Role of active citizenship in the midst of increasing societal challenges in South Africa: A theological reflection on the looting of businesses in South Africa.

Abstract

Many of the citizens in South Africa are religious with majority of them affiliating to Christian religion. Through history there has been sporadic efforts to mobilise South African citizens towards active citizenry both from politics and religious sectors. The South African active citizenship index score is 68% reflecting that more than half of South African citizens are active in their society. However, participation in the protest by South African citizens display either positive active citizenship or negative active citizenship characterised by violence and transgression of human rights. This is evident from the peaceful and violent protests seen in many places in South Africa. Considering the above, this article. The article aims to analyse and give a theological reflection on the impact that the looting of business in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, in July 2021, had on the active citizenship in South Africa. The research question of this article is: What kind of impact does the looting of businesses that occured in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng in July 2021, had on the active citizenship of South African society? In response to the above research question, I will use Practical Theological interpretation theory by Osmer (2008) which uses four tasks and their related questions to analyse the situation that led to looting of business in SA.