VERASHNI PILLAY: Religion, politics and Jacob Zuma’s victim defence
The National Interfaith Leadership Council, later renamed Nicsa, was an attempt to nail down the support of religion in a deeply religious country
As former president Jacob Zuma returns to court, those again rallying around him represent and parallel his corrupting influence in their various sectors. The National Interfaith Council of South Africa (Nicsa), the Commission for Religious Affairs (CRA), Delangokubona Business Forum, the National Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa (NafupaSA) and Black First Land First (BLF) held a press briefing in Durban on Wednesday to outline why they supported Zuma. These particular churches and their rise are an interesting feature of Zuma’s arc in our body politic. A short history lesson is perhaps in order to understand why. Mainstream churches in SA have a rich and respectable history in the fight against apartheid since the formation of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968. At the height of apartheid, this formation galvanised an otherwise disparate, and sometimes uninterested or even complicit religious sector, eventually including over 20 denominations. The...
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