Mariannhill, 16 February, 2024 / 9:54 pm (ACI Africa).
Bishop Neil Augustine Frank of the Catholic Diocese of Mariannhill in South Africa is appealing to Christians in the country to fast during lent for the good of the African nation as it prepares for general elections.
In his Lenten reflection on this year’s first Friday of Lent, February 16, Bishop Frank says, “During this Lent, let us offer our fasting for our country as we prepare for the general elections.”
“Let us fast, that the elections would be peaceful; that we would have a government that cares for the poor; that we will have honest leaders,” he emphasizes.
On a date the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, is yet to make public, eligible voters are to take part in the country’s seventh general election organized under the universal adult suffrage conditions since the apartheid era ended in 1994.
Members of the National Assembly and those of the Provincial Legislature in each of the country’s nine Provinces are to be elected. The Chief Justice is to oversee the election of the country’s president from among the members of the National Assembly, which is the lower house of Parliament.
