wfn.org | SOUTH AFRICA: PRIMATE DEMANDS SACKING OF PRISONS MINISTER

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title:SOUTH AFRICA: PRIMATE DEMANDS SACKING OF PRISONS MINISTER
June 10, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office 
London, England

[97.6.1.2]

SOUTH AFRICA: PRIMATE DEMANDS SACKING OF PRISONS MINISTER

(ENI) The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Church of
the Province of Southern Africa has become involved in a bitter public
argument with the country's Minister of Correctional Services, who is
responsible for overseeing prison management.

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane demanded an inquiry and the immediate
dismissal of Dr Sipo Mzimela after 156 warders went on a rampage
recently at a gaol outside Cape Town, severely beating up prisoners.
Prisoners said that the warders, wearing balaclavas, violently assaulted
and robbed them during a search for arms and ammunition.

The Archbishop also said that during a meeting earlier this year Dr
Mzimela and the national commissioner of Correctional Services had
encouraged warders to treat prisoners like animals.

"The Minister and his commissioner must bear full responsibility for
having influenced wardens in this way," the Archbishop said.

After accompanying President Nelson Mandela to the prison on 29 May to
gain first-hand accounts of the rampage, Dr Mzimela told reporters: "I
have to condemn in the strongest possible terms the remarks of the
Archbishop,which I personally consider to be criminally irresponsible.
As a pastor, the first task of a bishop would have been to visit those
who were injured to console them."

A pastor was not called upon to inflame or to take up political
positions, Dr Mzimela said. "Perhaps the bishop wants to enter into the
political arena, but by doing so he must not hide behind the cloak of
religion, nor must he hide behind his purple skirts."

In a statement on 30 May, the Archbishop replied that, instead of
applying his mind and energies to addressing the issue at hand, the
minister appeared to be more interested in making a personal attack on
him and the Church. "That slur is reminiscent of attacks made by
Nationalist [Party] cabinet ministers in the worst days of apartheid,
when they could not tolerate the Church of God's work against apartheid.
History has shown who won that struggle - and it wasn't the politicians
of the day," he said.

Archbishop Ndungane said the role of the Church was to inculcate a
culture of human rights in South Africa's new democracy as enshrined in
the country's Constitution.

After his visit to the prison, President Mandela appointed a board of
inquiry into the attack by the wardens. Archbishop Ndungane applauded
the visit and the appointment, saying the President's actions went a
long way to restoring confidence in the country's correctional services
system.

"For this, the country is once again indebted to President Mandela,"
Archbishop Ndungane said.