Churches and other faith-based organisations have a duty to act within the prescriptions of the law. When the social context for lawmaking is a democracy, understanding and implementing these obligations becomes both a civil duty as well as a moral responsibility.

In South Africa, during the apartheid era, claims by the Churches to uphold the letter of the law would have been a deeply contested and contestable moral issue. Not only were the state and its apparatus for lawmaking regarded broadly as illegitimate but any participation within it, other than active protestation, would have sent out signals of support for such a regime and its "order". That context has radically changed. We celebrate the first decade of our democratic achievements, we acknowledge with humility and joy, the system of governance and public participation, their processes, checks and balances that are already in place. The SACC is proud to have been an integral part of the struggle for South Africa's democracy. Since 1994, numerous pieces of legislation had to be crafted and re-crafted in order to reflect this constitutional democracy mandated by the South African electorate. The SACC Parliamentary Office, conferring with member churches and members of parliament have made numerous policy submissions and interventions, to varying degrees, on some of these pieces of legislation, such as: labour, income tax and property rates. We do believe that, in order to support the process of social transformation to the fullest, the Churches, her leadership, administrators and members need to understand and implement such legislation to the fullest extent possible.

The SACC Parliamentary Office strengthens the South African Churches' role in this process while also promoting and enhancing the ecumenical communities' prophetic witness to social justice and peace-building in the public life of the nation. More recently, the Parliamentary Office, in emphasising our Christian duty to use the Constitution and lawmaking processes, has added to its focal areas of advocacy and capacity-building the theme "Promoting an enabling environment for religious activity".

This manual, Legal Obligations: What Faith Communities need to know, is the welcome result of interaction between the SACC Parliamentary Office, public representatives and relevant portfolio committees representing the National Cabinet. This work is tangible evidence how our participatory democracy and our ecumenism has responded to the challenges posed to our faith communities in general and Churches in particular.

A manual such as this offers communities of faith more than just an administrative tool. It offers an opportunity to give expression to faith that exists for more than privatised, individual self seeking and becomes an attempt to strengthen and enhance our witness within the arena of public life - with hope and for justice. I, therefore, commend it to all SACC members, the broader ecumenical and faith communities in South Africa and to all readers.

Dr. Molefe Tsele
General Secretary
South African Council of Churches