11 July 2001
The Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial
LegislatureThe Premier,
Rev. Makhenkesi Stofile;
Secretary General of the SACC,
Rev Dr. Tsele;
MEC’s and MPL’s;
Members of all denominations present here today;
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is indeed quite an honour for me to be standing in front of this august audience today, to share my thoughts with this inaugural Religious Parliament.
I am humbled to be meeting with religious leaders, given the outstanding role the religious community played during the struggle for our liberation, and the role this community continues to play in our day to day lives. This Religious Parliament is a unique development and an extremely significant one because the religious sector certainly has a crucial role to play in the transformation of our country. Part of this transformation includes working towards the moral regeneration of our society, a national priority in which we expect the religious community to play a leading role.Chairperson, we cannot over-emphasise our belief that a partnership with the religious community is of utmost importance, as we need to cooperate on the major issues we face.
While the transformation of our country needs political, social and economic wisdom, it also needs spiritual power. It is these ingredients that will assist us in dealing with the challenges facing our country, such as the problem of the decline of ethical and moral standards in our society.
It is clear, chairperson that we face a serious problem, and that our society has largely succumbed to moral decay. This is evident in the kinds of crime and corruption we see, the lack of respect for human life and property among some elements in our society, lack of respect for the next person and general attitude of not caring about whether something one does is right or wrong. The kinds of crimes we hear of these days, such as the abuse of small children and the elderly, of robbers invading pension pay points to violently take away the very little that our aged survive on, are an indication of the kind of moral depravity that has beset our communities.
Our arts and culture has not been left unaffected. Some of the scripts being produced for television or radio are full of explicit violence and sex. These programmes, unfortunately, tend to be very popular with the youth, but are certainly a bad influence on them. Chairperson, there is also a serious drive towards materialism in our country, where people are willing to do anything to get a good life. When people obtain material possessions and power they often develop different priorities.
The focus moves from seeking collective transformation to personal advancement, from community to individual, from social struggle to a personal struggle, from a vision of a new world to a quest for power in that new world. Another serious concern is that people appear to have lost the fear of God or of a vital force or ancestors in their lives. That belief in an Omnipotent and Omnipresent being who is watching over all used to ensure good behaviour and moral uprightness. Chairperson, it is important that we remember the source of the problem we face in this country, as we cannot address it if we do not know the root causes. We should all still remember how the apartheid system dehumanized communities, and created its own value system, as well as a different way of interpreting the differences between wrong and right, bad and good, just and unjust.
Apartheid eroded respect in general, and respect for life and property in particular.It introduced extreme intolerance, and because it had to be maintained through extreme violence, it also encouraged violence at every level of society. It undermined the institution of the family, and through the migrant labour system forced breadwinners to live apart from their families. The apartheid system also turned education into an instrument of subjugation, and destroyed the human relations between national groups and communities. It turned our society into a sick society, and it is remarkable that the majority of our people have not been affected to the extent that they should, given what they went through under the apartheid system.
Chairperson, we cannot therefore ignore this bitter past when we discuss how we can move forward. If we do, we are likely to make mistakes when attempting redress.It is important that we join forces from all angles and as all sectors - religious factor, government, political parties, business, labour, sports, women and youth, to work for moral regeneration.The Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) has its roots in the 1997 Moral Summit, which comprised religious bodies and political parties, and government has been deeply involved in its development.
It seeks to examine the causes and solutions for the moral decay and ethical problems which plague our society from top to bottom, from violence to corruption, from rape to robbery, from the collapse of moral standards to the collapse of families. The religious community needs to assist us on this path to recover our commitment to the common good of all.
We need to sit together locally and ask how our cities, villages, townships and neighborhoods can be transformed in conjunction with the provincial and national spheres for the good of all. This moral revival will be done not by seeking personal advancement, but by recovering the spirit of self-sacrifice and solidarity that we knew in the past. It will be done as we unite to build a bigger and better society together. As Government, we therefore rely on the religious community to assist us to revive the values, which made us proud to be South Africans. These values are true for all religions and for all times, the values such as dignity, honour, respect, sympathy, empathy and love. These values are incorporated in the MRM, as we seek to achieve a society that puts people before profit, that has respect for life and the rights of others, in which the behaviour is aimed at the promotion of the common good, in which spiritual values are foundational, where the elderly, children and women are treated with dignity and respect, where no-one takes advantage of the weak and develop a society which produces accountable leadership.
The religious community also needs to assist us to pool resources to ensure a suitable socialisation of the youth through the family structure. Globalisation and the information technology revolution has made the world a much smaller place, and the youth are introduced to all kinds of influences, some of which are negative and lead them astray. Through active engagement of the youth, we can be able to produce a patriotic generation of new South Africans.
The religious community also needs to take an active interest in the education of our children, by becoming involved in local governing bodies and providing support to parents, learners and educators. There is a need for us to work together to revive the principle of "any child is my child", where any adult on any street will treat any child as if he or she were their own.
We also need to see our religious leaders becoming actively involved in practical issues, such as assisting in local community policing forums and counseling victims of crime and abuse in our communities. Our priests and pastors are sometimes the first port of call for people in distress. That support network is crucial. Chairperson, the objectives of the MRM are to see the enactment and practice of high value systems within our society, where we empower people to make ethical decisions, eradicate corruption, establish a crime free society and produce a responsible youth. It should also be a society that is sensitive and responsive to the challenges of leadership, which encourages! rejuvenation of shared values in the family and also to build a new patriotism among citizens of our country.We believe we are getting somewhere with the process although a lot still needs to be done. A notable achievement in the movement towards restoring the moral fibre was visible last month when the National Anti-Corruption Forum was launched in Cape Town.
The launch of the Forum was an important sequel to the National Anti-Corruption Summit of April 1999, where government, through the Public Service Commission, established a National Anti-Corruption Cross-Sectoral Task Team to take forward the implementation of the Summit resolutions.
This multi-sectoral approach is bound to bear fruits. It is our belief that in such initiatives, the religious community should play a leading role. Work is also being done to ensure a formal launch of the MRM, as you will hear in some of the presentations here today. The steering committee has had consultations with most mayors of the metropolitan councils. It was proposed at a workshop early this year that the new municipal structures should be drivers of the process at a local level. I will be meeting with the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Father Simangaliso Mkhatshwa soon, to discuss the way forward on these matters. Chairperson, given our enthusiasm for moral renewal, you will understand why I am so appreciative of today’s assembly, as I believe it provides another avenue for us to take the movement forward.
We will keenly await the outcome of your deliberations.You have certainly lit a candle here today, and that is why I am honoured and glad to be here at this ‘Religious Parliament’, and bear witness to this important and historic occasion. You are a light to the nation.
The inauguration of this Religious Parliament should serve as an example to the rest of the country, and I wish other legislatures could follow this good example. I wish you well in all your future endeavours.
I thank you.