wfn.org | 'Create peace for Mandela' says South African Archbishop

[Theo and Ruth Coggin <coggin@sn.apc.org>]

Released by Quo Vadis Communications 
on behalf of the Church of the Province of  Southern Africa
Contact: Theo Coggin, Tel: +2711-648-5461
e-mail: coggin@sn.apc.org

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu
Ndungane, today called on residents of this South African city to create
a peaceful society that was befitting the status of President Nelson
Mandela.

Noting that the city conferred the Freedom of Cape Town on President
Mandela today, Archbishop Ndungane  -  who was speaking at the launch of
the Inter-Religious Commission on Crime and Violence in the Western
Cape  -  said it was “a blight on the conscience of communities for any 
to stand by and continue to watch our children growing up in the midst
of crime and violence”. 

Cape Town's townships have in recent years been plagued by gangsterism
and crime, problems which have eluded many attempts at solutions.

“The bloodshed our people have seen, the horrific scenes of gangsterism
which so many have witnessed on the streets of the places where they
live, and the vivid representatives of this ugly violence as it comes
into people’s homes through television and the print media, will all
have a profound effect on the society of the future, unless we as a
community act now,” the Archbishop added.

Archbishop Ndungane said that the commission would investigate the
causes of violence in the townships of the Western Cape. 

“This in itself is a mammoth task, which will lead us down all sorts of
historical paths. But it must not stop here. The violence and crime that
has occurred in recent months is in the present, and that is what we
must address,” he said.

The commission will conduct hearings to enable the people of the Western
Cape to speak for themselves about the violence they had experienced and
to share the impact that this has had on their lives. 

The Archbishop said that the commission would seek a course whereby the
community could be renewed and invigorated. 

“We want to find the answers as to how we make the Western Cape a place
where young people can know a bright future of hope, and where families
can live and grow in peace.  In this way, we can ensure that we will
have a community in which there will be no more tears, no more pain and
suffering, and no more crying. Instead we will hear laughter and feel
the stirrings of joyful hope within us in this lovely Cape,” Archbishop
Ndungane said.