Churches play critical role in society – Zuma

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma says churches play a critical role in shaping the country into non-violent society, and South African’s crimes are violent compared to other countries, which is denting the country’s image.

Speaking on Sunday at the Presbyterian Church in Giyani, Zuma asked churches to pray for a non-violent society, saying violence was an inheritance of Apartheid.

He said South Africa was not violent before, and that, “it was the manner in which the apartheid regime operated that gradually built a violent society, because we had to respond by pelting stones at them when they arrested us”.

“Unfortunately after 1994 nobody said that now we should stop being violent because the enemy was not there anymore,” he continued.

He said this grew to a point where people believed that violence was the only way they could be heard when they marched in demand for services.

He later took a swipe at political leaders in government, saying some of them were not diplomatic in their response to criticism.

He said, they would be arrogant and insulting when dealing with a situation, which was not becoming of a leader.

“I’m not referring to leaders of a particular party but to all leaders including the ANC’s.

Leaders should always lead by example so as to promote a non-violent and caring society,” he continued appealing to churches to pray for leaders in government.

Zuma welcomed the HIV/Aids report recently released by the United Nations, which indicated that the number of HIV infections among children in the Eastern and Southern Africa region had decreased by half.

“As we congratulate the people of the region, work must continue to further prevent the spread of the virus, and the support of those who are already infected must also continue,” he said urging the churches to support the government by helping to build a caring society through promoting family values.

Meanwhile, Collins Chabane, minister in the presidency for performance monitoring and evaluation said the president’s presence in the church should serve as an example that ANC leaders did go to church like any other ordinary citizens.

“We know that some people like to say that ANC leaders don’t go to church, and this, I hope, will serve as an example that as ANC leaders in the government we lead by example in the promotion of a peaceful and caring society,” he said.