It must be difficult to live in the shadow of a charismatic predecessor. I’ve often wondered how South African president Thabo Mbeki felt taking over office from Nelson Mandela. Back home, Archbishop Peter Hollingworth struggled in the shadow of Sir William Deane, a man who brought dignity and respect to a position many Australians would prefer no longer existed.
Yet Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, who succeeded Desmond Tutu, seems to have managed well. Ndungane is a man who radiates an energy and commitment that endears him to his own people while earning the archbishop a place on the international stage; a man who often says, ‘We have not inherited this world from our parents, but have borrowed it from our children’.
Recently, Archbishop Ndungane has addressed the US Congress and the World Economic Forum, but he is equally at home out in the South African townships embracing HIV/AIDS sufferers.
So determined was Ndungane to get South African men to undertake tests for HIV, he went to a public clinic in one of the townships to be tested. He smiles as he tells the story. ‘That created a lot of gossip and media attention. When I walked out of the clinic, I had to face TV cameras. There was so much speculation. “How did it go?” they asked. “I’ll let you know,” I told them.’
‘HIV/AIDS is a disease, not a punishment,’ he says. ‘And the challenge is to break the stigma attached to it.’
An international advocate on the issue of HIV/AIDS, Ndungane knows it is to the corridors of power that he must take his message. Yet he is also aware that he has been entrusted with the voices and hopes of Africa’s most vulnerable.
Invited to Australia recently by Anglicord, the archbishop launched their annual appeal.
Gentle of voice, expressive with his hands, deliberate in word choice, Ndungane’s speech to launch the appeal begins. Two minutes later he has the audience laughing, and within ten minutes he has the momentum of a steam train, taking those gathered on a ride, to a destination only he is aware of.
Words such as human community, interdependence, vulnerability and September 11 crop up. And while the archbishop says statistics can dazzle us, there is one he mentions. ‘Twice as many people die daily due to HIV/AIDS as died in the attacks on September 11 in the USA.’ It’s a sobering thought.
‘Many who contract HIV/AIDS are innocent