Global Policy Forum

African leaders were yesterday told to unite against payment of debts owed to the developed world. A South African Archbishop, Revd Winston Hugh Njongonkulu Ndungane, said the move would enable poor countries to use billions of dollars currently being spent on debt servicing in the provision of health-care services, education and support of poverty reduction strategies. African governments and their less developed counterparts in other parts of the world have no obligation to repay the debts. Countries like the United States and Britain are indebted to the tune of trillions, the bishop said. He said the colonial masters to whom the debts are being paid exploited minerals and other resources from Africa for which they have never paid.

Ndungane was speaking during CORAT's [Christian Organizations Research and Advisory Trust of Africa] Africa Silver Jubilee celebrations. He, however, warned Africans to ensure that money saved from debt payment is not used to enrich unscrupulous individuals. "We won't pay for what we don't owe. We cannot afford to see our children die as we pay debts", the bishop said.

African leaders, he added, should fight against what he termed the new form of slavery. The bishop said there was need for leaders to plan for the future by preparing their successors. Referring to the biblical example of Moses who stepped down for Joshua, Ndungane said it was time African leaders knew when their time was up and stepped down. He said Africa is undergoing a leadership crisis which calls for new models of leadership not only in the church, but in organizations, institutions and communities. He underscored the need for leaders to be the peoples' servants, rather than kings and queens to their institutions and organizations.

Ndungane said Africans should move from seeking to perpetuate models of leadership that value wealth and power to those that offer services. He underscored the need for governments to recognise the role of women in the church and organization leadership in order to win the war against poverty.

The bishop regretted that the Bible and Christianity had been used to oppress and control people. He said there was need for people to interpret the scriptures broadly in order to liberate groups such as gays from their bondage. "If our reading of scripture and the theologies we develop are not good news for all people, especially the homosexuals, those with physical or mental disability and the poor, then we are wasting our time", Ndungane said.

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