ACDP wants Ngoasheng investigated for blasphemy

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has lodged a formal complaint against Asanda Ngoasheng, the diversity trainer embroiled in a controversy at Fish Hoek High School and who “opened a racial can of worms” after she allegedly referred to white pupils as “white supremacists” and read them a poem that described Jesus Christ as “blue-eyed and blonde-haired”.

In a letter addressed to Western Cape education MEC David Maynier, the ACDP leader in the province Ferlon Christians described the award-winning poem  Water by Koleka Putuma as not only offensive to Christians, but also “blasphemous”.

“It is offensive to me as a Christian and Christians across the length and breadth of our country. This is disgustingly blasphemous and should never have been allowed to be read at the divisive workshop.”

Maynier confirmed he had received Christians’ complaint and “will respond to him in due course”.

“A thorough investigation is under way,” he said. 

On the first day of the workshop on October 31, Ngoasheng upset some parents when she allegedly told pupils whites were the only people capable of being racist as they continued to hold power and read the controversial poem. 

"What this woman has done is opened a racial can of worms," a parent said afterwards.

Penned by Putuma, for which she won the PEN South Africa Student Writing Prize in 2016, the author described the complicated relationship she has with Jesus, whom she followed in Sunday school.

“This blue-eyed and blonde-haired Jesus I followed in Sunday school has had my kind bowing to a white and patriarchal heaven.

“Bowing to a Christ, his son, and 12 disciples, for all we know the disciples could have been queer, the holy trinity some weird twisted love triangle and the Holy Ghost transgender,” reads the poem.

Christians said it was this kind of content about his faith that “irks me and makes my blood boil as a born-again Christian”.

“The poem is my biggest gripe as it is directly attacking my belief system, which is enshrined in the constitution. Going to a school and having a poem like that read to pupils who are Christian is against what we should teach our pupils. When pupils go to a school, they should be protected by the school, but in this case they were not. Instead their faith was mocked.”

While South Africa has free speech, “ there are limitations to everything”.

“As a Christian, I believe the use of the poem is blasphemy and that is the biggest sin you can commit. I’m the one to say this person must be stopped in her tracks. She cannot go to other schools and influence our pupils negatively,” Christians said.

While the country needs to talk about diversity, he said “it must not negatively impact people”

Apart from a planned picket in front of the Western Cape legislature to show its unhappiness with what happened at Fish Hoek High, Christians, who also sits within the education standing committee, said he would bring the issue before the committee this week for further investigation.

“I've spoken to some of my leaders about this issue and they have started the process of applying for a permit for us to picket while this matter is topical and in the news.”

Ngoasheng refused to comment on the latest criticism of her workshop.

She said: “I am no longer commenting on this story. I have said everything I have to say.”

South African Council of Churches general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana said the latest uproar about the diversity workshop shows the country remains a “wounded nation”, and even though South Africans share geographic space “ we are consciously not a nation with a common allegiance or common values that bind us to  the common good”.

The council said it doesn’t believe the use of the poem is blasphemous, but the critique of the European-like Jesus is not only limited to the poem “but it is the basis of much of the theological reflection from a black or feminist perspective”.

“Blasphemy is essentially a sacrilegious pronouncement on the object of faith, God.”

Given the country’s failure to heal the divisions of the past and improving people’s lives in the new democratic South Africa, Mpumlwana said there is a need to create appropriate socialisation spaces at schools. He said diversity discussions need to be dealt with in a similar manner to the way in which the country dealt handled HIV/Aids conversations.

“These can be designed and delivered regularly and not be the odd case here and there that can be misunderstood or experienced as polarising. Looking back to our attitudes towards HIV/Aids, it was through global, national and community dialogues about the disease that we can now, for the most part, speak about the disease with fewer prejudices and misconceptions.

“The conversations were uncomfortable at first, yet we pushed through the discomfort to a place of growth as a nation. We desperately need the same approach when it comes to issues of diversity and inclusivity. South Africa needs a deliberate nation building campaign, and the [council] is working towards this in our planned nation building interventions.”

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