Ten local residents, chosen by members of the community at a meeting at the Makana Municipality offices, have been elected to lead the Cacadu district’s contribution to the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM).
Ten local residents, chosen by members of the community at a meeting at the Makana Municipality offices, have been elected to lead the Cacadu district’s contribution to the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM).
“[The MRM] is a movement at the centre of collective activism for moral regeneration initiatives whose vision is to build an ethical and moral community and the mission is to promote positive values”, states its website.
This national movement dates back to conversations in 1997 between then State President Nelson Mandela and religious figures in South Africa, in which Mandela stressed the importance of religion in “nation building and social transformation”.
The initiative began to enjoy more attention in Parliament after 1999 with Thabo Mbeki as State President and Jacob Zuma as deputy president.
Chairperson of the youth council in Makana, Lungile Klaas, is one of the ten elected representatives of the movement.
He says the committee has not yet sat down to discuss their plans, but his emphasis is on educating the youth about their rights and responsibilities.
Klaas says the youth is more affected by moral degeneration. Another representative, Mohammed Moorad, says some of the problem areas are drugs, alcohol abuse, rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence and crime.
He says moral degeneration has created more moral regeneration to come about. Moorad says the committee will engage in workshops interacting with different wards in Grahamstown.
The proceedings were opened with the official welcome of Makana mayor Vumile Lwana, who highlighted the challenges of morality and issues of moral decay in South African society.
Lwana says poverty is at the heart of social problems in South Africa. He says people must be made aware of these problems, because “people tend to ignore them, and then they become accepted things”.
He says: “Today’s challenge is serious. Do we ignore it when we see something happen or do we raise the issues out in the open?”
Lwana says it is important that citizens understand their rights, but with that also the limitations of their rights in relation to others.
He says this society as a whole must play their role in this movement towards moral regeneration for it to be a success.
MRM provincial representative Bright Nzima made reference to the movement’s charter of positive values, quoting the following extract: “Committed to the spirit of ubuntu, which underlies our democracy and is embedded in our constitution, we dedicate ourselves as a nation to: respect human dignity and equality; promote freedom, the rule of law and democracy; improve material wellbeing and economic justice; enhance sound family and community values; uphold honesty, integrity and loyalty; ensure harmony in culture, belief and conscience; show respect and concern for all people; strive for justice, fairness and peaceful co-existence and to protect the environment.”
