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Pray For The Nations: South Africa

On 8 May, general elections will be held in South Africa to elect a new National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each of the nine provinces. Forty-eight parties will appear on the national ballot this year, according to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) – this is 19 more than the number of parties that contested the 2014 general elections. This will be the sixth national election since the end of apartheid in 1994. Elections follow a five-year cycle, with national and provincial elections held simultaneously and municipal elections held two years later.

The IEC reported that there are just over 26 million registered voters, an increase from the 25.4 million registered voters in the 2014 elections. According to SA Citizen Surveys (SACS), at least 11.2 million South Africans are not registered to vote and the majority of these are aged between 19-34 years.

Many South Africans are plagued by fear and hopelessness, but this need not be the case. According to the Joshua Project, almost 78% of South Africans consider themselves Christian (21.3% evangelical). Scripture encourages believers to be courageous and to be instruments of healing and reconciliation in the land where the Lord has placed them. Through prayer, vision and hope, the dream of a ‘rainbow nation’ (one where diversity is celebrated and embraced, and not used to bring division and strife) can become a reality. Christians bear a tremendous responsibility to seek and work towards a better future for all South Africans. It is important to pray that the Lord appoints leaders who move by faith and see the future from God’s perspective, not from the world’s perspective.

Please join with us in praying for South Africa.
“I HAVE HOPE because we live in a country with COURAGEOUS and PASSIONATE PEOPLE – even their idealism which sometimes sadly manifests as pessimism has the potential to set us apart and attain excellence if we can only look up long enough to notice what we have achieved.” (Cheryllyn Dudley)

Serving together
Gigi Kotze and Donnelly McCleland