Clements Kadalie, the trade unionist, and prophet Shepherd Bushiri

Modisa Mzondi

doi:10.17570/stj.2021.v7n2.a3

Abstract

The gold rush in South Africa required many workers, both skilled and unskilled, to work on the surface and underground in the recently discovered gold deposits on the Witwatersrand. Mining companies ventured to lure such labour across South(ern) Africa. As such, in the past century, trade union leadership and religious leadership in South Africa shared similar objectives. Clements Kadalie is one of those workers who reached South Africa to offer cheap labour and ended as a union leader. The post 1994 South African democratic dispensation attracted many people to pursue better economic opportunities. Shepherd Bushiri is one of them. This article engages in some theological reflections on these two leaders and their influence among the poor and destitute in South Africa, and by employing case study analysis.

Highlights

IntroductionIn the twentieth and twenty-first centuries four leaders from different Christian traditions (Clements Kadalie, George Wellington Kampara, John Phillips and Albert Ankhoma) who emerged from Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) played significant roles in socio-economic-religious issues of South Africa (Dee 2018:384)
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries four leaders from different Christian traditions (Clements Kadalie, George Wellington Kampara, John Phillips and Albert Ankhoma) who emerged from Malawi played significant roles in socio-economic-religious issues of South Africa (Dee 2018:384)
A second difference is that Kadalie was an adherent of Ethiopianism, whilst Bushiri is an adherent of the New Prophetic Movement, an offshoot of Neo-Pentecostalism

Summary

Introduction

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries four leaders from different Christian traditions (Clements Kadalie, George Wellington Kampara, John Phillips and Albert Ankhoma) who emerged from Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) played significant roles in socio-economic-religious issues of South Africa (Dee 2018:384). Kadalie settled in Johannesburg (Dee 2018:392) while Bushiri settled at Tshwane and Brits Both share a dream of being continental leaders; Kadalie being the Marcus Garvey of Africa (cf Dee 2018:391) whilst Bushiri being the most influential pastor/prophet in Africa (cf Magezi and Banda 2017; Ramatshwana 2019). Their differences are noticed in their role in socio-economic-religious matters affecting the poor and marginalised in South Africa, both in the nineteenth century and the twenty-first century. A second difference is that Kadalie was an adherent of Ethiopianism, whilst Bushiri is an adherent of the New Prophetic Movement, an offshoot of Neo-Pentecostalism

Research methodology

Summary