No longer a voice in Parliament, former ACDP MP Marie Sukers has started an organisation called Voice to Parliament to “fight for Christian democracy in South Africa”. During a recent interview I found out more about her remarkable life story. This is Part 2 of a 3-part series.
Marie graduated from Rhema Bible Training Centre in 1991, a time when forward-thinking leaders were focusing on how to transition from the apartheid era to a new, democratic South Africa. From Rhema she started working in the hospitality industry, then the NGO sector and then the corporate world. Along the way she gained skills and had experiences that empowered her to be a change agent wherever she found herself.
She said that her transition from community development into corporate was shaped by a pivotal moment at IDASA (Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa), when she was part of a consulting firm facilitating leadership development workshops to Angolan NGOs after the war in that country. The abstract concepts of change management, and leadership strategies were far removed from the harsh realities these NGOs faced on the ground. Believing that her experience in ministry and community development in the NGO sector made it easier for her to connect with the Angolans and to engage practically with the theoretical concepts on how to apply these processes at a grassroots level, she offered to speak to the visitors.
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“I think that in that moment God just linked everything together for me because I have always had a deep sense of wanting to make a difference in a way that is practical – that speaks to the deepest pain and the deepest disparity of where our people are at,” she said.
While the pain and disparity of the people who had come out of harsh conditions in Angola were different to the pain and disparity she had grown up with as a Coloured person under apartheid, she could see the same wealth of untapped potential in the visitors that she had seen so often in her own communities. She also felt she could convey the training concepts to the trainees in a way that would relate to them.
She said that her successful facilitation that day changed her life. She also, eventually became a 25% shareholder in the consulting firm.
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On the topic of big life moments she said: “One highlight and change I failed to mention, is my husband, Jonathin. The brokenness I suffered as a child, and young adult, the healing of my heart was our marriage. He is the reason I am not the angry black woman with a chip on my shoulder anymore — my heart healed.”
April 1994 was also a key time, when Marie and her mother stood in a queue together to vote for the government of their choice in SA’s inaugural democratic national election. She said casting her ballot for the first time was a very emotional moment for her mother, who had always opposed the system which she regarded as unjust. Like most people of colour in SA, her mother “proudly voted for the ANC”.
Marie said despite coming from a politically-active high school, “where we boycotted, marched and had sit-ins”, she didn’t vote for the ANC.
“My reality was different, and it was different because of the Word of God and how it shaped me. I voted for the African Christian Democratic Party, the ACDP.”
She said she continued to vote loyally for the ACDP at every election. But she was frustrated that she never saw Christianity translating “into a political reality”. Instead she saw many ungodly laws being passed. In December 2018 she accepted an invitation to Parliament to observe the vote on the Civil Union Amendment Bill.
“I sat there and I saw how people were voting – the majority of the House accepting the bill with all its implications for Christians working within Home Affairs. And as I was sitting there, I really felt like Samson, who wants to grab the jawbone of a donkey and start beating people.
“Because I felt that somehow, what we have failed to do was to really understand the implication of having a diminished Christian voice within the halls of power and how that translates into laws that define the reality in which people live.
“And that made me decide to become actively involved with the ACDP in the Western Cape,” said Marie.
She said she and her husband, Johnathin, immediately got involved with the ACDP in the Western Cape. She took responsibility for the party’s 2019 social media campaign. By that time Marie had a successful boutique executive recruitment business which gave them the financial freedom to devote extensive time to helping the ACDP.
Her late entry into active involvement with the ACDP exceeded her expectations when she became an ACDP parliamentary candidate and earned a seat in the National Assembly in May 2019.
“It was not something I had actually aspired to. My intention was just to mobilise Christians to vote for the ACDP. I was for change, as I have been all my life,” she said.
Marie said that as somebody who had come from a disadvantaged farm background and who knew firsthand how much service delivery meant to suffering and struggling communities, she had felt overwhelmed by the opportunity of become an MP. It felt like the greatest honour of her life to be in a position where she could dedicate herself “to serve the people and the communities that had given me the opportunity to serve them at the highest level”.
She said a daunting aspect of her new role was having to serve within an environment where South Africans had lost hope in the democratic system.”I had an overwhelming sense of responsibility that made me work hard to do things differently politically.”
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