Rehana Rossouw
People campaigning for the new South African Constitution to promote a Christian state are political opportunists trying to reinstate minority baasskap, said African National Congress MP Carl Niehaus this week .
Niehaus — who has a theology degree — was responding to the recent march on Parliament by several thousand conservative Christains demanding that a Christian state be embodied in the Constitution.
Describing himself as a “Christian belonging to a party with more theologians and priests in its ranks than any other party in Parliament”, Niehaus defended the ANC’s proposal that South Africa become a secular state.
The ANC’s proposals for a secular state were being “outrightly misrepresented” by people who were purporting to be defending the truth, he said.
Among the false statements were that under a secular state believers would be denied the right to pray in state-owned buildings. It was also being said that any office bearer in a church would not be allowed to hold public office and that members of a church council would not be able to be heads of government schools.
He said secularism was a term which indicated a way of life which was not exclusively based on God, revelation, heaven or hell, but bases morality on enhancing the public good.
“No denial of religious belief is implied. The ANC’s proposal of a secular state, meaning a non-confessional state which does not promote one religion over others, is in line with this definition. It simply means that all religions will be treated equally.
“This makes imminent sense, because while it is true that South Africa is an intensely religious community, it is equally true that we are a religiously plural community. For this reason any constitutional preamble that favours one religion over another should be
Niehaus said for some Christians to claim that their views ought to be imposed on everyone else, declaring South Africa to be a Christian state, was to relegate people of other religions to second-class citizenship.
He said a secular state was not anti-religious. It protected the rights of all religions without favouring one. The ANC’s intention was that the Constitution should protect the rights of all perople to practice their faith.
“To insist on a constitution that must promote Christian exclusivity is nothing but political opportunism, political ignorance and the apparent will to divide this religiously plural, multicultural nation. It is a new form of minority baasskap that should be rejected out of hand,” Niehaus said.
Niehaus said the Christian faith was abused by apartheid and questioned whether the fundamentalist campaign for a Christian state was a continuation of that process, with the aim of undermining democracy, demonising the ANC and promoting the agendas of the New