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

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Piet?
PROF.

UNKNOWN: Thank you very much, I would like to thank you for a very   interesting and thought provoking statement you put on the table. I also want   to again thank you for the very gracious way in which you received my colleague   Tom Manthata and myself in Pietersburg sometime ago to arrange for this meeting.   We really appreciate that. I know that my colleagues have a number of questions   they would like to put to you. May I restrain myself to one?
The Truth Commission is about truth and also about reconciliation. We are increasingly   aware of the important part that the churches, the faith communities have to   play in future for reconciliation. Do we have a commitment from the ZCC that   you will co-operate with all the other churches, all the other faith communities   in future, to try and build reconciliation. You have expertise, you have a number   of things that you told us about. You are doing much to uplift the local communities   you serve, but with all the richness of your experience, your expertise, will   you commit yourself to work with the other churches and faith communities in   future to help us with this enormous task of reconciliation in the country?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Thank you Chairperson, thanks Professor Meiring. The Zion   Christian Church is essentially about reconciliation. The Zion Christian Church   has been preaching reconciliation from 1910. There is no way we can stand away   from reconciliation, especially when it is so critical for rebuilding our country.   May I also say, Chairperson and the honourable panel, that the door of the Zion   Christian Church remains open to all peace loving South Africans, indeed any   member of the human race, that wish to come and pray with us or to engage in   any positive activity that will bring about improved conditions of people's   lives. We, in the few words I've said, commit ourselves as we have always committed   ourselves to reconciliation. More than ever now we believe that reconciliation   is the turning point of the future of this country. We are not going to abandon   ship at this stage, Mr Chairperson.
[|Tape 2]

UNKNOWN: Thank you, your Grace. I would like to add my voice of congratulations   on the way in which you presented your church this morning. It was an eye-opener   for most of us and I was impressed with the projects that you have undertaken   and hopefully you will continue to undertake more of these projects.
I have two questions to ask. In your presentation you said that until 1985   you had a subsidy to the transport - you didn't or you did?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: We didn't have a subsidy - .indeed we are now subsidised   by the government.

UNKNOWN: Then my second question is there was a time when you had problems   with the United Democratic Front. How did you go about trying to solve that   problem? Did you seek maybe advice or help/assistance from the government?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Chairperson, to tell it as it is, as some newspapers call   it. We never had any problem with the United Democratic Front. Not at all. It   was during a time when there was a lot of disinformation that was doing the   rounds in our community. We got stories to the effect that Lekganyane formed   a defence force. Newspapers spread rumours of that nature, and we did not ask   - we had headlines like "ZCC Defence Force". Not true. This was quoted   in the Times. Some newspapers that does the rounds in Pietersburg started these   rumours and in the charged circumstances in those days, young activists without   checking facts, started massing up and believing that the church was their enemy.   Thanks to the wisdom that prevailed in those days, I recall that Seth Ntayi,   who is now in the Northern Province Legislative Assembly, played a very significant   role in joining us in reducing the tension in that area. The church never had   any problem with any political organisation at all and even when we were criticised   by political organisations, by any other person, the church did not respond   in a way that was unchristian. In most cases, this church simply keeps quiet,   when there is no need to respond, because we believe from the teachings of Ingenasi,   that when you start arguing with fools, sooner or later nobody realises who   is not a fool.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Joyce?

UNKNOWN: I just also have two short questions. When you started presenting   your submission, you mentioned that your founder, Bishop, was worried about   the fact that the value systems and cultural beliefs were eroded by missionaries.   What is the programme of the church in maintaining these values systems and   cultural beliefs, because yesterday, ever since we started this week, there   has been great concern about this moral decay within our national community,   and perhaps we would like to hear how your church maintains this kind of programme.

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Thanks Mam. It is true that when the missionaries came to   this country, their agenda was slightly more than just converting us and being   good Christians. In fact, Lord Renwick recently said in all those years when   he met Bishop Tutu, Bishop Tutu used to say to him, you know when the missionaries   came here, we welcomed them. They gave us bibles. In no time we realised that   we had more bibles, and they had more land. This is the situation from which   this church was born and we recognised that our values were going down the drain   and we started building up a religion that was Afro-centric and not Eurocentric   and even today, I doubt if there is any church in this country that has the   number of youth that this church has. Our latest statistics show that 60% of   our membership are people under the age of 24 and I can tell you that without   boasting, we do have our problems, we do have aberrations, children who will   go out of their way and not respect parents, but this church is a bigger family.   A child belongs to the wider community and not to two people. When a child gets   out of step and the parents don't take care of that child, in reprimanding him   or in creating a spiritual guided way to lead the child forward, the church   steps in and we contribute substantially. I think if Nkosazana Zuma was here   she would clap her hands. We contribute substantially in making the young people   to refrain from using habit forming drugs, including cigarettes. We consider   that as a habit forming drug. Including liquor. We feel that these are the things   that are decaying the moral values of our children. We are building on that   our leadership ...[indistinct] right now, that's from young women in the age   of 17 up to the age of 100, we've got a streak of leadership that starts from   that level, right up to the highest age, because we are a church that basically   relies on the passing of traditional African values by way of mouth, because   we don't have books. There are a few books written by Mbithi, and the Ethiopians,   but essentially they do not deal so much about African culture per say. We take   it from the grey heads you see in this hall today. They tell us which way to   go, most of the time. We blend that with the teaching of Christ. We blend that   with the modern outlook that we have today, and for as long as it does not interfere   in the moral fabric of our people we are happy to accept any suggestions.