by Christie R. House

Evelyn Mtongana (right) of Yizani Sakhe Home-Based Health Care Cooperative visits with Mavis Mhanbi (left) outside her home near port Elizabeth, South Africa. The cooperative is an outreach of J. C. Mvusi Methodist church that supports people living with AIDS and their families. Image by: Mike DuBose/UM News Service Source: New World Outlook Children at the Sekunjalo Pre-Primary School in New Brighton. Image by: Mike DuBose/UM News Service Source: New World Outlook

New World Outlook, May/June 2006

If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk with others. 
African Proverb

“We have many global challenges, and we have to agree to work on them together,” said the Rev. Ivan Abrahams, the presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. “Global terror, global warming, scarce global resources, and dwindling fossil fuels are problems we can only fail at by working alone. The day of working in isolation is over. The world must unite for all the people. With globalization must come just trade, fair trade. At one time, it was acceptable for one part of the globe to benefit greatly from the sweat of others, but that time is over....The sooner we realize that we’re in it together, that we can do nothing at the expense of others or on the backs of other people, the better we will be.”

Bishop Abrahams, Anthony Tibbit, the church’s chief financial officer, and the Rev. Gcobani Vika, director of mission, came to the General Board of Global Ministries’ offices in New York to affirm connections with United Methodists in the United States. They brought news of some innovative ministries that Methodists in Southern Africa have undertaken for their own people and for the good of other countries on the African continent.

The Road to Peace
I asked Bishop Abrahams about the success of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa. The commission was set up by the government of South Africa after the end of apartheid to bear witness to, record, and, where warranted, grant amnesty to the perpetrators of violent crimes and human rights violations. Apartheid was the name given to the official policy of the South African government that legalized racial segregation and discrimination against people who were not white. After the hard-won end of apartheid, anyone who felt he or she was a victim of apartheid violence could be heard in a court of law. The hearings were televised nationally. The TRC was seen as a crucial piece in South Africa’s transition from apartheid to a full and free democracy.

But Bishop Abrahams says that the TRC’s success is now contested in South Africa. “Some say the group did nothing to bring about justice, just papered over the cracks. The reparation process is not moving forward as we had hoped. Still, some say had it not been for the TRC, anarchy would have reigned.”

Land Reform and Stability
Bishop Abrahams’ family has first-hand experience with the apartheid system. When he was a child, his family was forced to move from a comfortable home in a section designated as “white only” into one of the black townships. “We can see now that those who were historically advantaged are the ones still in power,” the bishop said. “The black economic improvement process and the redistribution of land has not happened, or has happened in a limited way. The process is too slow.”

However, the bishop and his cabinet members were aware of what happens when land reform moves too quickly. Bishop Abrahams referred to the deepening crisis across South Africa’s northern border in Zimbabwe. In a swift and stunning move, Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe removed land from white farm owners and gave it to black Zimbabweans. Unfortunately, the new owners were more likely to be political allies rather than actual farmers with experience in agriculture and animal raising. Drought compounded the agricultural problems, which produced low yields and a severe food shortage. Mugabe then began a “clean-up” campaign to remove street vendors and make-shift housing in Zimbabwean cities.

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) was the first African denomination to break the silence on Zimbabwe with its “Statement on Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean Refugees” drawn up and delivered in August 2005 at a meeting of MCSA church leaders. South Africa’s president Tabo Mbeki had encouraged a policy of silence on the subject, preferring a strategic and quiet diplomacy with Zimbabwe’s president to bring about change.

Church leaders declared they could no longer remain silent and denounced President Mugabe’s “clean-up” campaign, which produced 1.5 million refugees who fled from home demolitions and lost street businesses. The Southern African Methodist leaders stated that the world was witnessing “a tragedy of unprecedented enormity. We have on our hands a complete recipe for genocide.”

The MCSA has met with United Methodist leaders in Zimbabwe and launched “Operation Hope for Zimbabwe” in support of the Zimbabwe refugees and the work of the churches there.

The Next Step
“There is real land hunger in South Africa,” said Bishop Abrahams. Part of the agreements that ended apartheid insisted on land reform and the return of land to black South Africans. However, the government process has been slow. “The pressure will mount if the process is not sped up,” warned the bishop.

Rev. Vika noted that the agreement indicated a transfer of 30 percent of agricultural land by 2004. That date has since been revised to 2014. But the agreements were based on a policy of “willing seller, willing buyer” rather than a forced change of hands. “Today, only 4.3 percent of the land has been transferred,” said Rev. Vika.

“At this rate,” Bishop Abra- hams added, “we won’t be at 30 percent until 2054!” To speed up the process, the South African government has begun to buy land from white owners and lease it to groups of black farmers, with the idea that they will earn enough over time to buy the land from the government. But many in South Africa’s black communities wonder why they have to pay for land that they used to own but were forcibly removed from during apartheid. The white owners paid next to nothing for land at the time that they acquired it. About 13 million of South Africa’s population have no permanent homes, living on the streets and in shantytowns, overcrowded buildings, and tents.

The Church’s Offering
The MCSA has become directly involved in the issue of land reform by offering its own land holdings for assessment. “The church decided to do the right thing with our land,” said the bishop. “We did an inventory of all the church-owned land to give secure tenure and a sustained livelihood to those living on our property.                              

“From our experience in the 1970s, knowing the brutality of apartheid, we feel there is no other task God is calling the church to do but to work for the poor and disenfranchised. The land issue is a national issue and the church needs to take a much more central role. We need to do more advocacy around the issue. In addition, the church is a major land owner in South Africa. We must demonstrate good stewardship and use the land to benefit the poorest of the poor.”

The MCSA has partnered with two organizations, the Church Land Programme and the Community Organizations Resource Centre (CORC) to perform an audit. The church seeks to uplift the social and economic conditions of the poor through effective use of underutilized church land, offering its property as a resource to improve lives and living conditions in a sustainable way.

The church wanted to get the people involved in the landless communities at a grassroots level. MCSA signed an agreement with the South African Homeless People’s Federation and its NGO allies—Community Organization Resource Centre, Utshani Fund, and the People’s Dialogue on Land and Shelter. The federation is the largest people’s housing project in the country. It seeks to mobilize communities to work at social and
housing development.

Membership in the federation—85 percent women—is drawn from informal settlements, shack and hostel dwellers, and renters. The Community Organization Resource Centre provides much of the administrative assistance to conduct the audit and support active participation of the concerned communities. Utshani Fund, the financial arm of the federation, can deliver government subsidies to federation members.  People’s Dialogue provides social, administrative, and technical support, and helps members to grow and protect their own social assets.

As the land is audited, the local church boards that own the land will be approached to cede the development rights for vacant land to an MCSA Land Trust. The land will then be used for three purposes:

1. Urban land for housing;
2. Rural land for agriculture;
3. Other land for sale on the open market, with the proceeds going into a revolving fund for poverty-eradication projects.

The MCSA operates in six countries in Southern Africa: South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland.

Christie R. House is the editor of New World Outlook. Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA), the Rev. Gcobani Vika, Director of Mission for the MCSA, and Anthony Tibbit, the church’s chief financial officer, were interviewed for this article.

	See Also... Topic: Agriculture |  Christian love |  Communities |  Globalization |  International affairs |  Peace |  United Methodist Church |  Methodism |  Geographic Region: Africa |  Botswana |  Lesotho |  Mozambique |  Namibia |  South Africa |  Swaziland |  Source: New World Outlook
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Date posted: May 01, 2006