Violent protests by South Africans demanding better living conditions are a warning to the authorities, church leaders said. Police fired rubber bullets on March 30 at protesters in Zandspruit, a shanty settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg. On March 31 the South African Council of Churches said, “The violent developments associated with poor delivery of social services” are a “rude reawakening call to the authorities” as well as “an indication of just how destructive things can turn out to be if local government councilors and political parties continue to ignore the needs of the people.” As in many squatter camps around Johannesburg, Zandspruit residents live in squalid conditions, sharing toilets and communal water taps, with little or no electricity. Neighboring suburbs have some of Africa’s most expensive real estate. “Our early warning to South Africa’s leadership is that all efforts” must be made “to save this democracy lest we walk the path of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya...where social instability reigns,” church leaders said.
Protests in South Africa
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
“Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel war by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
Pope Leo XIV’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.
About a dozen religious leaders from the San Diego area, including Bishop Michael Pham, visited federal immigration court on Friday “to provide some sense of presence.”
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.