Cape Town - Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba on Monday night used his Christmas eve sermon to lament South Africans resorting to violence to solve their problems.
Speaking at the St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Makgoba welcomed the change in government, something he called for during his 2017 Christmas Eve sermon, but said steps taken by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration to crack down on corruption was not enough to improve the lives of ordinary South Africans.
"We welcome the changes in government since last Christmas, when I called for the replacement of the president at the time. We welcome those steps taken to clean up government and to root out corruption in the public and private sectors.
"But how far will good, clean government take us when people are being killed on picket lines, stabbed in our schools, beaten up in service delivery protests and assassinated in disputes over who will hold public office?"
Makgoba singled out the ongoing strikes at the Sibanye-Stillwater mines and in the plastics industry, the attacks by learners on their teachers in schools over the past year, and the violence and destruction of property during service delivery protests.
"As highly contested elections loom next year, we are [also] seeing a spike in threats of violence, as well as the ongoing killings of political opponents in some parts of the country," he said
"Our leaders, whether in government, business, organised labour, education and politics, have a significant responsibility to provide the moral leadership to redefine how we disagree, how we find consensus and create the society that we all strive for. But the solution lies ultimately in our own hands….
"We will not be able to say that the quality of life for ordinary South Africans has been improved by our liberation from oppression until we are also liberated from our instinct to solve problems through violence, whether in schools, in workplaces or in political campaigning."