The origins of the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) date back to a meeting in June 1997 between then-President Nelson Mandela and key South African Faith Based Organisation leaders, the then Deputy Minister of Education Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa and the SABC, to discuss spiritual transformation. At that meeting, President Mandela spoke about the role of religion in nation-building and social transformation, and the need for religious institutions to work with the state to overcome the ‘spiritual malaise’ underpinning the crime problem.

The Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) today launched the Charter of Election Ethics, which is aimed at encouraging ethical conduct during the campaigning for the 2019 general election.

MRM chairperson, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, said during the launch that the organisation’s mission was to promote moral values to which all South Africans can aspire as a basis for nation building.  “As a civil society driven movement, we facilitate and coordinate programmes that work towards restoring the moral fibre of our nation, underpinned by the philosophy of UBUNTU,” he said.

In 1994 Madiba called for the RDP of the soul thereby implying that spirituality had to be an integral element of national transformation.  He decried corruption, conspicuous consumption, greed, self-enrichment, dishonesty, bribery, sexual abuse of women and children, drug trafficking and disrespect for others.  Today we would add state capture.