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- Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has urged the youth to become "angelic troublemakers".
- He was delivering his Easter message in Cape Town.
- Makgoba also lashed out at President Cyril Ramaphosa for failing to explain why money was stashed away, rather than banked, at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to open up about the theft of money from his Phala Phala farm, and simultaneously encouraged the youth to become "angelic troublemakers" pursuing a new struggle for transformation in South Africa.
Delivering his Easter message during a vigil at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Makgoba said Ramaphosa should be transparent about the theft at his farm.
South Africans need to know "what happened and why it happened", he said.
"The trickle of disconnected announcements on investigations arising from the theft of money from the president's Phala Phala farm still hasn't explained satisfactorily why such large amounts of money weren't banked, and the ANC's refusal to allow a parliamentary inquiry is reminiscent of the cover-ups of the Zuma administration."
An independent panel, appointed by Parliament and headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, found that Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding allegations of wrongdoing emanating from the theft of the foreign currency from his farm in February 2020.
READ | Phala Phala raises legitimate suspicions about money laundering, says Thabo Mbeki
It was found that Ramaphosa may have breached the country's anti-corruption laws.
However, a full investigation by the National Assembly, as recommended by the panel, was quashed when the ANC majority in Parliament voted against adopting the report.
Makgoba said:
Turning to the youth, Makgoba said history was replete with moments in which people failed to read the signs of the times and paid the penalty.
"But it is also replete with moments when active citizens, especially young people, seized the day and brought about real transformation," he added.
"We saw its potential when students campaigned for fees to fall in South Africa."
Makgoba called on the youth to take up "a new struggle for a new generation - a struggle to regain our moral compass, a struggle to end economic inequity, a struggle to bring about equality of opportunity and realise the promises of our Constitution".
The archbishop said too many South Africans could not find a way out of poverty to live lives of dignity and hope.
"We are experiencing a near-biblical vortex of greed and corruption in which the unscrupulous steal from the poor and swallow the hope of ending inequality. Incompetence leads to bad governance, and money that is available to improve people's lives goes unspent..."
"Do our politicians offer any hope? You would think that if they were truly focused on the well-being of their constituents, they could overcome their differences enough to collaborate in coalition governments, to put an end to corruption, and provide decent services to our communities," he said.
But instead, he added, "they play in-again-out-again revolving doors, changing mayors and speakers the way other people change their socks".
He said some feared that talk of revolution implied violence.
"But, as earlier generations of South Africans demonstrated in the defiance campaigns of the early 1950s and late 1980s, it is possible to wage a revolutionary struggle in a disciplined and dignified manner, one that is all the more powerful because it is waged peacefully. There is no place for violence in a constitutional democracy.
"South Africans do not have to continue on our current path. By adopting the new struggle, we can inspire the multitudes of disillusioned young people who despise politicians, who spurn politics and who won't even register to vote..."
