Oscar Siwali remembers watching Nelson Mandela’s triumphant walk as he left prison after 27 years. In 1990, because the young pastor of a Baptist church, Siwali saw himself as an evangelical focused on winning souls and tending to his flock’s spiritual needs, not needing to prioritize political concerns. Nonetheless, he shared the pride of his people’s successful anti-apartheid activism that demanded “Free South Africa Now,” an outcry that inspired worldwide solidarity.
But just three years later, a far-right white nationalist assassinated Chris Hani, the charismatic leader of the African National Congress (ANC)—an attack that threatened to derail South Africa’s transition from the oppressive white-minority rule to a democratic government that represented the complete country.
When Hani’s murder threatened to unleash a civil war that South Africans had labored so many a long time to avoid, Siwali, like fellow Christian leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, realized his faith compelled him to motion. He began to evangelise peace in his sermons and to confer with those that had taken to the streets.
“I saw a distinct way of the work that I used to be called into, where I wasn’t just in service from the pulpit,” Siwali said. “That was truly my first revelation in seeing the importance of the clergy being on the market, engaging with people … and [figuratively] taking that pulpit and placing it in the middle of a community.”
In 2013, Siwali founded SADRA, a faith-based organization that trains people of all ages and backgrounds to be conflict mediators of their communities. It also has special programs for local church leaders, whom SADRA believes will be handiest in areas vulnerable to violence and political tension due to the widespread respect they engender. SADRA is the one faith-based organization contracted with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to coach election mediators and observers, and its current mission is ensuring that South Africa’s May 29 elections don’t culminate in violence.
While the ANC has held power since Mandela became president in 1994, with Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa in search of reelection, simmering discontent and power ambitions have birthed recent political parties. Currently, as many as 300 parties are vying for the presidency, each vowing to meet the sweeping guarantees of liberation and equality espoused by the anti-apartheid movement.
Meanwhile, a recent generation of younger leaders has emerged, impatient with and frustrated by the elders who’ve led a nation of high unemployment, high domestic violence, and low wealth redistribution. Further complicating the election is the inclusion of independent candidates for the primary time. (Citizens don’t vote directly for president; reasonably, the winning party selects the nation’s next leader.)
Church leaders are on high alert that their nation could violently implode, particularly if people don’t imagine the elections were fair and corruption-free. Last month, as an illustration, pastors met with political leaders to hope and to strategize the right way to avoid bloodshed in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s second-most populous state, which is predicted to have a highly contested vote.
“Almost all the people I do know working in mediation and peacekeeping are gearing up for the national elections,” Siwali said. “Respected people in communities must give you the chance to look at over and be the eyes of society to ensure the counting is completed properly and likewise be a neutral voice if tensions happen.”
CT talked with Siwali about his goal of coaching 5,000 church-leader mediators to work the elections, why so many feel frustrated in regards to the state of their country, and the way those outside the country will help.
How do South Africans generally feel in regards to the state of their country?
For a while, the main target in South Africa was on working toward democracy and resolving the clear conflict between black and white people. The conflicts have now grow to be in regards to the lack of quality government service delivery and other people not seeing the democratic dispensation that they’d been waiting for, the liberty that individuals had been singing about.
At SADRA, we regularly hold community dialogues, and also you’ll hear people saying, “I had seen on television in some countries that when freedom comes after war, the poor now live in big homes. The blacks take over the homes of the whites. But in our country, white people still live in the identical homes that they lived in, and the blacks still live within the tin shacks that we live in. So, did freedom actually come?”
Some people even say, “Who said we wanted democracy when what we actually wanted was freedom?” They trusted the political leaders, however the leaders weren’t communicating that they weren’t getting the “freedom” they wanted because we have now not been to war. It’s often in countries which were to war where you’ll have individuals who were poor taking on firms and houses from the wealthy. That’s not what has happened in South Africa because we’ve taken a peaceful journey in attempting forgiveness of one another and in working toward constructing a nation.
What is at stake on this election?
We’ve never had a national election with so many controversies like this. Former president Jacob Zuma has broken off from the ANC and commenced the uMkhonto weSizwe Party. The ANC lost their effort in court to bar him from using this name, which is from a tagline long related to the party.
Zuma has already done two terms as South Africa’s president and can’t legally grow to be president a 3rd time. He could potentially get a 3rd term if his recent political party wins, because he can be with a distinct party. Also, Zuma is facing a trial for corruption and was arrested previously, they usually try to find out if that arrest would disqualify him from being president.
The potential for conflict is high irrespective of the outcomes. Some candidates have threatened to drive the country into chaos in the event that they don’t win. There have also been a whole lot of political assassinations which have taken place over time. In this context, we’re training church leaders to work as conflict mediators and election employees for peace, with the understanding that anything possible can occur.
How do Christians are likely to vote?
South African Christians aren’t a homogenous group. For instance, you might have Christians within the ANC, the South African Communist Party, and the Pan Africanist Congress.
We have European churches and American-planted churches, but indigenous churches are the biggest. They are Pentecostal and charismatic, with sometimes a combination of African traditions and Christianity. Because of their size—Zion Christian Church has 12 million members and Shembe Church has between 5 to six million—they have a tendency to draw politicians in search of blessings and political support.
How many mediators have you ever trained?
In the past yr, we’ve trained greater than 1,300 church leaders, and within the last seven years, we’ve trained greater than 3,000. Our dream is to coach about 2,000 additional mediators, specific provinces where the extent of violence has been higher, akin to KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape. The former president and the ANC are from KwaZulu Natal so the state KwaZulu is split, since you now essentially have two ANC parties there.
SADRA’s trained mediators have been hard at work within the election preparation process in all provinces. Mediators are helping to facilitate conversations between the IEC and community leaders. Specifically, in three communities, there would have been no election registration had SADRA mediators not intervened. In each community, mediators took a volatile situation with protesting residents and turned it around right into a picturesque tapestry of individuals’s expression of their democratic right to register to vote.
What does mediation appear like?
When officials from the IEC come right into a community to arrange it for the election, local people will be hostile toward them, often frustrated due to a way that the federal government isn’t providing services. SADRA trains mediators to work with the IEC to deescalate tensions.
For example, IEC employees often visit a community and encourage people to register to vote. But because individuals are frustrated that the federal government hasn’t provided them with services, they are going to block the commission from entering.
In these instances, the local mediators we have now trained will meet with people on all opposing sides and work locally to permit the IEC to enter peacefully. Allowing the electoral employees in is also done with soldiers and police, but this method often doesn’t end well. It shouldn’t be good to make use of the barrel of a gun to interact the democratic process.
Who supports SADRA’s work?
Individuals, agencies, and overseas embassies contribute funds to the conflict resolution work that we do across southern African nations. African governments are likely to watch closely who gives money to civil society organizations due to the problem of the West intervening in African politics. As much as we ask for help, individual local donors are also wary of giving money, as they don’t wish to be accused of interfering in politics.
How has doing peace work impacted your faith?
I initially worked on the Quaker Peace Centre, and it was during that point that I met a number of the members of the Mennonite church. That form of introduced me to a broader understanding of the theological points of peace-building because I used to be working in peace-building organizations, but not necessarily from a theological standpoint.
For me, this work is about being reminded of the larger task of the church in society. There are very big issues in society that the federal government must address, but cannot accomplish that alone. The church also has this responsibility.
How can people outside of the country support peace efforts in South Africa?
We need people to return to South Africa and observe the elections. We also need international grantors who’re capable of make grants available to local organizations to form local statement teams. Even with everyone who’s on the bottom, including groups just like the Carter Center, we’re still short with regards to election statement.
In the last election, we only had 12 percent (around 8,000) of the required 66,000 election observers at voting locations. I’m hoping we could have 50 percent of those slots filled this yr. These are the individuals who observe the count and keep the general peace of the election environment. It’s a scarcity of cash and government commitment, as to why our nation doesn’t have the number of individuals in place that we’d like.
Pray for peace before, during, and after the elections. We need a whole lot of prayer for the KwaZulu-Natal Province where a whole lot of violence has happened already, and more is anticipated as we catch up with to election day.
What we desire as peace-builders is that there can be a free, fair election and consequence that will be accepted by the people of South Africa irrespective of who wins.
