Arch on the march

‘We will overcome this and we’ll realise we are a communion of nations more than we think,’ says Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba

- Sue Segar 

I am seated In a spacIous, sunny boardroom at Bishopscourt, the official residence of the Anglican archbishops of Cape Town since1851. At a safe distance, many metres away at the head of the table, is the Most Reverend Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town.

It’s Monday 23 March. Later in the day, President Cyril Ramaphosa was to announce the 21-day lockdown starting in four days’ time. The archbishop’s office is already practising strict social distancing. He returned 14 days ago from London where, among others, he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the principal leader of the Anglican Church worldwide.

“I’m praying that we’ll learn solidarity from this Coronavirus, that we’ll start talking about common humanity and how we do it in practice,” says Dr Makgoba. He sees this time as a turning point for humanity.

Driving down the tree-lined driveway to the estate, in the heart of one of South Africa’s richest suburbs, one could not but be reminded of the history of the place. Originally comprising 213 acres (86 hectares), it was given to Jan van Riebeeck, the first commander of the Dutch garrison at the Cape by the Dutch East India Company more than 350 years ago, but the house burned down before he could occupy it.

It was rebuilt by Sir Herbert Baker at the turn of the 19th Century. Today the grounds span 16 acres (nearly 6.5ha). It was in this Bishopscourt house where Nelson Mandela spent his first night of freedom as a guest of then Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah.