On World Water Day, the ‘place of sweet waters’ watches the dams

Munyaradzi Makoni from Cape Town

At the Platteklip Washhouse, Oranjezicht suburb in Cape Town an interfaith “Blessing of the Waters” ceremony will take place on 22 March, the World Water Day.

The Platteklip Stream, which drains into the front face of Table Mountain, is widely held to be the water source that gave birth to the City of Cape Town. It is originally known as Camissa, literally the ‘place of sweet waters’.

Sadly, the Mother City, as Cape Town is affectionately known, has been struggling to share the sweetness of the waters. Drought has choked the pumps, high fines for water wastage have been imposed, and some of the culprits named and shamed. Such measures appear to have succeeded in restraining consumption.

And, now, led by the Anglicans and the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa, a wide range of representatives, among them, African traditional faiths, Catholics, Hindu, Islam, Bahai and Rastafarians are praying for water.

The preciousness of water has not escaped Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town. He wrote a pastoral letter on 14 March. “Water is life, although those who can just turn on a tap to access water fail to grasp this,” he said. “Those who struggle for water and have to get it from springs and rivers appreciate it more.” True, even obvious, but often forgotten.

The archbishop is hopeful that rains will come soon, but he urges people to continue saving water to conserve the falling supplies.

In April 2005, Cape Town dams reached an all-time low of 26 per cent.  That year, the rain came to the rescue just in time. In 2017 it has been a long time coming. Last month the levels in the dams stood at 36 per cent. Not quite an emergency, but still worrying. When water levels fall below 20 per cent the pumps won’t work.

 “It is clear that care and conservation of water and other resources, will become the new ‘normal’ in this era of climate change and this could well result in tensions within our society,” said Archbishop Brislin.

At the annual official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders in parliament on 3 March, President Jacob Zuma said that the “hunger for land” in South Africa was real and called on the parliament to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of white-owned land without compensation.

The president insisted the Government would want to ensure that this is an orderly process. An audit of land use and occupation patterns from the pre-colonial era would be done. Chaos and illegal land grabs would not be tolerated.

The announcement ahead of the ruling African National Congress’ policy conference in June and the party’s elective conference in December has touched raw nerves.

Zuma’s backers – and those of his ex-wife and former African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – are pushing for radical economic transformation as their campaign theme, that might help Dlamini-Zuma to South Africa’s highest office. Zuma is on record as saying the ANC is ready for a female leader and the job will not automatically go to his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa. The winner of the presidency of the ruling party would be a strong favourite to succeed Zuma as president after elections in 2019.

However, some within the ANC’s ranks prefer a more watered-down approach to land reform. As the ANC's policy discussion documents released in March on economic transformation say, expropriation of land without compensation could seriously damage the economy.

Land reform in South Africa, as elsewhere in Africa, is a highly emotive issue, with inevitable racial connotations following the land seizures by whites in the colonial era. More than 20 years after the end of apartheid, land reform has been happening but the progress has been very slow. Before Zuma’s call, radical political parties such as the Economic Freedom Front, led by the highly vocal Julius Malema, have been championing retaking the land without compensation. But Mosiuoa Lekota, Congress of the People party leader, condemned Zuma's call. "When we say things that mislead our people into attacking each other, we are the prime source of the problem," he said.

In Zimbabwe, where white-owned land was taken without compensation, today much of it lies crop-free. Parcelled off to cronies and government supporters, some beneficiaries have no interest or expertise in making the land productive.

Churches and other faith communities have a role to play on the morality of the land question because of their historical complicity, says Jesuit priest, Matsepane Morare, a researcher with Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office.

In 1990, Morare recalled, Churches produced what became known as the Rustenburg Declaration, which expressed regret for the wrongs and sins of the past and called for action to repair those wrongs. “If a way to just land distribution and efficient land productivity is not found, not only is there a great danger of violent conflict erupting in our midst, but the food security of our nation and our region is threatened,” the declaration said.

“The principle of justice, be it moral or legal, always demands that where something was unjustly acquired or taken away, it be returned or given back,” he said. But no one seems to be dealing with the moral issues raised by the Rustenburg Declaration any more. Morare said the methods of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission should now be used to focus directly on the land question.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban last month in his diocesan letter recounted how the Church fought a spirited fight against abortion. When South Africa introduced abortion on demand in 1997 the church responded by launching the “Right to Live Campaign”.

Particularly in the east coast city of Durban, campaigns were followed in the next few years with the establishment of Mater Homes in the communities of Wentworth, Inchanga, Treasure Beach, Inanda Newtown and Upper Tongaat.

Two of these homes continue to offer comfort to those in pregnancies that amount to life crises, while the rest of the homes care for victims of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other life-threatening conditions.

Twenty years later, Catholics in South Africa are still against abortion, but they are facing the challenge of ever-increasing competition for resources. Where should the church prioritise its helping hand in response to socio-economic needs?

“The growing drug problem is one of the signs of the times, unemployment, especially among school leavers is another. So what can or should the Church be doing?” Cardinal Napier asked.