Catholic Church suspends eShowe priest who stood for MKP ward seat

The Catholic Church has suspended a priest who stood as an uMkhonto weSizwe Party councillor candidate in uMhlathuze Municipality, setting up a contest between the party and the church over whether a serving priest may hold political office.

Father Jabulani Ndaba was informed on Monday, 21 September that he had been suspended from active priestly ministry with effect from 19 September, according to a letter seen by the Sunday Tribune and reported by IOL on 27 September. The letter was signed by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, the Apostolic Administrator of eShowe.

Napier wrote that Ndaba had been suspended for accepting political office without prior permission from his ecclesiastical superior, and that the decision followed Canon Law and the appropriate canonical procedure. Under the suspension Ndaba may not exercise public priestly ministry, including celebrating Mass and the sacraments, preaching, pastoral ministry or any other ecclesiastical ministry, until further notice.

Both men declined to comment. Napier said the matter was being handled internally. Ndaba said anything he said could be used against or for him, and that his lawyer had advised him not to speak to the media about his decision to contest the ward seat.

The MKP has questioned the decision. Party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu, who is also a pastor, said Ndaba should ideally have notified the church of his intention to enter politics because he was in the full employ of the church, but that he did not think the church had acted correctly by suspending him.

“Did the church engage him? Why would they suspend him without proper engagement?” Mahlangu said. He added that the MKP counts several church leaders among its members, and that he did not imagine a priest becoming a politician to be a problem, though it might be for Catholics because the priesthood is a full-time calling, or because the party in question is the MKP.

The suspension leaves Ndaba with a choice between the pulpit and the campaign. It also raises a question South African voters have met before, because Catholic clergy here have held public office, and the church has permitted it in specific circumstances.

Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, an anti-apartheid activist, served as an ANC member of Parliament during Nelson Mandela’s presidency and later as deputy minister of education, before being elected executive mayor of the City of Tshwane in 2000. Sister Bernard Ncube, a Catholic nun and anti-apartheid activist, was elected an ANC MP in 1994, chaired Parliament’s arts, culture, science and technology committee, and later served as mayor of the West Rand District Municipality from 2002.

A head of one of South Africa’s Catholic seminaries, who declined to be named, said he was aware of Ndaba’s suspension and that church leaders were not permitted to publicly associate themselves with political parties. As the person responsible for training priests, he said priests cannot be politicians, because a priest who takes a party side divides a congregation that includes members of different parties and who relate to him as a priest who should be neutral. He said priests should encourage people to exercise their voting rights and to strive for justice, but should not take sides.

He drew a distinction between Ndaba’s position and Mkhatshwa’s. Mkhatshwa entered politics in the struggle against apartheid, was initially deployed to Parliament to represent the church and later joined the ANC, after which he stepped down from practising as a priest, the seminary head said. Mkhatshwa returned to the priesthood after ending his political activism.

There is also a recent precedent outside South Africa. Father Hyacinth Alia was suspended in 2022 by the Catholic Diocese of Gboko in Benue State, Nigeria, after he declared his candidacy for governor. He won the election by a wide margin and became governor in 2023.

Ndaba’s suspension is not a bar to holding office, and the MKP has not said whether he will remain its candidate for the uMhlathuze ward. Napier has said only that the matter is internal.

Source: IOL, MKP questions Catholic Church suspension of priest candidate