Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane on the occasion of the bestowal of the Freedom of the City on Dr Caesar Nongqunga held at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

06 January 2010

Madam Speaker, Cllr. Noluthando Mangole;
Executive Mayor of the WRDM, Ald. Faith Matshikiza;
Chief Whip of Council, Cllr. Sipho Dube;
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present;
Honourable Councillors of Mogale City;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Leaders of the Alliance;
Business and Church leaders;
Senior management and staff of Mogale City Local Municipality;
Members of the media;
Distinguished guests, friends and comrades;
People of Mogale City;

Madam Speaker, the story of our people is one of anguish, pain, want and longing for prosperity, justice and peace. It is a story of tampering with the desperate outcries of a people unfulfilled in their quest for a better life. For many of our people, as Judge Albie Sachs puts it, any fate is better than uncertainty. It is better for some to commit a crime in order to be arrested and go to prison where there will be free food, water, soap and a bed to sleep. In the greater prison of life some prey on hardworking members of society, brag about their ill-gotten wares in order to gain recognition and respect. For many of our youth, robbers and hijackers have become role models. It does not help that in the past months, the media had bombarded us with stories of one ‘Mr Bling’ Mbatha from the City of Tshwane. Many have made disturbing comments that Mbatha is a good guy, because the money he allegedly made from the underworld, he shares with the community. It is probably the glamour of it all, to commit crime and share the spoils with the people. Our life today is confounding yet inspiring.

It is confounding, Madam Speaker, because it presents to all those of us who constantly declare that we are freedom fighters, steeped in the ethos of the noble struggle of our people for a non-racist, non-sexist, prosperous South Africa, the challenge of answering the needs of our people as a general abstract as well as concretely. This confusion of the abstract needs of our people with their material says that we cannot stop to critique the life we live as against the life we all aspire for. The traditions, policies and programmes of the African National Congress from which we come, provide us with the clear basis upon which we set off on a serious critique of our life and times. The ANC did so during the struggle against racial discrimination by exposing the lie that through separate development and unequal as well as uneven developmental programmes, the Apartheid state was advancing natural social relations.

It was on the basis of twisted biblical interpretations and invocations that the Apartheid state perpetrated its policies. The relationship between the apartheid state and conservative religious institutions was an unambiguous demonstration that State and Church cannot collaborate on evil. You cannot deny another whilst giving abundantly to the other. The foundation upon which Apartheid was built was to tell us that it was correct that the majority of South Africans could be denied opportunities whilst the minority white South Africans could enjoy a life of abundance, prosperity and peace because somehow God willed it so.

Madam Speaker, our struggle for freedom was also a conscious effort of the movement to liberate the bible from the clutches of an ignorant and backward enclave. It was to give the Good Book its rightful place as one of the tools for the proper socialisation and propagation of social cohesion in South Africa. It should have been true then as we suppose it is now, that God could not respond positively to a South Africa divided by race as He finds it difficult to embrace us in a South Africa divided by poverty. The lesson remains that it certainly is not enough to raise moral protest if it is unaccompanied by concrete programmes to eradicate the conditions of depravity in our society. No gospel survives on how much it is preached but on how much it is practised. Every truth stands on how much it is lived than on how often it is told.

This then presents a new set of questions. The greatest amongst these is whether faith can work twice in a situation of bondage as in a situation of freedom. In times of bondage we believed strongly that we will be free, whereas in the democratic South Africa our faith is based on our search for the prosperity of each and every one of us. Can all of us be free, was the question yesterday. Can all of us be prosperous is the question of our times.

Madam Speaker, this is definitely what our municipality seeks to do today. To answer concretely the abstract question of whether all of us can be prosperous. All over the world municipalities confer freedoms of their cities or keys to their towns to outstanding individuals and organisations that play a pivotal role to the advancement of humanity as a whole. The municipality has chosen to honour one such great gift to all of society.

We began our presentation by alluding to the need to marry the abstract with the concrete. We make an acknowledgement today that the moral regeneration movement is enriched to have stewards of the calibre of this son of the continent about whom we convened this special gathering today. He is a man of faith from whom close to four million followers in the continent and the United Kingdom find their spiritual nourishment. As an engineer, he is involved in human settlement and infrastructure projects. Perhaps, he is a complicated proposition in that he is both a man of faith as well as a man of science.

It is said in the Good Book that as the weather became inclement and torture some, the storm winds raging, Jesus saw his disciples struggling with their boat. He strode across on the water to his disciples who were so frightened by the sight. He came up and climbed into the boat with them and urged those who feared to be courageous. As he climbed into the boat the winds became calm and left them all amazed. This leader we speak of today also possesses similar qualities. He does not only know that his people need houses, but he becomes one of them, designs and constructs their homes. He thus calms the seas of want and need like the One who could walk on water. He might not be a miracle maker who could feed five thousand people on five loaves of bread and two fish, but he is as courageous indeed.

That is the complication we are constantly required to respond to as leaders in government institutions. We said earlier this year that politics is the only craft that is both an art and a science. Having considered briefly the confounding aspects that confront us daily, we pause to reflect on the inspiring part of our life. We are a city back to which all of humanity traces their roots. We are also a city of the brave. Therefore we epitomise originality and courage. When we bestow the Freedom of the City on our brother and leader, we also wish to remind him of the commitment of our government and our city to the vision and mission of the moral regeneration programme which seeks to promote human rights, ethical behaviour and the values enshrined in the constitution of our country. We are looking at leaders like him who are at the forefront of the restoration of the moral fibre of our society. Our democracy shall stay under threat if we do not have jealous shepherds like him, who look after the peace and prosperity that our government has been constructing through one painstaking step after the other so that there is a Better Life For All.

In 2002, the then Deputy President and now President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, made the point clear that the moral regeneration movement was “founded on the principles that South Africans are highly moral beings, know the difference between right and wrong, and are appalled by the symptoms of moral decay, which sometimes occur in our country. These include the blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life, the abuse of women and children, crime, substance abuse, lack of respect for the next person and their property and so forth.” These words rang true then as they are now.

This, therefore, is the difference we honour today. We honour the hard and honest work of one of our own, so that all of us can know that we should apply ourselves in order for life to bear fruit. Is that not the injunction of our time that we declare that when we work together we can do more?

We then confer the Freedom of the City to the Chief Apostle and President of the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ, Dr. Caesar Nongqunga as a reminder for all our people that Mogale City is home to humanity’s endurance, innovation and courage. It is at the forefront of the creation of a humane society. With this Freedom to our city, the Chief Apostle shall help us unburden those who labour under the false impression that because they are jobless, poor and without any source of livelihood then they are the forsaken ones. Just as we cannot live on bread alone, we should able to ensure that spiritual nourishment alone is not the answer that our people need for their wants and needs.

I thank you.