Christians divided over prophetic word calling ANC leaders to step aside — Tshego Motaung

South Africans have over the past few years been inundated with scandals of so-called “prophets”, who have abused the Scriptures to exploit many gullible and unsuspecting believers.

This has sadly led many Christians to doubt and question anything that has to do with prophecies and the prophetic ministry. And in many ways got Christians to fall into the trap of despising prophecy, something that Apostle Paul warned against.

Last week a  prophetic word was released by Vuyokazi Matu, calling on the ANC leadership to hand over the reigns of power within 10 Days to the one appointed to lead the nation in this season – Chief Justice Mogoeng.

Vuyokazi sent the message to the president, the speaker and other leaders in the ANC government with the message she says she has received from the Lord. This has received mixed responses from the Christian community, with some saying there is no biblical precedent for such a word, others questioning whether such a word should have been made public, while others wonder if the word is from God at all.

After listening to some of the concerns raised,  I asked myself what would have been the biblical precedent for Moses when God told him to tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Bearing in mind that Moses had been a prince in Egypt, part of Pharaoh’s cabinet and he understood very well that the economy and entire life of Egypt was dependent on the availability of the “free” labour of the Hebrew slaves.  

For  anyone to suggest to Pharaoh to let Israel go was unthinkable. What would Egypt be without slaves? This meant  that Egypt would have to rethink life and restructure its social, economic,  political and legal systems – it was impossible to imagine.

The same can be said when Israel was told that in order to capture the city of Jericho, a group of men, with no weapons had to walk around the city walls. It was known that cities always had watchmen on the walls as a security measure. These watchmen would be armed and ready to defend the city. It is a miracle that the Jews were not killed while marching around Jericho.

The Bible contains a number of examples of how unthinkable and impossible instructions were given to set the stage for God to showcase His power and wisdom through ordinary people.

The word that Vuyokazi has sent out is not a new sentiment. Many have called on the ANC leaders to resign. The nation has been groaning and mourning, and social media is abuzz with daily tweets of South Africans calling the ANC to go,  called #ancvoetsek. I do understand that this may not be known in Christian circles but it is a reality.

The truth is the people of South Africa have been crying and the Church has been silent and when the Church did venture to speak it was diplomatic on matters that required boldness.  

The same goes for the call for the Chief Justice to become president. Many people have tweeted #mogoengforpresident and there are two such groups on Facebook. One of the groups has 5 900 members and its description reads: “We pray for Leadership. We pray that God will encourage our chief justice to take the highest office of the land and that is the Presidency”. Another such group has over 8 000 members’ and a description that reads: “Please Chief Justice, we pray that you will persue (sic) politics and deliver SA from corruption and poverty”.

The biggest challenge to many is how, and when this desired change of leadership might take place and I believe that’s where people are finding Vuyokazi’s word challenging – it is giving a time frame.

After reflecting on the issues raised around this prophetic word I decided to think about it without being deeply spiritual about the matter, and I just couldn’t think of any reason why anyone would have a problem with a request for ANC leaders to step aside.

Current developments
We have a former president who refuses to appear before the Zondo Commission and has defied a Constitutional Court order. Messages coming from his supporters indicate they will not just let this go without a fight. He, Zuma, has on the other hand launched a brutal attack on the judiciary criticising  the court system and saying a “judicial dictatorship” appears to be emerging in the country.

Week after week the nation has been shocked by the revelations of corruption in government and state-owned entities at the Zondo Commission. While others in the ANC want to make former President Zuma appear as the corruption kingpin, they want the nation to forget that they too were in his government, leading together with him.

Whatever happened to the ANC that is led by a collective leadership? Why is it when there are problems they are not able to collectively take responsibility for the mess in the nation and “step aside” as a collective? For President Ramaphosa to say he would step aside if implicated in wrongdoing, while evidence that might implicate him is sealed from public scrutiny, is also an irony.

The current leaders’ talk about 10 wasted years under Zuma as if they were not part of it. Was the current president not deputy president and leader of government business – the same goes for all the ministers?

As for members of parliament – we have seen how they have failed to exercise oversight over the years. If they had, corruption would have been detected and stopped.  We must also not forget how ANC MPs defended President Zuma from being removed by eight motions of no confidence.

The situation of Ace Magashule is another example of the state of dysfunctionality in the ANC. These factional battles are a risk to our national security.

Covid-19 and vaccine scandals
The recent scandals of  stolen Covid-19 relief funds, procurement of PPEs and the procurement of the AstraZeneca vaccine remain a classical example of the rot in the government, and yet there is no one in the leadership of the ANC willing to take responsibility for leadership failure.

I don’t think there is any company that would still keep an employee in the job after messing up with a R100million purchase. I find it amazing that no one has been held to account for this and no action has been taken against some of those implicated.

The government managed to recover the money for these rejected vaccines from the African Union as damage control, to save themselves from criticism at home. But I am also battling to understand how vaccines that were not effective in South Africa and were due to expire in April will be effective in other African nations. Is this not another case of dumping Western countries’ waste on poor African nations? Is this not taking advantage of the fact that they have poor governance systems — especially at a time when countries in Europe have stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine over fears the shot may have caused some recipients to develop blood clots.

While Christians may find themselves divided over Vuyokazi’s word, the writing is on the wall and has been for some time. The ANC government leaders would do well to receive this prophetic counsel and take a collective decision to step aside now. Their factional battles have cost our nation much.

It is not just Ace Magashule or those being investigated for scandals who must step aside —  its time for the ANC as a collective, to acknowledge that they have failed the nation and take a collective decision to step aside.

Views expressed in Gateway News opinion articles are those of the authors and not necessarily of Gateway News.

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