The church speaks…for such a time as this

Dear President Zuma

We greet you in the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We write to you as the President both of the Republic of South Africa and of the African National Congress. We also write to you as a Christian.

God has entrusted these positions to you at this time and we wish to reflect with you what this moment in our country means for us. Please see our reflections in the attached document.
Many of our people pray for you every week, and we will continue to do so.
During apartheid, some Church leaders wrote to political leaders, but they often failed to listen to these voices. Unfortunately we find a similar trend today, but it is our duty to speak to you even when we think you might not be listening.
When our people ask us whether we have communicated with you about matters of common concern, we wish to point to the fact that we did. In Apartheid South Africa we learnt that real change seldom comes from above, but rather from below, from amongst the people, and therefore if political leaders do not take seriously what we are saying, we will continue to strengthen and support the Church’s role within the civil society movements, especially those working amongst the poorest of our people to bring about
a more healthy democracy. At this moment we believe that our democracy can be significantly improved.
We send this letter to you now, and will make it public to the media on 7 December 2012, but in fairness we did not firstly want to address you via the media. If you wish to meet with us, we are open to meeting with you to share our conviction that we have begun to stray from the path of building a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic  South Africa.

God bless.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba (Church leaders consultation)
Bishop Joe Seoka (SACC)
Rev Moss Nthla (TEASA)
Rev Edwin Arrison (Kairos South Africa)
Cc: Mr Gwede Mantashe