By Yaseen Kippie
Dr Patrice Motsepe, The first black billionaire in modern Africa, attended Jumuah proceedings at Darul Islam Mosque in Surrey Estate last week. Labelled the ‘the father of the poor, needy and marginilized in South Africa’, Motsepe said he felt greatly honoured by the feeling of brotherhood and care at the gathering. A feeling he attributes to the word of God.
Motsepe gave a short address to the congregation following a talk by Imam of the Mosque and MJC president Shaykh Irfan Abrahams. He was in Cape Town as part of his project working with various religious leaders from various parts of the country to unite South Africans.
In a meeting held in Johannesburg on Sunday, religious leaders came together with Dr Motsepe “to pray together, to ask for God’s guidance and blessing, and to unite South Africans on religion.”
Dr Motsepe, along with his wife Dr Precious Motsepe, felt the importance of working with religious leaders to keep South Africa democratic.
“With our democracy there was a common spirit of multi racial community societies, the beauty of the rainbow nation. In certain aspects of our societies, that unity of the rainbow nation continues, but in others, the divisions that existed before democracy is finding root and growing. We have to emphasise the strength, common purpose, growth and appreciation of a multicultural and multi racial society, that is what makes us strong as a country and a people,” Patrice Motsepe remarked.
