Religious leaders advocate for peace
RELIGIOUS Leaders United for Peace (RLUFP), an organisation of interfaith religious and community leaders advocating for peace in our communities, met in Durban on Saturday.
The organisation was formed on January 11, 2024, during the same time that South Africa’s Legal team was at the ICJ in their groundbreaking case. It was formed after a group of interfaith leaders came together over concerns and fears of instability and violence leading up to and after the elections.
The group had agreed then, that any remote threat of violence and unrest must be taken seriously. It further agreed that to mitigate this growing threat, a message of peace and tolerance needs to be expeditiously spread by religious leaders who have historically been at the forefront of South Africa’s liberation Struggle.
At Saturday’s engagement, religious leaders present unanimously agreed to the following five resolutions on a way forward:1. Religious leaders overwhelmingly support and endorse the formation, relevance and the importance of the organisation as a vehicle to advocate and advance peace.
2. Religious leaders agree that they have a crucial and important role to play in nation building and promoting tolerance and peace.
3. Religious leaders believe that it is crucial that every effort be made to unite black political parties.
4. Religious leaders affirm their full support for the Palestinian struggle and appeal to the new government to continue to advance this struggle at the highest level.
5. Religious leaders believe a massive conference of all religious leaders must be urgently convened and a platform created to advance the crucial role religious leaders play in promoting peace, stability, and tolerance.
We must agree to disagree respectfully and resolve all conflicts through dialogue. Violence must never be an option to resolve any conflict.
BISHOP VUSI DUBE | Chairperson, Religious Leaders United for Peace