Following recent anti-foreign national protests that forced dozens of asylum seekers to seek refuge at the Diakonia Council of Churches in Durban, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to create a regional economy that gives citizens of neighbouring countries no reason to leave their homelands.
Speaking after an Africa Day service focused on unity, prayer and reflection, SACC General Secretary Reverend Mzwandile Molo said approximately 250 people — mostly women and children from several African countries — gathered at the church after receiving threats and warnings to leave South Africa by June 30.
“SADC must play its role,” Reverend Molo said. “SADC must be committed to creating a regional economic reality that makes the people of Zimbabwe, that makes the people of Mozambique, that makes the people of Lesotho not have an incentive to leave those countries but live in a region that guarantees their dignity, that guarantees their own sense of livelihood.”
Reverend Molo blamed governance failures for the recurring tensions, stating that the primary responsibility to lead South Africans through complex challenges rests with those elected to govern.
“When those who govern us are involved in corruption, when those who govern us are involved in misgovernance, when those who govern us do not have a properly weighted national and legal framework that allows us to deal with complex issues, we have a tendency amongst ourselves to blame each other,” he said.
“Those who are not South African by citizenship or registration are not really our enemy. Our enemy is poverty. Our enemy is misgovernance. Our enemy is corruption. Our enemy is underdevelopment — not only in South Africa but in the region itself.”
The church leader rejected calls for religious institutions to “stay in their lane,” citing the historic roles of Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Ellen Busak in opposing apartheid.
“Clearly, that person does not understand the mandate of the church,” he said of those who would silence religious voices on justice issues. “From its inception, the mandate of the church is to be on the side of justice — committed to the cause of the poor, to the cause of the marginalized.”
Reverend Molo noted that the church cannot refuse sanctuary to those in need, reminding Christians that Jesus himself came to Africa as a refugee child fleeing Herod.
“The church cannot say, before I help you, can you give me your ID? Can you give me your passport?” he said.
The SACC has called for a national conversation led by responsible citizens and continues to press the South African government to harness all of society — rather than allow citizens to dehumanize one another — to find lasting solutions to unemployment, poverty and crime.