WCC NEWS: South African Council of Churches to hold countrywide silent prayers against corruption

Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, general secretary of the South African 

Council of Churches. Photo: Peter Kenny/WCC

On 15 September, the South African Council of Churches will stand in silent prayer in all nine provinces to declare that “Corruption is Not Our Heritage.”

“We are calling it a ‘performance of silence’ because the churches are speechless at this level of revolting fraud,” said Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

The campaign follows the moral call against COVID-19 corruption issued on 7 August this year, by a group of six organisations who call themselves the Moral Call Collective. The collective is made up of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Foundation for Human Rights, Nelson Mandela Foundation, and South African Council of Churches.

“We are saying as the churches, and active citizens, that we refuse for our nation’s culture and heritage to be one of stealing, and defrauding of public resources," said Mpumlwana. “Corruption, especially this blatant looting of COVID-19 funds that has been reported, is criminal and continues to cost us lives and livelihoods as a country.”

Moral call collective issues statement on COVID-19 corruption in South Africa (WCC press release 26 August 2020)

WCC member churches in South Africa

South African Council of Churches