Subject: Silence on South Africa’s Political Crisis While Being Vocal on Global Injustice

To the Most Reverend Archbishop of Cape Town, the Council of Bishops, and the leadership of the South African Council of Churches,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We, the concerned citizens of South Africa, write this letter with a deep sense of sorrow and urgent moral concern. At a time when our beloved country stands on the precipice of social, political, and economic collapse—marked by deepening inequality, rampant corruption, state-sponsored brutality, and the erosion of democratic institutions—we are disheartened by your public silence.

The Church in South Africa has a rich and respected legacy of prophetic witness. During the darkest days of apartheid, it was the moral voice of the Church that helped galvanize resistance, fostered reconciliation, and inspired hope. Today, however, as millions of South Africans suffer under an increasingly authoritarian and ethically bankrupt administration led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the African National Congress (ANC), your silence is both deafening and complicit.

We have noted with interest your outspoken stance on the humanitarian crisis in Israel related to the Palestine cause. Your solidarity with the oppressed is admirable but also disconcerting especially in light of the church’s political support for groups that have strong links to terror organisations internationally, and yet, at home the church turns a blind eye and portrays a clear lack of care for its own people here in South Africa. Not holding an political leader or office bearer of the state accountable. We must thus ask: why is the Church’s moral outrage so loud on foreign soil and so muted at home?

Why are the systemic injustices in our own communities—police brutality, unemployment, failing public health services, crumbling education systems, gender-
based violence, and rampant state capture and corruption —met with cautious press statements or complete silence?

The Gospel compels us not only to weep with those who suffer abroad, but to speak truth to power at home. The moral authority of the Church cannot be selectively applied. Silence in the face of domestic injustice is not neutrality—it is abandonment.

We call upon the Church to urgently and publicly condemn the continued abuse of power by the ANC government and its president, Cyril Ramaphosa. Under his
leadership, state mechanisms have been weaponized against the poor, while the powerful continue to enjoy impunity under the law and a total lack of prosecution. The humanitarian failures of the government are very much evident—as have been recorded and manifested in the Marikana massacre, the July 2021 unrest, escalating violence and murder of our people, the collapse of basic services, load-shedding, water crisis’s in major cities and the blatant disregard for law and order in our country — these are not mere policy failures. They are violations of human dignity and, as we argue, may constitute crimes against humanity.

Accordingly, we believe the time has come to consider the possibility of opening criminal charges/cases against all major political leaders implicated in these actions and preparing a case to be presented before organisations like the International Court of Justice or other relevant international bodies, to investigate whether President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC-led government have committed human rights abuses warranting international prosecution. The mechanisms of justice must not end at our national borders, nor must they stop at the feet of political elites.

We call on you—our spiritual leaders—to return to the path of prophetic leadership. We urge you to:

1. Convene an urgent national synod or moral summit to address the crisis facing South Africa.
2. Issue a public statement denouncing the failures of leadership and the ongoing suffering of the people.
3. Stand in solidarity with civil society, whistleblowers, and grassroots organisations seeking justice and reform.
4. Support or initiate an independent inquiry into possible crimes committed by state actors, with the aim of pursuing justice through local, national and international legal channels if necessary.

This is not a time for political neutrality. This is a time for moral courage. The Church must not retreat behind the walls of polite diplomacy or spiritual abstraction. We need a Church that stands as it once did—with the people, for justice, and against those who trample the dignity of the poor and vulnerable.

Let it not be said that when the people cried out in anguish, the Church chose silence. Let it be said instead that the Church rose once more as the conscience of the nation.

Yours in faith and hope,
Grant Trewern

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