Pretoria | Tuesday
A PLAN of action for the moral renewal of South Africa is to be drawn up by government and civil society at a conference in Pretoria on Thursday.
The event would also see the launch of a moral regeneration movement (MRM), Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday.
”This is the first major step to involve everyone in a partnership to regenerate the morals of society,” he said.
The government announced the moral regeneration summit in November last year amid concerns over an increase in the incidence of child rape.
A working committee of government and civil society representatives was set up at the time to promote an MRM.
President Thabo Mbeki is scheduled to open the one-day meeting at Waterkloof air base. About 1 000 delegates are expected to attend.
A wide range of sectors will take part, including representatives from all levels of government, political parties, business, organised labour, churches, non-government bodies, and youth and women’s movements.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said he would not attend the ”pompous ceremony” because he would be out of town.
The UDM would be represented by Gauteng MPL Lulama Mshumpela.
Holomisa questioned the morality of the government’s decision to go ahead with its multi-billion rand arms procurement package.
Government was supposed to lead by example, he said in an open letter to Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
”Immediately after the summit speeches – designed perhaps for self-aggrandisement and lip-service more than anything else – church and religious leaders must take the lead while government follows,” Holomisa wrote.
Ngubane said the conference would seek to devise a programme of action for a campaign to promote the creation of an ethical, caring and corruption-free society free.
He hoped it would also devise a strategy to influence the media to convey this programme to the wider population.
”As government, we need a radical examination and revision of the moral social order. Undoubtedly, this calls for a moral renewal of our society,” Ngubane said.
He said a breakdown in social support systems would be discussed at the conference.
”One of the programmes that has to derive from the meeting is how can the government help create infrastructure that will restore social support systems,” Ngubane said.
Tshwane mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, who will chair the MRM, said the movement would recognise the concerns of society over what he described as a rise in anti-social acts.
”The main thrust will focus on empowering local communities to strengthen the moral and spiritual life of the nation.”
Also high on the agenda would be the link between poverty and moral degeneration, Mkhatshwa said.
”People say because I am hungry I must steal, hijack or rob. There is no justification for crime, and we need to say that at the meeting.”
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad said drug abuse at schools and tertiary institutions would be another topic for discussion.
”If our next generation is neglected and does not participate in the meeting, we will be doing ourselves a disservice.” Pahad said the role of sport, the media and political parties in society would have to be discussed at Thursday’s event.
”These are influential sectors in our society because they shape our opinions and character.”
Pahad called on government ministers and prominent figures within communities to talk about moral degeneration whenever they were addressing the public. – Sapa