Fidling the books - Shabeens and the South African textbook crisis

My friend Steve Hayes posted the great quote from Jonathan Jansen on his feed today.

"There are 26000 shebeens in South Africa,” mused a friend the other day, “and every week a major breweries company successfully delivers crates of liquor to every one of them.”He continues: “There are also 26000 schools in this country, and yet we cannot deliver textbooks to all of them. We do not have a skills crisis.”

It comes from this very helpful articles on News24.

I agree that we do not have a skills problem in South Africa. As I write this post I am sitting in Uganda. When I compare the infrastructure that we have in South Africa we are truly blessed! We have the systems, the policy, the budgets, the civil servants... What we lack is integrity and servant leadership.

It is a scandal that in a country such as ours where 79.8% of the population profess to be Christian that persons of low scruples should be allowed to govern the nation, eroding public confidence in their ability to deliver promised (and available services)! The Church needs to be more vocal in addressing these critical issues in South Africa.

My friend Dr. Wessel Bentley and I have just completed a new book on the relationship between the Church and the State. It is called 'Between Capitol and Cathedral'. In it we, and a number of more senior theologians and practitioners, reflect on the role of the Church in forming a society that honors God's intention for the people - justice, equality, full human development, freedom and access to God's grace.

As Prof Jansen points out in the quote above, if we can find a way to distribute alcohol to 26000 taverns and shebeens on a weekly basis, surely we have the means to distribute textbooks to 26000 schools once a year!? But, it would seem that we lack the will to do what is right.

First, I want to ask you to pray for Minister Motshekga and her team. Pray that they will have the courage, the will and the resources to serve our nation well.

Second, if you are a Christian who has stumbled upon this obscure little post, please can I ask you to take a stand. Make your voice heard! Why don't you just send a tweet to express your views at @dbe_sa, this is the Department of Basic Educations twitter feed. Since it is public they are bound to respond.

Corruption has a name, poverty has a face, we have a voice!