Adapting prophetic sociopolitical witness to coalition governments in South Africa

Abstract

There has been an outcry over the lack of effectiveness of the Church’s prophetic sociopolitical witness in recent years in South Africa. This practical theological article uses Heitink’s empirical-hermeneutic-strategic approach and participatory action research to examine this premise. I discuss some of the reasons for this failure that my hermeneutical research has highlighted. Then I suggest a new action theory that would make this witness more effective in the light of the current new complex political dispensation (represented by a coalition called the Government of National Unity) and possible future coalition governments. The action theory then suggests that there has to be a new alignment between the South African Council of Churches (SACC), denominations and church networks and a mobilisation of local congregations, and the resources provided by lay experts in local congregations. This new alignment and mobilisation may make it more politically expedient and compelling for the government to take notice of the Church’s criticism and ideas.
Contribution: This article proposes the means by which the SACC, and denominational and church networks and congregations may engage effectively in prophetic sociopolitical witness with the presumed new future political complexity of coalition governments.