Suchergebnisse

The article focuses on economic structures that crush the poor, especially global economic structures that trap and keep people in poverty. The concept of poverty occupies centre stage in South Africa and many other developing countries. There is no longer a middle class. One is either rich or poor. Globalisation has created a system or program that continues to crush the poor, while also breeding greed and selfishness. The rich always accumulate resources while the poor struggle to make ends meet. These problems are created by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and Structural Adjustment Programs, to name a few. These structures have introduced a system of inequality that widens the gap between the rich and the poor because of self-interest, which continues to crush the latter. The end result is that the concept of Ubuntu or Botho among African communities is destroyed. Injustice becomes the order of the day. ; This article was initially a presentation to the Poverty Symposium 2013, directed by Prof. Dr Johann-Albrecht Meylahn, Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. ; http://www.hts.org.za ; am2015

This article analyses the different assumptions about migrants in South Africa, coupled with levels of abuses and marginalisation of black African immigrants, which seem to be a source of depression and emotional pain for them in their strange land. Previous studies did reveal that African migrants face rejection, xenophobic attacks, abuses, marginalisation and socio-economic exclusion through rowdy practices of public officials and perceived institutionalised prejudice in South Africa. However, White Western and Indian-origin migrants are perceived to be better treated with dignity and respect in the same host country. This article investigates the argument that emotional pain suffered by the abused and traumatised Nigerian and other African immigrants could be responsible for the deviant behaviour of some of them in South Africa. Moreover, this article also scrutinises the notion people have that xenophobia in South Africa is Afrophobia. Most South African citizens are of the perception that all African immigrants are criminals, harbingers of disease and drug dealers, whose presence in their country is responsible for all their woes. On the other hand, Nigerian migrants are of the notion that they are the most hated at community and individual levels in South Africa. However, if appropriate social coalition policies are formulated and adopted by the government and all stakeholders, it can be of assistance in tackling the issues concerning citizens' suspicions, migrant abuses, marginalisation and social exclusion, which seem to be hampering the co-existence of citizens and African migrants in South Africa. We should bear in mind that almost all of us in South Africa are from somewhere or the other, as clearly explained in sahistory. org.za. The whites and Indian migrants, whom I call 'earlier alien settlers', are from Europe and Asia, respectively. I call black Bantus from Great lakes in Central Africa, 'earlier alien settlers', whereas the Khoikhoi who originated in the northern area of Botswana as the ...

This article highlights the power struggles that the Pentecostal church experiences in its church governance. These power struggles become very contentious to a point where members take each other to legal courts, which ends in multiple schisms that tarnish the image of the Pentecostal movement. Most literature on church conflicts approach power struggles as caused by personality disorders. This article seeks to highlight a different approach where power struggles are more a result of structural factors than personal ones emanating from a hybrid nature of polity in the Pentecostal church and other structural factors of conflict like finances, education and leadership. Finally, an educational pastoral care methodology is proposed for this article. ; http://www.hts.org.za ; am2019 ; Practical Theology