Church enters fray as ANC tries to face down opposition

Church leaders have joined calls for President Jacob Zuma to resign following allegations of corruption that  threaten to precipitate political violence.

The South African Council of Churches, (SACC), once a bastion of the anti-apartheid movement, has attacked the President for using public money to renovate his rural home. The move comes amid deepening disillusionment with the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The party that ushered in the new era of democracy in 1994 has fallen prey to factionalism, corruption and networks of patronage.

Outraged by the SACC’s call for Mr Zuma’s resignation, the ANC Women’s League denounced the church leaders, saying it was the Church’s religious duty to forgive Mr Zuma, who they said had apologised for the scandal over his house. The Public Protector, an anti-corruption body, ruled in 2014 that $23m (£15m) of public money had been improperly spent on Mr Zuma’s rural home in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province, and ordered him to reimburse part of the expense. In a unanimous judgment, the Constitutional Court ruled that Mr Zuma’s failure to repay the money violated the constitution. “The matter has caused a lot of frustration and confusion, for which I apologise,” Mr Zuma said the following day. “I respect the judgment and will abide by it.”

Anthony Egan, a Jesuit social ethicist, condemned the Women’s League as at best misguided and at worst mischievous, saying Mr Zuma had not in fact taken full responsibility. Fr Egan said that scandal after scandal had been the hallmark of the current South African presidency and the problem may go beyond Mr Zuma and reflect a systemic problem with his party. “The sometime party of liberation, like many liberation movements in parliamentary politics, has become fat: feeding on its own people like ticks on a cow, its leadership seeks its own comfort and wellbeing, not that of those who elected them,” Fr Egan said.

Revelations by deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas in March that he was offered the top ministerial post by a wealthy business family with close ties to Mr Zuma, a couple of weeks before the dismissal of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, gave more weight to opposition allegations. It has been interpreted as an attempt by members of the Gupta family to capture the State Treasury. The SACC for its part said it was dismayed and horrified at the prospect of proxy cabinet ministers being recruited to serve private business interests.

Recent threats by the Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema, during a televised interview, to remove the Government through the barrel of a gun if the ANC continues to respond violently to peaceful protests, drew criticism but showed how deep hostility was running in some quarters. The rhetoric disappointed Bishop Abel Gabuza, South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) Justice and Peace chairman. “We do not want our nation to take such a path. We appeal to all political parties to refrain from actions and rhetoric that could fuel election violence and civil war,” he said.

Negative sentiments were further fuelled by the release at the end of April of a report into a 1999 30 billion rand (£1.37bn) arms deal. The Government acquired, among other items, 26 Gripen fighter aircraft, 24 Hawk trainer aircraft and submarines for the navy. After a year-long investigation, the Seriti Commission found there was no evidence “placed before it” to prove corruption. Mr Zuma said the report brought to an end all claims of wrongdoing.

For Bishop Gabuza, the report failed to provide a solid closure to the corruption allegations.

 Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, spokesman for the SACBC, reminded South Africans that “our public institutions like that of that Public Protector [tasked with investigating misconduct by the state] have full freedom to exercise their responsibility and supervision”,  but the attempted reassurance left many unconvinced.