The Message of the South African Council of Churches to the African National Congress, its Leadership and its Delegates in View of the Forthcoming Elective Policy Conference in Polokwane

Over the past three months, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has engaged in various interventions and intercessions in view of various developments relating to the 52nd elective Conference of the ruling party ANC. The Council has been particularly concerned with the tone and conduct of the leadership succession processes in the run-up to the Polokwane conference. As part of our concern, the Council has previously issued statements condemning what we have come to call the ‘politics of disgrace’. By this we mean both the disgraceful manner in which some of our leaders, the media and civil servants have discharged their political responsibilities as well as the manner in which the same officials have been discrediting and disgracing one another in the media and in public. The SACC has convened several meetings of church leaders in various provinces where these concerns have been raised and appeals for calm, wisdom and prayerfulness have been made.

On the eve of the Polokwane conference, the SACC wishes to reiterate its non-partisan stance regarding the nominated candidates, their supporters and the final outcomes of the nomination and election processes which are underway. The SACC respects the rights of ANC members and their elected officials to choose their leaders within the parameters established by the party and within the parameters established by the constitution of this country. Such is the nature of our electoral system of proportional representation that political parties and not the voters determine who goes to parliament and eventually who becomes president of the republic.

The SACC nevertheless wishes to make several observations and recommendations to the ANC, its leadership and its conference delegates as they gather in Polokwane from the 16th to the 20th of December.

1. Owing to our country’s electoral system the ruling party (ANC) elections in general and ANC presidential elections in particular have significance far beyond Luthuli House. The election of an ANC leader is a matter of national significance. Indeed we would add that it is a matter of continental and international significance. We therefore urge ANC delegates and leaders alike to recognize their responsibility to the country and to the continent even as they exercise their right to vote as ANC members. We call upon all ANC conference delegates to be cognizant of their responsibility not merely to the ANC as a political party but to South Africa as a country and to Africa as a continent.

2. The crop of persons voted into ANC leadership, especially the president and deputy president should therefore be persons of requisite ability and appropriate character. We pray that ANC delegates will have the ability to discern, from among their midst, men and women who will inspire confidence not only within the confines of the ANC, but in the rest of the country’s citizens.

3. The SACC is concerned at the allegations of unbecoming conduct by some persons and groups as they campaign for votes within the ANC. We are worried about allegations of vote buying, widespread intimidation and the derogatory and demeaning words used by some election campaigners – individuals and groups - against other members of the ANC. We urge both the ANC leaders and ANC delegates to exercise restraint, conducting themselves ethically and to treat one another with respect.

4. At this time, we wish to call upon ANC leaders to lead and to do so by example, with a clear recognition of their responsibility towards the country and its peoples. To this end we ask leaders to refrain from inflammatory language and irresponsible action designed to incite derision and hate of those holding differing views. We remind all leaders that there are people looking up to them and the example they are setting.

5. We request ANC leaders, current and those who will be elected in Polokwane, to commit themselves to democratic processes. We are concerned when leaders of the ANC appear to cast aspersions upon people holding different views and when they seem to cast aspersions upon processes which produce results different from those they prefer. To this end we call upon all persons nominated, especially those nominated to the presidency to already commit themselves to accepting the results of the elections.

6. Important as the conference and the elections are, we would like to remind the ANC, its leadership and its delegates of the tremendous challenges facing the people of this country, namely, moral reconstruction, poverty, HIV/AIDS, service delivery and violence, especially violence against women. These challenges are real now. They will still be here on the 21st December after the Polokwane conference. We therefore call upon those who will be elected in Polokwane to commit themselves to provide leadership that will enable South Africans to deal with these and similar challenges.

7. The SACC is pleased to note that many Christians inside and outside of the ANC have resorted to prayer as a specific and unique Christian intervention with regards to the Polokwane conference. However, the SACC would like to warn against the possible abuse of prayer in cases where partisan public prayer sessions are allegedly organised in order to shore up support for a specific candidate. We call upon Christians to guard against this abuse where prayer is used as a partisan and divisive campaign tool. Rather our appeal is for Christians to pray for the country, its people and for the ANC Polokwane conference.

Prof TS Maluleke, President, Dr Puleng Lenka-Bula, Vice President and Mr Eddie Makue, General Secretary Tel 011 241 7817 or 082 853 8781