We are a conflicted nation

I remain grateful that the chief justice is guided by a moral compass – it means he answers to a power that he willingly submits to.

President Cyril Ramaphosa takes the oath of office at his inauguration by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. EPA-EFE/Stringer

Why the storm in a tea cup because Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng asked for a moment to pray before presiding over matters of the executive? When the president and his men and women take up oath, there are the words “so help me God”.

No storm arises from that. When people sing the national anthem, in it is the central figure of a God on whom many people’s prayers and hopes are pinned for this beautiful country.

Surely, if we are to have expectations that the national anthem be sung with pride and that the office bearers who call upon God in their oaths do so earnestly, then a call to prayer, which is a personal choice, shouldn’t be frowned upon. As South Africans, many people scream and shout about the removal of corporal punishment in schools, saying it is against teachings of Christianity.

The rule of guidance and law over children has had its lines blurred and people pin it on the absence of a moral guide, a god. But when there is an attempt to reintroduce a god back into the system, an uproar ensues. We are but a nation of contradictions.

People cannot elect that Christianity is to govern all and sundry in the country, it cannot be. With the diversity of our country and the many denominations of faith, there are plenty of seats at the table to accommodate us all.

Why are some people so microscopic to see a prayer as something belonging to the faith of Christianity? Can it not be seen as a moment to engage with whatever god one embraces?

The problem many people seem to constantly have to overcome, but fail dismally to do so, is that South Africans just cannot help but be offended at every turn. We cannot achieve as a nation because we are too busy being wounded by the irrelevant things and are left too exhausted to fight the necessary battles as a united country brought together by its unity in diversity.

I remain grateful that the chief justice is guided by a moral compass – it means he answers to a power that he willingly submits to.