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[FILE IMAGE]: Anglican Archbishop of Southern Africa Thabo Makgoba, on 26 December 2022, visited the grave where the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s ashes are interred inside the St Georges Cathedral in Cape Town.
The Anglican Church says it will establish a network of Safeguarding Officials in their churches to keep people safe from abuse.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba says a set of recommendations he made was approved by the church’s Synod of Bishops, to appoint Safe Church Officers to guard church, goers against abuse.
He says each Bishop has committed to take action in their diocese if allegations of abuse are made.
Makgoba says every congregation will publish the officer’s names in their Sunday service bulletins or it will be announced on the church notice boards.
Archbishop Makgoba says measures will also be taken to prevent members accused of abuse from moving to other churches.
Makgoba proposed a set of measures after a panel of inquiry comprising Justice Ian Farlam, formerly of the Supreme Court of Appeal, and Dr Mamphela Ramphele, the civil society activist and former university vice-chancellor, criticised the slow pace of the church’s efforts to improve keeping its members safe from abuse.
The inquiry was appointed after the church’s failure to pass on a 2013 warning about the presence in Cape Town of John Smyth, a British expatriate who abused dozens of boys and young men in Britain and Zimbabwe.
Makgoba will also request the Anglican Board of Education to convene a meeting of the Principals and Councils of Anglican Schools to discuss the state of safeguarding at the schools.
