Archbishop Thabo Makgoba called for a radical new struggle for transformation in South Africa, led by young people, while delivering his Easter sermon at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. Photograph : Phando Jikelo/African News Agency(ANA)
Johannesburg - Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala Farmgate scandal still hasn't satisfactorily explained why such large amounts of money weren't banked.
He said Ramaphosa needed to give South Africans a single, comprehensive account of what happened and why it happened.
He made these remarks while delivering his Easter sermon at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town.
Makgoba called for a radical new struggle for transformation in South Africa, led by young people.
"It is also replete with moments when active citizens, especially young people, seized the day and brought about real transformation.
“We saw it during the North African spring a decade ago, when the people of Tunisia rose up and others across the region followed them. We saw its potential when students campaigned for fees to fall in South Africa," he said.
Makgoba said as earlier generations of South Africans demonstrated in the defiance campaigns of the early 1950s and late 1980s, it was possible to wage a revolutionary struggle in a disciplined and dignified manner, one that was all the more powerful because it is waged peacefully.
"There is no place for violence in a constitutional democracy," he said.
Makgoba added South Africans did not have to continue on the current path and that by adopting the new struggle, the country could inspire the multitudes of disillusioned young people who despised politicians, who spurned politics, and who wouldn’t even register to vote but instead pursue a rampant consumerism because there had been a failure to give them a vision that would attract them to public service.
"Let us urge them to organise in their communities, as well as regionally and nationally; let us urge them to register with the IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa) and then to campaign to rejuvenate our politics," Makgoba said.
The Star
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