time of this hearing about ecumenical   newspapers, about new ways of being able to touch the whole church. And one   of the reasons for this kind of thinking is the way in which there are so many   language, 11 languages, recognised. The cost for printing, the time for translating,   all of this means that in the kind of crisis that you've heard of costs, the   SACC finds itself unable to say that it can publish its material in all of these   languages. But at the same time, let's say that one of the publications of the   SACC recently on the reconciliation services, the ideas of the liturgy for those   services that bring people together, to be able to look at reconciliation and   symbols of reconciliation. Those services have been printed in the different   languages and made available to the people. But no, what we have to do possibly   much more in the whole religious constituency, is be able to get into the new   forms of information giving, which are the community broadcasting, and be able   to go into those places, so that the voice of the church, the voice of religious   communities is not heard in a foreign language within the narrow confines of   that which is called religious. But in fact it is the voice of the religious   community speaking in the areas and arenas, in the arenas of the public, and   it is in that way sir, as the church begins to train its people to be able to   broadcast, to be able to speak, to be able to write in these ways, so that we   don't just confine ourselves to that religious message, but a religious message   that is a reflection upon what is happening in the different communities. And   that, to me sir, is the only way in which we are going to be able to overcome   the great difficulty that you have mentioned.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. I have to ask me colleagues on the panel.   Bongani Finca?
REV.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you very much your Grace. I would like to raise a question,   which I have not seen being dealt with in the submission, and that's about the   reconciliation of the church itself in South Africa. My observation and I don't   know if it is correct, I would appreciate your comment on it. My observation   is that the SACC was not only under attack from the government, the apartheid   government, but the most painful attack was that attack which came from churches   in South Africa. Churches who opted to be outside the structure of the structure   of the Council of Churches. And I think that that attack opened very deep wounds   in the church itself in this country. I don't know if the church is going to   be an agent of reconciliation, to reconcile the nation. How is it hoping to   do that without going through a process of not just papering over those wounds?   The Chairperson of this commission likes to constantly refer to the fact that   you have to open up those wounds, deal with them and not just put plaster on   them because they willwhat? They will fester. I would like to find out   is the church in South Africa ready to confront its own reconciliation in order   for it to be an agent of reconciliation?
PROF.

DAVID MUSOMO: Thank you Chairperson. One thing that we are in agreement   on the panel is that that question is a very painful question for the church.   It's a very difficult question to answer. Because the truth of the matter is   that we cannot give the answer that should ideally be given by the church, where   we recognise that yes, we have not dealt adequately with reconciliation in the   church. During the short period of the life of the Truth and Reconciliation   Commission, we have tried to involve more churches in programmes on reconciliation   in South Africa and have become, through that process, painfully aware of the   lack of preparedness. The lack of will, amongst so many of us, professing Christians   in this country to deal honestly and sincerely with reconciliation. We are,   however, not giving up hope, we are not despairing. We would want to tie that   with a broader development that is happening, where at the All Africa Conference   of Churches, the theme was "troubled but not destroyed". We are troubled   by the lack of willingness, but we don't despair. We believe that the opportunities   are still there for us. We are still alive, we are still under God's grace and   it is possible that we could do something. In very small endeavours, we are   beginning to confront that challenge in particular communities. It is at this   time not really something worth mentioning, but we believe it is with those   very small lights shining through, that eventually we will be able to overcome   the darkness. But we would say that it is imperative that we repeat the call   that the challenge is still on the church within our society today, to do much   more than we are presently doing with regard to reconciliation.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Any other? Thomas? 
[INAUDIBLE. NEXT SPEAKER'S NAME INDISTINCT]

THOMAS MANTHATA: (?) It could have been mentioned, perhaps I've missed it. You   talk about addressing the issue of poverty. I would love to know what strategies,   actually, is the SACC employing to address the issue of poverty?

MS B BAM: You know, our approach is quite different from probably the way we   have worked before. The approach is that this particular programme should be   owned by the churches and this is important. That' why we refer to it as the   poverty commission of the churches, and I think that I want to emphasise that,   because we want that it should be possible for a number of churches who are   not affiliated to the SACC to be part of this activity, they don't necessary   have to be affiliated. So that is an important strategy. The second one is that   because of that approach, the plans of the work and what we do, we get together   with the member churches, who are already in their own small communities working   on poverty, so that we work from the grassroots to the commission itself. So   it's a new approach, a little slower than the ones we have tried to do. We are   trying to do it in a way that it would be possible for the poor people of South   Africa to participate and they can only do that if the programme itself comes   from the level of congregation, rather than for us to design plans of combating   poverty on a national level. We realise that is a weak approach. The second   approach is that we want to work with the government on this. So we are in conversations   with some of the MEC's of the provinces, so that we can have joint projects   and programmes on the provincial level as well as on the local level. So our   strategies are several fold and of course the third strategy is one of dealing   with economic justice, because we realise that we can't isolate poverty from   the structures, economic and political structures. That's why we have another   programme that deals with that and looks at questions of debt as part of the   whole holistic approach to poverty.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

MS JOYCE SEROKE: In your self-critique analysis in the submission, you mentioned   that the SACC served the practical needs rather than the spiritual. What is   the SACC going to do now about addressing the signs of the moral decay and collapse   of our value system that is now prevalent in our society, perhaps as a result   of your not addressing the spiritual needs of the people.