Pastor Jacob?

I didn’t know the church was in the business of conferring honorary pastorships – but even so, this one sent the warning bells ringing. Educational institutions such as universities usually confer honorary degrees to recipients who have demonstrated a level of eminence and scholarship sufficient to formally earn such a degree. I would assume that in the church’s case it would require the exhibition of a high level of moral and spiritual repute. Not to mention that it might even be a prerogative for the candidate to be of that particular religious persuasion.

How then does Mr Zuma, a public figure who’s been endlessly embrangled in embarrassing scandals which range from rape to corruption, qualify? Isn’t the church meant to uphold societal values such as loyalty and virtue? This man publicly admitted to having sex with his best friend’s HIV positive daughter – and then having a shower as a contraceptive/anti-retroviral measure; shamefully impetuous. If anything, he’s provided more reason for society to distrust the political elite rather than any form of virtuous puissance.

Perhaps this has nothing to do with morals or ‘playing church’. Perhaps this has everything to do with the next leader of the ANC being chosen at the end of this year and the political and fiscal ramifications associated with this.

Rather than a clerical collar, they should have handed him his cheque-book and dispensed with the farce of pandering to the choir.