It's all part of the ongoing story ...

There are numerous challenges faced by our friends, who want to come and study at the LTS. Vaccinations is one of them. This is what our friends from the evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia wrote yesterday explaining their dilemma: “We have done the yellow fever vacination for two students (Benson and Trinah) and now they are ready to cross the boaders. God willing they will leave Zambia on wensday and be in South Africa thursday. They are so happy as both is their first time to study outside the country.And I understand how they feel because I too felt the same when I was going for studies outside the country for the first time, it was hard for me to sleep….
Its like the yellow fever vacination has become so important than ever, currently only one place is giving such services in Lusaka at very expensive price than ever, but suprising there are lot of people going for such services in order for them to cross the boaders. We have been there since morning and we were done around 3pm
We are stil working on a piece of writing for our students who are coming there so that you publish it in the college news letter.
We are also working hard for Masautso to get his passport and I hope this things will be done soon.”

Wittes soek identiteit in onthou van oorlog | Rapport.

South Africa is helping Cuba. Now that seems quite far fetched. Why on earth, would we do that? I presume it’s something like us speaking up for Gaddafi, when others are hunting him – or taking the side of China in their war against the Dalai Lama – or of the Burmese military junta against their own people. There’s just to much system in the madness to just put it down to chance. Our leadership doesn’t care about the people, but only about its own ilk and up to date they still get away with murder. Just read this: Politicsweb – SA finalises R350m assistance package for Cuba – DTI – DOCUMENTS.

South Africa growing apart – FW de Klerk

Former president says country will not succeed unless we work together

REMARKS BY F W DE KLERK AT THE F W DE KLERK FOUNDATION CONFERENCE ON ‘PATHS TO PROGRESS’ Cape Town, February 2 2012

We decided to dedicate this conference to the discussion of alternative paths to progress, regarding some of the main challenges confronting South Africa. We chose the pressing problems of education, unemployment, economic growth and land reform – but there are many other topics on which we could have focussed as well.

The conference is, in one sense, a response to President Jacob Zuma’s recent call “on all South Africans to join a national dialogue on the future of the country.” It also attempts to contribute to the national consensus and national compact that the National Planning Commission envisaged in its National Diagnostic Report last year.

For this reason, we invited Mr Kuben Naidoo of the NPC to deliver the keynote address this morning. We believe that the sensible analysis, that has been developed by the National Planning Commission, provides a framework for dialogue – a dialogue that could lead to the development of a national consensus on the future of South Africa.

Both President Zuma and the National Planning Commission are right: we do need to talk to one another.

The reality is that important components of our society have grown apart since the exciting formative years of our new democracy.

We are no longer talking to one another as we did during the 90s. We are too often shouting at one another from behind barricades of race, class and political ideology.

• We are no longer sufficiently taking into consideration one another’s aspirations, interests and concerns. Instead we are breaking down into factions – each one angrily pursuing its own objectives.

And yet we all know that we will not succeed unless we work together. Two years ago, during the magical interlude of the Soccer World Cup, we showed the world and ourselves what we South Africans are capable of achieving when we lay our differences aside.

We must squarely face the fact, that although we have made great progress in many areas since 1994, we are confronted by enormous challenges that we can overcome only if we work together. With some of these challenges we have dealt today:

• the challenge of empowering our children through decent education;
• the challenge of restoring dignity to 35% of our population by creating jobs; and
• the challenge of ensuring rapid and sustained economic growth for the benefit of all our people.
• Above all, the challenge of promoting real equality to ensure that all South Africans – and not just the richest thirty or forty percent – benefit from our new democracy.

In approaching these and other burning issues through dialogue, we should, however, lay down some ground rules:

Firstly, if we wish to succeed the process should be as inclusive as possible – just as it was at CODESA. All those who can make a meaningful contribution to the debate – government, business, labour, civil society and religious groups – should be at the table. There must be a real effort to find common ground and to reach agreement on effective solutions.

In particular, we must check divisive agendas at the door. We are not going to succeed on a basis where we continue to pit one race against the others; or workers against employers; or the poor against the rich. We shall never reach consensus if we engage with one another burdened by our respective prejudices, and senses of guilt and of historic grievance.

Secondly, we should leave our ideologies outside the conference room. Ideologies are by definition exclusive. They immediately create an inner circle of those whose views accord with the ideology – and exclude all those who do not. Ideologies also inhibit open debate by excluding views and approaches that do not comply with their orthodoxies.

We need a pragmatic dialogue in which the views of all participants are respected and weighed in the light of practical experience. Since 1994 South Africa has done best when it has followed pragmatic policies – and it has done worst when it has allowed itself to be swayed by ideologies. For most of the past 18 years we followed exemplary macro-economic policies. At one stage we had a budget surplus and had reduced our national debt to only 23% of GDP. Now it is heading above 40%.

We cannot afford ideologies that are directed toward assuring hegemony for this or that class or section of our society.

• We cannot revert to ideologies where individual South Africans’ employment or promotion prospects are once again determined by their race;
• We cannot accept ideologies that characterise some of our people as colonialists and peripheral – while others are seen as being central to our national identity.
• We cannot tolerate residual ideologies that continue to regard people as superior or inferior because of their race.

Finally, we need a framework of values, goals and rules within which the debate can take place.

Eighteen years ago we reached such a consensus and articulated it in our new Constitution. The Constitution is founded on the principles of equality, human dignity and the equal enjoyment of all rights. It is based on non-racialism and the supremacy of the law. It creates a democracy in which government is accountable, responsive and open. It creates institutions to serve our people: an independent judiciary and independent institutions to support constitutional values and rights. It establishes an executive branch that is the servant – and not the master – of the people. It creates a legislature that is supposed to represent the voters and hold government to account.

The Constitution is transformative document. It rejects the idea that we should maintain the status quo. It calls on all of us to:

• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is protected equally by law; and
• To improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person.

It specifically empowers government to take steps to promote equality. At the same time, it protects the reasonable interests of all South Africans and prohibits unfair discrimination.

There is nothing wrong with these values and goals. Our national dialogue should focus on the many areas where we have failed to live up to these values and on reasonable and practical steps to achieve these goals to the benefit of all our people.

I remain confident about the future of this wonderful country. But if we want to achieve our full potential we will need to talk with one another and work together to build a better life for all.

Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation, February 3 2012

Well, that’s one party lion vindicating the other – a friendly gesture, yes, but I think it’s true anyway. Read more here: Politicsweb – FW de Klerk has been thoroughly vindicated – Buthelezi – PARTY.

Living in the township ... and sometimes worshipping there too

Living next to the highway for more than a decade has made me long for the peace and quite of rural Enhlanhleni or some other place, where you just hear the birds and the bees more than once. I am not such a fan of mechanical noises imposing themselves on us from the outside.  I prefer to hear the leaves rustling in the wind and the laughter of the people passing by rather than the thundering trucks and endless trains of vehicles rushing by.

Leaving the gym last week I joked sarcastically with an incoming athlete, whose car windows were wide open and had some blaring sounds blasting from his super woofer sound system: “Thankfully you share your lovely music with all those poor blighters, who otherwise don’t have access to it.”

Going for exercises in the gym or going shopping in Pick&Pay or even at the farmers market, there’s always music flooding you. You somehow got to get used to this constant coverage – or else… It’s not that I don’t like music, but I do know, that my wife sometimes prefers not to listen to my radio – especially if it’s “boeremusiek” or some tunes from David Kramer. Lucky you if you can plug in your earphones and just listen to your own choice (eie keuse!).  I remember with some disgust our visit to the Cape last year, when on several occasions the neighbours would turn up their sound systems after midnight and we Webers would all nearly fall out of bed in shock: What’s happening? Apocalypse now!

Having a choice is really the issue. And also not infringing on my neighbours turf. Living together at close quarters does necessitate a higher level of consideration of “their space”.

“Own choice” has its serious limitations in public worship on a Sunday morning too. Worshipping in Thembisa (Mhlabane Street 3) with the Lutheran Congregation there, a tremendous noise from another Christian group meeting somewhere down the block in a tent was taking over that area and drowning all other sounds or communication – like it or not. Well, you’ve probably guessed it already: I am no fan of that intrusion. Whereas we had a house full of congregants singing and praising God with the traditional liturgy acapella (without accompaniment by an organ or so) and even with hymns from the Lutheran hymnal using indigenous melodies and tunes, the single voice over the loudspeakers from down the street accompanied by deep base drumming and other rhythmic beats was an unasked for contestant claiming predominance even in our own four walls and imposing himself constantly as a uncalled for backdrop to our hymnody. It really did not go well with our melodies of praise and worship. The interference was quite disconcerting when pastor Salomon Maleke was praying or the bible passages were read – never mind, when I was trying to preach the sermon of the day.  It’s like doing house calls and SABC (TV) is already there – as it was and is and shall be. It really is a either-or. You can’t have both. However in this case, there is just no “switch-off-botton”. You’ve got no choice. You’re stuck with the noise.

Muezzin calling faithful Muslims to prayer

It’s bad enough if in Lusaka (Zambia) the church conference is interrupted by the screaming muezzin from the nearby minarette of the mosque, but if we gather to worship in the townships and other Christian groupings impose their style, content and all in such a presumptuous manner that’s far worse. At least that’s my evaluation. The experience in the past months in  Nondweni, Mohlakeng, Ntshongweni and today in Thembisa did not encourage me to see the township as a safe haven of people living together in peace and harmony. On the contrary I got the feeling, that it’s a place where the rules of the jungle predominate and its all about survival of the fittest. If you can’t stand the heat – get out the kitchen sort of thing. I have a sound-system and I can turn it on as loud as I can – bugger the rest!

If you are trying to sleep in Kampala (Uganda) and the wedding party is only really  starting to get alive after midnight, then you might understand, how such loud interference is bothering others not invited or part of the game. The amplified thumping of electric sound systems through some plastic tent-walls is a very real affliction to those, who want to worship in a traditional liturgical way – even if they are inside a very concrete sanctuary.  It’s as bad as rolling around in a hot bed, mosquitoes biting and not being able to block out some frenzied DJ going crazy with outlandish imports, whose inferior quality is magnified infinitely by gigantic amplifiers and other artificial, but very real sound systems.

Is that kind of noise a pleasing sound to the father in heaven because it mentions the precious name of Jesus ever so often? Just because there are enough “Hallelujah’s” interspersed in the otherwise unintelligible babble? Is that the Christian invitation of the gospel to those on the streets or still at home, when they have ignored the chiming church bells earlier on, just because they can’t run away and hide? Closing the ears is no option either – you can still feel the vibe and the noise still gets to you. Is that loving outreach to those left in darkness and shadow of death, because these foreign beats are just too exotic to be disqualified off hand? Isn’t it rather very much like the piles of rubbish lining the township streets, thrown away thoughtlessly and with no consideration for those coming afterwards. In the same way the imported noises from the heavy machines is the bullying assertion of those, who have with no consideration for those, who might rather not be bombarded with such frightful and intimidating vibes. Well, we’ve got no option. You have to live with it – if your house or church is in the townships. I think there’s still a long way to go in trying to live peacefully together, without imposing my ways, tunes and wiles on you. I am thankful that I only hear this once in a while and that my highway is not so bad after all – at least it doesn’t shout any loud demands and doesn’t impose it’s empty promises on me. May God have mercy on those, who don’t have a choice and have to live with that kind of interference all the time.

Preaching on Jer.9,23f today, it was clarified again what a privilege we Christians have, that we know God and understand his ways in Jesus Christ. Confessing the Apostolic Creed with our children is a case in point. We know the basic truth about, what God has done for us in creation, salvation and sanctification and we understand that he did that for us and ultimately for our salvation – because he wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Obviously this insider knowledge adds the burden, that we should share this saving faith and precious hope lovingly with those outside the fold. Our Lord wants them too to come into his Church and find rest in his gracious, forgiving and healing presence. There is no other way to salvation than through Jesus Christ, our Lord +

The gospel of today from Mt.20,1ff goes a long way to prove that we, who know this from childhood and have run the race (1.Cor.9,24ff) faithfully since then, don’t have any more reason to boast than those, who only came to know him in the last hour. We all have only one reason to boast and that is, that we know God and understand him, “who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness on earth” (Jer.9,24). In these things the Lord delights!

Read here, what Karen Armstrong points out in her apologetic attempt to have people think again about God – and then thank God, that you have already learnt this from childhood and that thankfully in the Church even a child knows who God is and understands his goodness, grace and mercy, which is new every morning.

Think Again: God – By Karen Armstrong | Foreign Policy.

Why do you object that I am so merciful?

Between the time of Christmas/Epiphany and Lent the Church has 3 Sundays, which are like a break between the joyful celebrations of Christ’s incarnation and appearance on the one hand and his going up to Jerusalem to suffer, be crucified and die under Pontius Pilate.

Here is the Lutheran order of service for today with sermons in both Zulu and Tswana. We are grateful for the support by faithful pastors, who continuously share the sermons so that those members, who are in vacant congregations or without the chance to go to Church that Sunday can share in God’s good gift – his holy Word – and partake in the prayers of the Church. Today the sermon is by Rev. Kurt-Guenter Tiedemann and is on Jeremiah 9,23-24.

The Gospel is Mt.20,1-16a; Epistle 1.Kor.9,24-27 and the OT Jer.9,23-24 (which is also the basis for the sermon)

Here are the orders for the day in Zulu: IziNtshumayelo zokuSebenzelana ekuZwaneni and also in Tswana: Dithero tsa Tirelano mo Kutlwanong.

STATEMENT BY THE F W DE KLERK FOUNDATION REGARDING THE LATEST PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES BILL

The F W de Klerk Foundation is extremely concerned about the recent proposal by the Department of Arts and Culture that  “one of the official languages” that national government uses  “must be an indigenous language with historically diminished use and status”. Because the other language that Government is bound to use is English, the only conclusion that can be drawn from this proposal is that the Department wishes to exclude the use of Afrikaans as an official national language.

This is in direct conflict with section 6 (1) of the Constitution which recognizes Afrikaans as an official language and section 6 (4) which requires that “all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably.” It also contravenes section 6 (3) (a) which states that when considering the adoption of official languages, government must take into account “usage, practicality, expense, regional circumstances and the balance of needs and preferences of the population as a whole or in the province concerned.”

Afrikaans is the third most widely used language in South Africa and the most widely used language in two provinces.  It is also widely spoken by other population groups in five other provinces.  It is inconceivable that national departments will be able to carry out their functions effectively in Afrikaans-majority provinces, and in providing services to the Afrikaans-language minority of seven million people, without communicating with citizens in their home language.

This is so self-evident that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Department’s initiative is motivated by vindictiveness against Afrikaans-speaking minorities.  Such an attitude is in direct conflict with our national goal of healing “the divisions of the past”.  It also fundamentally undermines the rights of Afrikaans-speaking citizens to equality and human dignity. As such it cuts at the roots of the national consensus that we reached between 1990 and 1996 and undermines the foundations of national unity.

The Foundation will monitor the situation closely and will urge the government to reconsider this divisive proposal.

ISSUED BY THE F W DE KLERK FOUNDATION
3 FEBRUARY 2012, CAPE TOWN