As an Anglican archbishop who spent decades working to defeat apartheid and is widely considered the moral conscience of South Africa, what do you make of your country’s current president, Jacob Zuma, who is in the headlines again for fathering a child out of wedlock?
I think we are at a bad place in South Africa, and especially when you contrast it with the Mandela era. Many of the things that we dreamt were possible seem to be getting more and more out of reach. We have the most unequal society in the world. We have far too many of our people living in a poverty that is debilitating, inhumane and unacceptable.
But why is Zuma still president? He sets such a poor example ”” a polygamist with three wives who just fathered a 20th child with yet another woman. Why is that tolerated?
It’s not. Two of the major churches have spoken out very strongly. The Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church have said that he’s undermining his own government’s campaign to deal with the H.I.V. pandemic. That campaign speaks about being loyal to one partner, practicing safe sex and generally using condoms, and he hasn’t done that.
Love this ending:
“It sounds as if you’re still sermonizing.
I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.
INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.”
It’s a shame Tutu wasn’t condensed and edited years ago.
As for South Africa. the future looks terrible. It has gone from being a one party state (National) to a one party state (ANC) with the highest murder rate in the world and untold numbers of whites looking to live in the UK or (preferably) Australia or New Zealand.