Our Mission
Where?
Manenberg is… a largely ‘coloured’ (mixed race) community just outside Cape Town, of roughly 70,000 people. It was built in the 1970’s to house the ‘non-whites’ who were forcibly removed from District Six, near the centre of town. Today it is a neglected corner of the city with a violent crime rate to match anywhere in the world. Most people are housed in vandalised, crumbling courts (blocks of flats), with as many as three or four families living in just a couple of rooms.
Manenberg is… a confused community. 39% are Muslim, with the remainder mainly nominally Christian. There are roughly 300 churches in Manenberg, some formed through acrimonious splits with others, and many peddling a form of ‘prosperity gospel’. Power dynamics, religious judgementalism, and intense church rivalry epitomise much of the Christian culture.
Manenberg is… one of the most dangerous places in South Africa (itself second only to Colombia for murder rate). Organised crime is one of the biggest problems, with gangs and drug merchants living in and controlling most streets. Add to this a high teenage pregnancy rate, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, alarming levels of domestic abuse and abject poverty, and the picture is not a positive one.
Manenberg is… my favourite part of Cape Town. It’s a vibrant, pulsating place where if you walk through the streets you are greeted by everyone you meet, and the children hang on to you and make you play until you’re exhausted. It’s a place of sharing - no one will eat in front of you without also feeding you; and if someone in the street is going through a tough time everyone knows about it. It’s a close-knit community which, in many ways epitomises the mutuality of the early church.
What?
Working in partnership with a coalition of local churches, the vision is to birth and establish a ‘refuge community’ of ex-gang members and reformed drug addicts reconciled to their maker and saviour, Jesus, and their families and community.The dream is for them to then go and spread the fire of Jesus to other High Risk Youth in Manenberg.
As a prophet called Isaiah put it roughly 2,500 years ago,
“they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (61:4)