"There are serious concerns about current developments in our country"

FORMER director-general in the Presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane has urged South Africans to stand up and fight against corruption.

Chikane was speaking at the 9th annual Beyers Naudé memorial lecture at the University of the Free State on Friday.

He said 18 years into a democracy, corruption was rife in South Africa and it was time that everybody in the country stood up and launched a fight against it.

Chikane said one of the failures of our democracy was a collaborative partnership on an economic level.

"We tried our best, but did not achieve what we had outlined. The current struggle is to change [transform] the economy. We must fight against corruption, which is working against the poor," Chikane said.

He said it was possible for the country's leadership to go back to the drawing board and start afresh.

"There are serious concerns about current developments in our country. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are still a nightmare."

Chikane praised Naudé as one of the white people who had stood by oppressed black people during the fight against apartheid.

"His understanding [of the struggle] was influenced by the gospel," Chikane said.

"He assisted us to understand that not all whites are evil and it is not the colour of the people [that matters] but their hearts. He wanted Afrikaners, whites and blacks to unite."

He said Oom Bey, as Naudé was known, took part in the Black Consciousness Movement and helped in underground operations with apartheid victims.

Naudé was born on May 10 1915 and died on September 7 2004, aged 89.

- ntwagaes@sowetan.co.za