The Archbishop of Cape Town also raised concerns about gambling in South Africa, saying it’s a consequence of the ills of the country
Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba has warned that inequality in South Africa is creating desperation among its people.
Makgoba said this in his Christmas Eve midnight mass at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.
“Despite our best efforts over the past 30 years, we continue to live with apartheid’s legacy and the nepotism, the self-dealing, the corruption and the theft from the poor, which has now replaced apartheid in too many areas of governance,” he said.
South Africa’s inequality threatens democracy
He said South Africans’ suffering is threatening our democracy.
“Surveys by the leading African pollster Afrobarometer over many years show that Africans across the continent favour democracy above any other system as the form of government they want. But the degree of their support for it depends on whether it works for them. In other words, whether they see that democratic government is improving their lives.
“In our own country, Afrobarometer’s most recent surveys of public opinion shows that seven out of 10 South Africans are dissatisfied with the way democracy works for them. Unsurprisingly, we see unemployment as our biggest problem, followed by crime, insecurity, a lack of reliable running water, failing infrastructure and corruption.”
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WATCH: Makgoba’s Christmas Eve midnight mass
‘Gambling a form of self-medication’
Makgoba also said the rise of gambling in the country is a consequence of this.
Using the words of academic Imraan Buccus, Makgoba said “gambling has become a form of economic self-medication” in an effort to try and escape the ills of the country.
“A desperate search for luck in a society that offers no opportunity,” he said.
The Archbishop of Cape Town said he was recently shocked to learn that online betting contributes 60% of the R1.5 trillion gambling industry, “trapping millions of people in a cycle of problem gambling”.
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Disillusionment with government
Using data from anAfrobarometer survey, Makgoba said in the last three years, more South Africans are disappointed in the government and are showing support for an army takeover.
“Disillusionment with government is undermining the confidence of South Africans in democracy,” he said.
“Moreover, the survey shows that although support for democracy has grown little in the latter years of [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s administration, more respondents support military rule than the numbers who reject it.
“This revelation comes after a previous Afrobarometer survey conducted four years ago reported that two-thirds of South Africans would be willing to sacrifice regular elections if a non-elected government could impose law and order and deliver jobs and houses.”
He reiterated that this is not an solution to South Africa’s problems.
“In other African countries, people have often taken to the streets to welcome military coups only to become disillusioned when they find out that colonels and generals are no more capable than politicians of improving their lives, and only then do they realise they have no way of removing the army from power.”
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He warned that inequality is spreading across the world like a cancer. He added that it has given rise to right-wing parties and populists “who are supported by those who stand on the margins watching elites prospering while their standards of living is eroded”.
“As a result, we are seeing people in many countries, both rich and poor, turning to political solutions reflecting economic chauvinism, xenophobic nationalism woven in with resurgent racism and even the stirrings of a new kind of fascism.”
