Relegious leaders in Buffalo City Metro have likened the ANC to the biblical Moses who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt.
During a prayer meeting followed by a peace march in East London yesterday members of the clergy referred to the ANC as the chosen organisation to lead the country.
More than 2000 people including the Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, BCM mayor Alfred Mtsi and other ANC leaders from the WB Rubusana region attended the march.
The Reverend Phumezo Jaxa of the Eastern Cape branch of the South African Council of Churches said it was through “God’s divine intervention” t
hat the party was in power and the party was “the only tool that can take South Africa forward”.
The BCM prayers come as the City of Tshwane in the Gauteng is on fire after residents ran amok, burning buses and state property after the ANC announced Thoko Didiza as the mayoral candidate for the capital city.
Other ANC regions have also seen community upheaval related to local government lists.
Some areas in the ANC’s OR Tambo region have vowed to boycott the elections – complaining that the lists had been manipulated and their preferred candidates sidelined.
Yesterday’s proceedings started with a prayer meeting at the city’s Trinity Methodist Church where Mtsi and Mapisa-Nqakula were given “a special blessing” by the clergy.
The leaders then joined a march from the church to the nearby Dr WB Rubusana ANC offices in Oxford Street where religious leaders again prayed for the ANC leaders present.
The group, which was also joined by BCM council speaker Zoliswa Matana and ANC MPL Debra Komose among others, later conducted a prayer session at the regional ANC office’s boardroom “because this is where crucial decisions about the people of this region are taken”.
ANC provincial spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane joined the march as the procession moved to the council chambers at the city hall where thousands of party faithful joined the prayer.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the prayer meetings were not because the party was “panicking” but “to induce excitement and hype” ahead of the elections. “There is no panic. Nothing will happen to the ANC. All we are doing is to pray for peaceful elections coupled with tolerance and respect for one another,” she said.
Gordhan said he was also in the region to meet with business people “to ask them to have confidence in the country and the ANC going into the elections”. He met business leaders behind closed doors at the East London Industrial Development Zone yesterday afternoon.
Mtsi said the election period was experiencing tensions, violent protests and lawlessness, and government was concerned about this.
“There are people who are agitating war and we need to be proactive through prayer for such occurences not to happen,” Mtsi said
Jaxa said South Africa had not reached the “promised land” and the ANC was the only party to take South Africans to that promised land.
“The ANC is the Moses of the day and God has chosen them to lead the people of this country away from poverty and marginalisation and into a better world,” he said. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
ANC prays for divine hand in elections
During a prayer meeting followed by a peace march in East London yesterday members of the clergy referred to the ANC as the chosen organisation to lead the country.
More than 2000 people including the Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, BCM mayor Alfred Mtsi and other ANC leaders from the WB Rubusana region attended the march.
The Reverend Phumezo Jaxa of the Eastern Cape branch of the South African Council of Churches said it was through “God’s divine intervention” t
hat the party was in power and the party was “the only tool that can take South Africa forward”.
The BCM prayers come as the City of Tshwane in the Gauteng is on fire after residents ran amok, burning buses and state property after the ANC announced Thoko Didiza as the mayoral candidate for the capital city.
Other ANC regions have also seen community upheaval related to local government lists.
Some areas in the ANC’s OR Tambo region have vowed to boycott the elections – complaining that the lists had been manipulated and their preferred candidates sidelined.
Yesterday’s proceedings started with a prayer meeting at the city’s Trinity Methodist Church where Mtsi and Mapisa-Nqakula were given “a special blessing” by the clergy.
The leaders then joined a march from the church to the nearby Dr WB Rubusana ANC offices in Oxford Street where religious leaders again prayed for the ANC leaders present.
The group, which was also joined by BCM council speaker Zoliswa Matana and ANC MPL Debra Komose among others, later conducted a prayer session at the regional ANC office’s boardroom “because this is where crucial decisions about the people of this region are taken”.
ANC provincial spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane joined the march as the procession moved to the council chambers at the city hall where thousands of party faithful joined the prayer.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the prayer meetings were not because the party was “panicking” but “to induce excitement and hype” ahead of the elections. “There is no panic. Nothing will happen to the ANC. All we are doing is to pray for peaceful elections coupled with tolerance and respect for one another,” she said.
Gordhan said he was also in the region to meet with business people “to ask them to have confidence in the country and the ANC going into the elections”. He met business leaders behind closed doors at the East London Industrial Development Zone yesterday afternoon.
Mtsi said the election period was experiencing tensions, violent protests and lawlessness, and government was concerned about this.
“There are people who are agitating war and we need to be proactive through prayer for such occurences not to happen,” Mtsi said
Jaxa said South Africa had not reached the “promised land” and the ANC was the only party to take South Africans to that promised land.
“The ANC is the Moses of the day and God has chosen them to lead the people of this country away from poverty and marginalisation and into a better world,” he said. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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