Our morning started with a TV interview for a new satellite network launching in just over a week called Top TV. One of the channels is called Top Gospel TV and they sent a team over to do an interview with Thabani and I. Once things were set up we jumped right into the interview and began to cover a number of areas including why the book is relevant in the current tense racial climate here in South Africa. There is a tremendous fear here that South Africa is on the verge of heading down the same tragic road Zimbabwe did 30 years ago.

Once we finished the interview we headed over to Sandton Center for lunch at The Cape Town Fish Market with the Struik Christian Media team. Michael Schoeman set up all the media appointments and he has been traveling with us the last couple of days. Anja Morkel Marketing Manager and Carla Jacobs who organized the event flew in this morning to host tonight’s launch and book signing. We all had a wonderful lunch getting acquainted on a more personal level and talking about not only the evening’s event but what lies ahead for the book down the road.

As soon as lunch was over I did an interview with The Zimbabwean, an independent secular newspaper printed in South Africa and the UK and which is flown into Zimbabwe, as the government refuses to grant them a publishing license. While the paper is heavily political, I stressed repeatedly to the journalist doing the interview that Saving Zimbabwe is not a political book. Over the course of the interview I think he began to understand my perspective which is that what ails Zimbabwe is a much deeper issue than politics. One has to look no further than asking the question what is motivating those who are currently leading the nation. Is it self-ambition and greed? The biblical writer James said it best when he commented on the fruit of those kind of motives “for there you will have chaos and every evil thing.”

This evening’s Book Launch of Saving Zimbabwe was truly an extraordinary event. A number of people intimately involved in The Community of Reconciliation saw each other for the first time in 23 years!!!  I had shared my view with the Struik team early on in the process that the event was not to be solely focused on me. While I understood that was protocol for traditional book signings, I wanted this event to be in the spirit of the Community and therefore it needed to be about “us” and not “me”. I asked Guide Ncube, whose father Neville and grandfather Stephen were leaders in the community to share some thoughts. In his gentle and tenderhearted way Guide gave a very sincere speech about the disillusionment his generation feels with the current situation in Zimbabwe and how the book gives direction and hope that Zimbabwe can be transformed. Next Thabani Dube got up and shared that while Saving Zimbabwe is a story of the Community of Reconciliation; to him it is more than that as it was his life and the life of many others. He had wondered often these last 20 years whether any of it mattered. Now with the launch of the book, he’s come to see that his story/his life can make a difference. After Thabani, we surprised a few people as Matthew Marais stood up and courageously gave a speech on the power of forgiveness and reconciliation. Considering all that Matt has lost (both his parents, a younger brother and other relatives) it was as moving a speech as I have ever heard. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. I then had to follow Matt and struggled to keep my composure considering what I had just witnessed. I tried to give some background and context to the story for the benefit of those who just recently had become acquainted with the book. Afterwards while signing books, I was thrilled to see people approaching all those who had spoken and told them how much they appreciated their comments.  It was a monumental evening.