If the church sits on its hands and does nothing to nudge errant and corrupt metro executives to serve their communities with justice and not themselves and the interests of their cronies – such a church would have abandoned its prophetic voice.
The Madlanga Commission has already identified some of the executives as co-conspirators in the looting of state finances.
Reflecting on the systemic and highly organised criminal syndicates with their tentacles running throughout the democratic order, chairperson of Ethical Foundation for Leadership, and minister of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, the Reverend Mautji Pataki, warned: “What is happening in the metros as identified by the Madlanga Commission might have already permeated most leadership running our metros and municipalities in the country.
Pataki, formerly general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) added: “At the dawn of our democracy in 1994 some of us thought it was time for our elected leadership to demonstrate what it is to be a leader who arrives on a ticket of morality and justice as against the previous apartheid baggage with all its immorality.”
“The dark development in and around Ekurhuleni and other Gauteng metros – the City of Johannesburg, and the City of Tshwane - demonstrate how the current political leadership has veered off the trail designed by those who fought against apartheid and its immorality.
Pataki adds: “It seems the church has lost the zeal and drive that energised Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Beyers Naude, Reverend Dr Allan Boesak, to challenge apartheid atrocities with all the might at their disposal, by so doing refashioning a new democratic order.”
The Ekurhuleni’s Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) is one of several Gauteng metro police departments that have been flagged for harbouring criminal networks – and that its vetting system had been unable to detect police officers facing serious charges of murder, among others.
Fired Ekurhuleni former police chief Julius Mkhwanaza with former Ekurhuleni city manager, Dr Imogen Mashaza, now face several charges related to fraud, corruption, defeating the ends of justice, among others.
To add to the stew of corruption and malfeasance, the cities of Tshwane and of Johannesburg are in the same predicament, described by the Madlanga interim findings as “a rot that runs deep, where municipal law enforcement agencies frequently acted as a law unto themselves, operating parallel criminal syndicates or capturing local state procurement”.
“The development in and around Ekurhuleni and other Gauteng metros – Ekurhuleni, City of Johannesburg, and City of Tshwane - demonstrates that the current political leadership – has veered off the trail designed by those who fought against apartheid and injustice on a moral principle.
“[This] reveals a blatant disregard for the needs of the poor, stealing from the sick and vulnerable, allowing sewerage to flow along our many township streets as though they were rivers, led by a generally corrupt metro police service, failure to contain gangsterism and to decisively deal with drug peddlers in our land while allowing criminals to enjoy the benefits of crime with impunity, are all symptoms of a nation dominated by a lack of moral consciousness.
“The call for the church to repent and confess its failure to lead this nation cannot be postponed any further. The signs are such that we have a church that has lost its sense of vocation. Instead of leading the voice of public prophecy, the church, in many instances, has conformed to the whims of the status quo and the powerful.”
Pataki called for new prophets to emerge – not the church captured by political rogues masquerading as political leaders - to take up cudgels and enter the social justice space previously occupied by illustrious sons and daughters of Africa such as Reverend Beyers Naude, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, Fr Trevor Huddleston, the Reverend Allan Boesak, Dr Ramphele Mamphela, Fr Simeon Nkoane, Fr Albert Nolan, Fr Michael Lapsley, among others.
“We must be a church that speaks up when our government loses its way, and not a church with sycophantic tendencies that claps and ululates, supporting unjust causes of rogue political leaders, instead of a church that stands on the side of truth and injustice, and screaming at defective political leadership with the words, “Thus says the Lord.”
“If we think of the legendary Archbishop Oscar Romero who became a champion of the poor and a fierce critic of state violence in his country, El Salvador.
“We have to be that church that embodies the spirit of Romero, ready to champion and deliver justice to the poor and the vulnerable - and to condemn and help to stop corruption taking place in our metros and municipalities, and the country in general.
“Romero lived the cause of justice to the end until he was assassinated by the right-wing death squad marksman while celebrating Mass at his church.
Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, and a social justice activist