Abstract
One of the factors that dismantled the apartheid system in South Africa was the prophetic voice of many religious leaders who emerged from ecumenical formations and fought the system by speaking truth to power. However, many scholars agree that the attainment of democracy in 1994 caused the prophetic voice to become silent. This article argues that the prophetic voice is not silent but rather weak in post-1994 South Africa. There are three reasons for this weakness: (1) the prophetic voice became part of the democratic government system, (2) the system swallowed it, and (3) the prophets retired without passing the baton. The article also seeks to highlight some of the recent events and national challenges in South Africa like Marikana, #FeesMustFall, State Capture, Life Esidimeni and Expropriation of Land, where the prophetic voice has been weak. Ways to strengthen the prophetic voice are proposed here as part of the recommendations.
Highlights
It is important to define the prophetic voice as a point of departure in this article. Nell (2009:565) defines the prophetic voice as ‘one form of preaching, pertaining to social comment and socioeconomic and political critique of a society and its body politic’
I argue against the point that the prophetic voice of the South African Council of Churches1 (SACC) in post-1994 South Africa is silent as raised by Johan, Kumalo, Resane and Göranzon in the sense that the SACC continues to speak to the current government
The other difference between the prophetic voice of pre-1994 and post-1994 South Africa is that under a democratic system of governance, the church cannot infringe on the rights of others, even if it does not agree with such rights
Summary
It is important to define the prophetic voice as a point of departure in this article. Nell (2009:565) defines the prophetic voice as ‘one form of preaching, pertaining to social comment and socioeconomic and political critique of a society and its body politic’. The question that one asks in post-1994 South Africa from Nell’s definition is whether the prophetic voice is critical of the current government. Many scholars speak about the strong prophetic voice of the SACC but only in pre-1994 South Africa.
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