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Faculty of Theology and Religion celebrates Open Day

18 February 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs

Faculty of Theology and Religion opening — Present at the Faculty of Theology and Religion’s Theology Day were from the left: Dr Eugene Fortein, Dr Siphiwe Dube, Prof Rantoa Letšosa, and Prof Charlene van der Walt.

This year, the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of the Free State (UFS) resumed its annual tradition of celebrating the new academic year, after being halted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The focus was on a theology of vulnerability for our times, with the theme supported by the text verse from 2 Corinthians 4:7: “We have this treasure in clay jars.”

God embodies vulnerability

Dean of the faculty, Prof Rantoa Letšosa, left delegates with the inspiring message that one of the treasures in these clay jars is the power of God; power that enables us to stand strong and move forward in trying circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. He wished all attendees, both in person and online, to experience this extraordinary strength and power of God in the new year.

Prof Rian Venter from the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology, who led the worship service, talked about humanity that has achieved so much – in the areas of health, space, communication, transport, etc. “Despite all these achievements, we are more insecure, with an intensified sense of vulnerability,” he said.

“However, the One in whom we believe as our Saviour and Lord is a vulnerable God; he embodied vulnerability. We cannot talk about God as if he is not affected by our vulnerability. He is love. He is affected by us,” he said.

Depriving people of humanity

But to be vulnerable can also be seen as to be weak, defenceless, open to harm, in need of care, and deprived of one’s humanity.

Dr Siphiwe Dube from the University of the Witwatersrand integrated the topic of vulnerability into the paper he delivered, speaking from a decolonialism point of view on the research topic: Towards a Decolonial Political Theology of Vulnerability: Reflections from the Margins. In one of his statements, he said that black people are living in the reality constructed for them and have not discovered what blackness is. He urged the young attendees to make use of spaces created for discussion of this matter.

Bringing to the table another perspective on this topic, was Prof Charlene van der Walt from the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her paper was on the othering, stigmatisation, and exclusion experienced by the LGBTIQA+ people in the African context in general and the African faith communities in particular. She connected the shame experienced by queer people in a family setting to the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis in the Bible. In her paper: Reflecting on Joseph in the context of Izitabane vulnerability, violence, identity erasure and the imperative of recognition and accompaniment, she stated that Joseph’s otherness informed the vulnerability, exclusion, violence, and identity erasure that happens within the confines of family.

According to Prof Van der Walt, she wished to not argue for LGBTIQA+/ Izitabane people to be seen or that they somehow ‘pass’ and slip below the radar, but that the recognition called for implied a different kind of seeing: it implied a compassionate witnessing and a humanising recognition. “It implies process, interrogation of power, empathy and imagination, weeping and a commitment to community,” she said.

Another interesting perspective on the theology of vulnerability was that of Dr Eugene Fortein from the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology at the UFS. In his paper on Vulnerability by Design: On a Theology of Prophetic Solidarity, he asked why the vulnerable is vulnerable? What led to them being vulnerable?

“The presence of the vulnerable in South Africa is not an accident. It is not because of fate, but because of a design that is 370 years in the making; deliberately to keep people poor for generations to come.”

He said it started with Jan van Riebeeck. Legislation such as the Natives Land Act of 1913, the Group Areas Act of 1950, and the Bantu Education Act of 1953 also played a key role. “These were designed to oppress one group and enabling the other to thrive.”

“The scars of this legislation are still haunting us today,” he said.

The One in whom we believe as our Saviour and Lord is a vulnerable God; he embodied vulnerability. We cannot talk about God as if he is not affected by our vulnerability. He is love. He is affected by us. – Prof Rian Venter

“The vulnerable have names and faces. They are experiencing the effects of being vulnerable on their bodies and that is not to be taken lightly.”

“Do not only pray for the poor and the vulnerable, but work actively to bring restitution,” he said. The church now has the opportunity to be a true servant of Christ,” Dr Fortein added.

News Archive

The failure of the law

2004-06-04

Written by Lacea Loader

- Call for the protection of consumers’ and tax payers rights against corporate companies

An expert in commercial law has called for reforms to the Companies Act to protect the rights of consumers and investors.

“Consumers and tax payers are lulled into thinking the law protects them when it definitely does not,” said Prof Dines Gihwala this week during his inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS).

Prof Gihwala, vice-chairperson of the UFS Council, was inaugurated as extraordinary professor in commercial law at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

He said that consumers, tax payers and shareholders think they can look to the law for an effective curb on the enormous power for ill that big business wields.

“Once the public is involved, the activities of big business must be controlled and regulated. It is the responsibility of the law to oversee and supervise such control and regulation,” said Prof Gihwala.

He said that, when undesirable consequences occur despite laws enacted specifically to prevent such results, it must be fair to suggest that the law has failed.

“The actual perpetrators of the undesirable behaviour seldom pay for it in any sense, not even when criminal conduct is involved. If directors of companies are criminally charged and convicted, the penalty is invariably a fine imposed on the company. So, ironically, it is the money of tax payers that is spent on investigating criminal conduct, formulating charges and ultimately prosecuting the culprits involved in corporate malpractice,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala the law continuously fails to hold companies meaningfully accountable to good and honest business values.

“Insider trading is a crime and, although legislation was introduced in 1998 to curb it, not a single successful criminal prosecution has taken place. While the law appears to be offering the public protection against unacceptable business behaviour, it does no such thing – the law cannot act as a deterrent if it is inadequate or not being enforced,” he said.

The government believed it was important to facilitate access to the country’s economic resources by those who had been denied it in the past. The Broad Based Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (BBEE), is legislation to do just that. “We should be asking ourselves whether it is really possible for an individual, handicapped by the inequities of the past, to compete in the real business world even though the BBEE Act is now part of the law?,” said Prof Gihwala.

Prof Gihwala said that judges prefer to follow precedent instead of taking bold initiative. “Following precedent is safe at a personal level. To do so will elicit no outcry of disapproval and one’s professional reputation is protected. The law needs to evolve and it is the responsibility of the judiciary to see that it happens in an orderly fashion. Courts often take the easy way out, and when the opportunity to be bold and creative presents itself, it is ignored,” he said.

“Perhaps we are expecting too much from the courts. If changes are to be made to the level of protection to the investing public by the law, Parliament must play its proper role. It is desirable for Parliament to be proactive. Those tasked with the responsibility of rewriting our Companies Act should be bold and imaginative. They should remove once and for all those parts of our common law which frustrate the ideals of our Constitution, and in particular those which conflict with the principles of the BBEE Act,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala, the following reforms are necessary:

• establishing a unit that is part of the office of the Registrar of Companies to bolster a whole inspectorate in regard to companies’ affairs;
• companies who are liable to pay a fine or fines, should have the right to take action to recover that fine from those responsible for the conduct;
• and serious transgression of the law should allow for imprisonment only – there should be no room for the payment of fines.

Prof Gihwala ended the lecture by saying: “If the opportunity to re-work the Companies Act is not grabbed with both hands, we will witness yet another failure in the law. Even more people will come to believe that the law is stupid and that it has made fools of them. And that would be the worst possible news in our developing democracy, where we are struggling to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails and that every one of us has respect for the law”.

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