As Sojourners went to press (in mid-August), South Africa was still reeling from almost daily revelations about the government's covert support of the Inkatha Freedom Party in order to undermine the African National Congress.
The disclosures have jeopardized the entire negotiation process toward a new, non-racial South Africa - and questioned the integrity of both the government and Inkatha as active players in those negotiations. In addition, they have added weight to the demand of South African church leaders and others for a broad-based interim government to assume leadership of the country before negotiations continue.
"Any system of government or policy based on lies can have no moral legitimacy, and must ultimately topple," stated the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in response to the disclosures. "We believe the government has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to have oversight of the transition process."
The government is also facing mounting evidence that South African security forces have fueled the violence between supporters of Inkatha and the ANC, which has claimed more than 1,500 lives. The SACC has called for an independent commission of inquiry to be established, with foreign jurists invited to assist in the investigation.
BEFORE THE COVERT FUNDING scandal broke, the main story in South Africa was the Bush administration's decision to lift economic sanctions.
Most church leaders both in South Africa (including the SACC) and in the United States criticized the decision as "premature," saying all the conditions had not been met - including the release of all political prisoners. (The Human Rights Commission in South Africa reported in late June that at least 850 political prisoners remained in detention.)
Much of the sanctions debate has revolved around the need for an "irreversibility of change" in South Africa before they are lifted. For the SACC, that has meant more than the scrapping of apartheid laws; it requires the "maximum participation" of all South Africans in drawing up a new constitution and making post-apartheid laws, through a new constituent assembly.
That view was echoed by several denominational leaders in this country in the wake of the president's decision. Eight U.S. religious leaders were on a fact-finding mission to South Africa when Bush's decision was announced. They returned convinced that the lifting of sanctions could cause serious setbacks to the process of change in South Africa.
"Not only has Pretoria failed to meet the conditions intended by the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986," declared the delegation, sponsored by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, upon their return, "it retains power to reverse all reforms and enforce the apartheid status quo."
Rev. Ben Chavis Jr., who heads the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice, called the decision to lift sanctions "an act of political immorality." "Easing sanctions is only going to prolong the suffering of the people of South Africa," he said.
But there is at least some degree of confusion or disagreement regarding the appropriate response of U.S. churches here to the lifting of sanctions.
"Many in and out of South Africa whom I respect - are convinced that unless the [South African] economy gets outside support, blacks will not have jobs," Tom Getman, of World Vision, told Sojourners. "We need to be vigilant and listen to people on the ground [in South Africa] instead of having our own domestic agenda determine how we stand on sanctions."
In contrast, members of the ICCR delegation say they received a clear message from diverse groups within South Africa, including the churches, that it is much too early to relax pressure.
"We hope the time will come when we can support the right kind of investment and development in South Africa - under a new government and a new constitution - but that time hasn't arrived yet," Ed Crane, director for corporate responsibility at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and an ICCR delegation member, told Sojourners.
In the meantime, most observers say the first step is creating an interim government that has the credibility to guide South Africa in the transition ahead.
Judy Coode assisted with research.
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