Shall the sun ever rise on South Africa’s new dawn? A missiology of hope redefined

Abstract

In his book, Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, Gevisser laments the demise of the African Renaissance dream, which many had envisaged during the presidency of former-President Thabo Mbeki. In light hereof, this article demonstrates that it is in the habit of leaders to launch their political dispensations with catchphrases that intend to inspire change, hope and prosperity. This is the basis of this phenomenological study, which focuses on five critically important concepts, namely, renaissance, new dawn, rebirth, reincarnation and resurrection, which have deep affinity in meaning and use. These concepts are defined, missiological scrutinised and hypothetically applied to the dwindling hope of South Africa’s socio-political future.
The article attempts to answer a persistent question of whether there is any hope under the current President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “new dawn”. Concluding this conceptual inquiry is a set of probing questions and proposals that suggest pathways out of this quagmire.