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| Bishop Rubin Philip |
Friday, 24th August 2012, Emmanuel Cathedral, Durban
And so,
again, the truth of our country is in dead black bodies littering the
ground. Once again, the truth of our time is that people asserting
their rights and dignity against systemic injustice have been brought
down in a hail of bullets. Has nothing changed in our place, when its
truth remains that the armed might of the state acts for the elite of
powerful and wealthy, and against our people? No self-righteous
declarations of 'tragedy'; no insisting on 'complexity'; no
obfuscatory 'commissions of enquiry'; are enough to hide that truth.
The truth is plain to masses of the people of South Africa, it is an
affront to God.
We are very
angry indeed. We have been instructed that this is not the time to
point fingers, but that would be a grave and sinful mistake friends.
We have reached this new low, 18 years into our democracy, precisely
because of all those who have closed their eyes to the truth that has
been there all along; because of all those too timid to point fingers
and expose evil; because of all those who have not and will not
stand, with God, on the side of the struggles of the least of our
brothers and sisters.
The coverage
of the massacre that we saw on our TV screens was traumatic and
shocking but, in too many ways, it has also been a long time coming.
The sheer number of dead as well as the clinical execution of the
police' task team surely marks a terrrible escalation, but the
underlying violence is nothing new to the many poor and oppressed
across the country who have often faced the contemptuous indifference
of our politicians and the iron fist of our police when they organise
to protest the injustices that still scar our society. That
scandalously small number of us from more privileged classes who have
stood with the people in their actions, and have visited them in
prison after their marches, and have learned the truth of our
situation in their discussions - we have also known and warned it
would come to this. So far, all our collective warnings seem to have
fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps Marikana will open more eyes and ears
before things get even worse.
And things do
seem to be getting worse! In the name of 'economic growth',
post-apartheid South Africa is being steered to secure benefits for a
few while inequality reaches new and unprecented levels. In the name
of the defense of a 'democratic order', post-apartheid policing has
been re-militarised in ways not seen since height of apartheid's
repressive war against people's power. The truth that is emerging
from independent research and eye-witness acounts strongly suggests
that Marikana was no 'tragedy', no unfortunate aberration. In the
wake of Marikana, too many people have rightly called for
reconciliation and harmony but why at the expense of decisive
solidarity on the side of the people?; too many too easily plead for
'better trained' police when what is necessary is to end the monopoly
of state-violence that the rich and powerful can deploy against the
masses of the people.
In the name
of God, will all good people join me in this small declaration today?
To the
powerful in the state, in business, and in the armed forces, we
declare:
* the police will no longer shoot, hurt, silence or intimidate our brothers and sisters when they struggle for justice;
* we no longer accept an economy that creates obscene wealth for a few on the backs of exploited and abused workers.
To the poor
and the workers we declare:
*do not stop struggling for justice, we are with you;
*carry on defending the fundamental humanity and dignity of every single human being.
Bishop Rubin
Phillip
Anglican Bishop of Natal (KwaZulu-Natal)
24th August 2012.
Anglican Bishop of Natal (KwaZulu-Natal)
24th August 2012.
