The church as partner in the social responsibility in South Africa: A Vaal Triangle case study

Abstract

The church, as one of the transforming agents in societies, has been investigated in the area of social responsibility (SR) as a suitable partner with other stakeholders: the government and businesses. Social responsibility, which is as old as mankind, and not a modern concept, has gone through numerous changes that can be attributed religious, historical, geo-political, socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental factors, resulting in the terms corporate social responsibility (CSR), social justice, and other contemporary terms. All these factors are forces that require partnerships with all stakeholders that are involved in the SR domain. Specifically, the study investigated the church as a valuable partner for business and government, utilising the Vaal Triangle Region (VTR) as a case study, given its socioeconomic challenges. This study revealed that companies, government, and churches cannot solve the complex social challenges on their own; they need to collaborate if they wish to achieve optimal CSR results and make a real and sustainable difference to communities. Churches, by their nature and mandate, are both social and spiritual institutions. They exercise both governance and business practices by taking on the identity of government (governance) and business (providing practical CSR solutions). In that respect, churches offer some services to communities, similar to those offered by government and businesses. CSR by both government and business converge at numerous levels with church corporate social responsibility (CCSR). The spiritual component of CSR makes the church an important potential partner with the two stakeholders in that the CCSR, which has both spiritual and social capital, has proven to mitigate various social ills, and God is seen as the author of SR. The study sought to find the common ground between the three entities, to enable the formation of meaningful partnerships. The tri-partnership can be the key to addressing the complex social ills in communities since none of these entities can achieve the solutions on their own. History records identify that fair CSR thrived where there were fruitful partnerships. The empirical study underscored that, social injustices, manifesting in complex social ills, need a multi-pronged approach, with all entities combining their resources in a complementary approach. Government and businesses have found each other on a common platform already, but tis has not happened with most churches. Yet the three entities are shown in this study to be co-stewards in social responsibility, called by God to serve communities. A complementary tri-partnership would mean that the three entities need to speak a common language as a principle of communication, wherein the religious terms are translated into corporate and political language. This can form the bedrock of a uniform language for tri-partnerships to be effective. Tri-partnerships have proven to be job creators thus adding social value to communities. Availability of land to churches has proven to enhance social responsibility as churches that had more land performed with excellence. However, churches will first have to unify and find a common theology of spiritual and practical social actions to enable them to grow and thereby remain important partners in CSR.