Christian Leaders in Business and Labour (including Agriculture)

Dr Edgardo Silvoso has already made an incredible impression on the SACLA delegates with his dynamic call to a new understanding of Christian ministry. In the light of today's moment of repentance and forgiveness, his words to the track assumed an even more potent tone than would otherwise have been expected.

When delegates turned to each other and were reconciled after repenting for past practices, they began to open themselves to a more complete understanding of what it means to be ambassadors in the marketplace. Far from abandoning their businesses to standards with which many have become uncomfortable, many delegates are expressing deep desires to be agents of reform, through a central transformation of business from the inside.

It is becoming increasingly clear that it is not only social reformers and radical activists who are prepared to fight the injustice of our time. Business people, perhaps the most unlikely of candidates, are showing themselves capable of implementing great reform, through changing the consciousness that propels business transaction. As Silvoso so succinctly put it, "to change the city, the marketplace must be changed." If this is the case, then the financiers and the general managers have in their hands an enormous responsibility. This may sound daunting, especially to those who hold the keys to the boardrooms; but if the attitudes in this track are anything to go by, this responsibility can only manifest itself as a holy promise.

Andrew Alexander

While the family certainly bears the brunt of HIV/AIDS, the capability to fight its debilitating effects rests largely on the boardroom. This apparently unlikely sphere is increasingly rivalling even the hospital in the role it must play in bringing healing to the suffering.

Dr. Kuku Apjiah is a medical doctor, whose challenge in today's session cannot afford to go unanswered. To Apjiah, the challenge is both a moral and an economic one. "It is those in business who can implement policies and treatment initiatives that can do much to alleviate suffering and rebuild a person's capacity for work," she said. Going beyond a mere call to action, Apjiah drew on her experience in business initiatives to present to the group a diverse range of campaigns that have proven to be successful. She also admonished the delegates to take action at both a personal and a professional level of relationship.

The response of many of the delegates was an encouraging answer to the questions posed by Apjiah. "We have to ask ourselves how important the bottom line is to us as Christian business people," said one delegate. "We are called not only to make money, but to treat others as persons by serving their needs. By caring in this way, we can also enable those who suffer to find fulfillment as productive human beings."

Such remarks are definitely a cause for hope. If a compassionate consciousness does become typical of the larger business community, then the response it can offer will certainly be up to the challenge that it poses our nation.

Andrew Alexander

Business people are no less capable of creating meaningful change than are social reformers and committed activitists. This is according to Advocate Molly Malete, a speaker at today's session. She noted that a definite moral purpose must be indistinguishable from normal business practice if South Africa is ever to attain the state of a non-racial, non-sexist society.

Adv. Malete spoke frankly as a working woman and as a business practitioner whose predominant concern is justice in the workplace. She claims that Christian business people must look beyond their immediate concerns to embrace a larger moral purpose, that of incorporating previously disadvantaged individuals within authoritative and decision-making institutions.
Significantly, Malete addressed the issues of sexism and racism, problems identified by SACLA as two giants posing a major threat to the integrity of South African society. "Equity has to precede equality," said Malete. "Those who refuse to acknowledge the need for equity in the workplace are actually reinforcing discrimination." Her passionate concern for the disadvantaged translates into positive social action, action that she believes business people are in a unique position to undertake. "There are so many initiatives that Christian business people can involve themselves in. As Christians, as people who follow the Word of God, there is much that we can do to promote a culture of racial and gender equality."

Andrew Alexander