ANC secretary general tells church to 'correct our transgressions', pray them as a clear message: if the organisation is not guilty, still vote for local government.
ANC flag. Picture: Michel Bega
One of the rules about the confessional in a Catholic Church is that what’s said inside, stays between the penitent, the priest and the Greater Power.
Confidentiality, though, was clearly not something ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was looking for in his appeal for forgiveness.
He told a service of the St John’s Apostolic Church in Katlehong that he was asking for its blessing and for it to “correct us in our transgressions and even those that make mistakes, forgive them and pray for them”.
Yet, it was also the confession that wasn’t – at least from a party viewpoint. It seems the party is as pure as the driven snow… it is only its members who are sinners.
According to Mbaks: “We send people to go and work for the people of South Africa and then someone decides to be corrupt, they become thieves and they steal from the people of South Africa.”
If the organisation is not guilty of anything, then people should still vote for it in the upcoming local government elections – that was his clear message.
The question churchgoers and voters need to ask is: is there something in the DNA of an organisation that leads so many of its people astray?
