18 April 2009

There will be no "holy cows" under a Jacob Zuma presidency, and any issues Christians have about current laws can be raised, the African National Congress (ANC) said during a debate at the University of Pretoria on Thursday.

The debate -- between the ANC, Democratic Alliance (DA), Congress of the People (Cope), and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) -- centred on why Christians should vote for a particular political party.

Responding to questions on abortions and same-sex marriages, ANC national executive member Mathole Motshekga said religious communities were free to raise any issue they had about current laws with the new president.

"JZ [Jacob Zuma] was not president when these things were happening ... there are no holy cows ... anything one had problems with could be raised."

He noted the ANC had a strong connection to the Christian church, which had formed a key part of the party's history. While the ANC was secular, this did not mean it was anti-religion.

"The ANC stands for interfaith collaboration," Motshekga said.

Cope representative, Nolitha Vukuza, said morality took on a different dimension against the backdrop of poverty, and a different dimension against the backdrop of power.

She said the law in South Africa was under siege, and that hope was needed in order to change things.

"We are concerned about the departure of the ruling party from the values that brought about change with the highest sacrifices ...

"We must rescue the ruling party from self-destruction," she said.

Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) leader Pieter Mulder advised Christians to list their own values and measure them against the values of different political parties.

He criticised the ANC for comments such as Jacob Zuma saying: "If God is for us, who can be against us."

"God is on no one's side, not the ANC's, not the FF Plus's, and not the DA's," he said.

The DA's Willem Doman also took issue with Zuma's statement.

"Saying God is on our side means a move in the direction of a dictatorship, where the state and church come under the rule of a party," he said.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe said one of Africa's problems was "blind loyalty".

"Africa is what it is today because Africans see corrupt leaders, but still support them because they led liberation movements," he said.

However, there was a move away from this, and people were increasingly looking at a party's values. -- Sapa