Repentant church leaders call a service delivery summit in Nelson Mandela Bay

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Church leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay have called a service delivery summit where several Eastern Cape MEC's will be asked to account for the state of affairs in their various departments.

The service delivery summit is being organised the Interdenominational African Ministers' Association of South Africa, Idamasa, and takes place this weekend at the NMMU's Missionval campus.

Idamasa spokesperson, Reverend Dr James Fatuse, says they want the Eastern Cape MEC's of Local Government, Education and Health, to account for what's going on in schools and hospitals in Nelson Mandela Bay.

He said as religious leaders they have confessed to believing that all will be well after 1994, but he says 20 years on they did not think that things will be going down as it is happening now.

Speaking to Algoa FM News, Reverend Fatuse identified what he termed, social ills, bedevilling South African society.

In a candid admission, Reverend Fatuse said it had taken a while for the clergy to come to their senses and to begin dealing with the issues.

He said they started consulting with churches, where these issues were put on the table.

Reverend Fatuse said the mandate that was given from these consultations to Idamasa was to go ahead with the service delivery summit because people are fed up with what is happening.

IDAMASA Press Statement

The Interdenominational African Ministers Association of South Africa (IDAMASA) convenes on Saturday 20 to Sunday 21 September 2014 a Social Partners Regional Summit. The summit will be held at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University – Missionvale Campus (Old Vista).

Since July 2014, IDAMASA has invited various stakeholders across various sectors of our society to come together to address social problems in our communities. These stakeholders ranged from political parties, social movements, religious fraternity, arts and cultural formations, business people, labour movement, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and various government institutions.

The call from IDAMASA was primarily caused by our observation of a sad state of affairs in our society in the Nelson Mandela Metro. We have observed a state of affairs in which our people are being ravaged by social ills that have reached unacceptable levels.

As a religious organ we have asked ourselves some serious questions pertaining to this situation. We have asked ourselves, do we fold arms and pretend as if nothing is happening, or must we take an active role and be counted as agents of change in turning the situation around. We asked these questions within the context of our role and involvement during the days of our liberation struggle. The people we lead as the clergy are affected on daily basis by what we refer to as social ills.

These social ills range from corruption, poverty, bad state of our townships, poor health facilities, poor educational infrastructure in our townships schools, maladministration at government and state organs, poor or lack of service delivery, absence of moral values, high levels of unemployment and inequalities and lack or absence of leadership in society in general.

Having realized that these demons are with us in our real lives and in our society, we came to a conclusion that the struggle is not over. We came to a conclusion that, we are not emancipated yet. We came to a conclusion that 1994 democratic breakthrough was not an Alpha and Omega to our material, spiritual and psychological troubles.

Mindful of the fact that some of these real matters are outside the competence of religious leaders, we then took a decision to invite all relevant stakeholders. Some invitees responded positively and became part of the road map towards the Summit and some did not. Notably and regrettably was the absence of and or a no response attitude from the ruling party - the ANC.

The process of engaging and consulting various actors across the spectrum resulted in a unanimous consensus that a Nelson Mandela Metro-wide Summit must be convened in order for role players and parties to dialogue and debate these matters that are eating our society from within. There was sufficient understanding amongst the formations that, it is the Summit that must chart a way forward in getting rid of these material, spiritual and psychological ills that besiege our Metro.

The reason why we called all political parties was simply because some the listed social ills are political in nature and would require political solutions. The reason why we invited social movements is simply because some these issues require grassroots activists.

The reason why we invited trade unions is because some of the issues we observed as social ills fall within their province. In short every interest group invited and that has formed part of the roadmap has a role to play. The door is still open to formations that have not been part of the road map to come and play their role even after the Summit.

Our desire as IDAMASA leadership is to unite citizens across the Metro irrespective of their religion, belief, political opinion\affiliation, race or background and location and come together to map a future for our children and generations to come.

In this coming Summit we have invited all relevant government departments to come and share with us what is being planned and what must/should be our role.