11 official languages are spoken in South Africa: English (lingua franca), Afrikaans and nine Bantu languages. The most widely spoken language is Zulu, followed by Xhosa. 68.5 % profess Christianity, 15 % are of no denomination, 1.5 % belong to Islam and 14.6 % to other religions.

The focus of the South African economy has shifted from agriculture and mining to manufacturing and services. The unemployment rate is 32.8 % (as of 2023, and rising), with almost 50 % of the young population unemployed.

The group of Moravian missionaries founded the first congregation of the Moravian Church in South Africa, the Moravian Church in South Africa, in Genadendal .

Incidentally, in honour of the achievements of Georg Schmidt and the Moravian Church, Nelson Mandela named the headquarters of the South African president ‘Genadendal’ in 1994.

Around 1800, Genadendal was a model town and the second largest settlement in the Cape after Cape Town. Other congregations were founded in the Cape: Mamre, Elim, Enon, Goedverwacht and Clarkson, places of refuge for freed slaves. Agriculture, trade and commerce flourished. The level of education of the Khoi was often higher than that of the European settlers and soldiers.

During the work of Hans Peter Hallbeck (1817-40), Moravian missionaries reached the border area 800 kilometres to the north-east with the black Africans, formerly known as Bantu, for the first time. The congregation of Shiloh was founded here in 1828 and became the starting point for work among the Xhosa-speaking locals. It was followed by the congregations of Goshen, Engotini, Baziya and Tabase. From 1835, there were bloody battles between whites and blacks in the Eastern Cape. This caused serious damage to the mission, which was caught between all fronts for more than 30 years, but was nevertheless a stabilising factor in the country. From 1870, the missionaries advanced into Hlubiland, another 250 kilometres to the north-east, where the work subsequently flourished. Within a short time, several congregations flourished, including Elukolweni, Tinana, Bethesda, Magdala and Mvenyane.

In the first century, the mission was limited to rural areas. Moravian Hill in Cape Town developed into the first urban congregation from 1883. As people moved in from the countryside, congregations were also founded in other cities. As early as 1867, a general synod in Herrnhut decided to divide the missionary work into the provinces of South Africa West and South Africa East for geographical and linguistic/cultural reasons.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid , began in South Africa - to the advantage of the whites - which was increasingly intensified after 1948 and which trampled on the human dignity of the non-white population. As a church to which almost exclusively black and coloured people belong, the Moravian Church in South Africa suffered severely under apartheid. Among other things, forced relocations led to the dissolution of six congregations and the relocation of the theological seminary from Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) to Cape Town. Many members of the Moravian Church actively participated in the resistance, some went underground, some were imprisoned and some emigrated abroad.

During apartheid, it was very important for the Moravian Church in South Africa to receive solidarity and practical help from Germany and the worldwide Moravian Church. This included the service of individual brothers and sisters from Germany. The prevailing injustice was repeatedly denounced publicly through church partnerships.

In 1994, the apartheid laws were abolished and the era of racial segregation came to an end. However, the human injuries and economic and social consequences of apartheid are far from over. The continuing poverty of large sections of the population also causes poverty in the Moravian Church, especially in the Eastern Cape.

In 1993, the two provinces - with an office in Cape Town and one in Matatiele - were merged and divided into 12 districts. For many years, Genadendal was the seat of the church leadership until it was moved to Cape Town. Today it is located in the Lansdowne district. The church leadership consists of 16 people, one person from each of the twelve districts, a finance director and a three-member executive committee. It usually meets once a quarter. The Synod meets every four years. The Moravian Church in South Africa MCSA has a special partnership with the European-Continental Province, with the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity EMS being primarily responsible for maintaining this partnership.

The MCSA is one of the Lutheran churches, which make up 4% of South Africa's Christian churches. It has a total of around 90 congregations with approximately 90,000 members, as well as 70 male and female pastors and some lay preachers. As many pastors will be retiring in the next few years, the MCSA is training its own full and part-time pastors at the Moravian Theological Centre in Heideveld, a district of Cape Town.

Within the MCSA there are strong, church-wide associations, e.g. for men's work, women's work, youth work, Sunday school work, choir work and brass work. The associations operate largely independently and organise many activities in addition to church events.

The MCSA is a member of the World Council of Churches WCC, the South African Council of Churches and the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa LUCSA. The MCSA is a founding member of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity EMS. Through its relationship with the EMS, the MCSA is involved in the ecumenical volunteer programme ÖFP North-South Exchange and South-North Exchange. Employees from EMS member churches serve for extended periods in South Africa and vice versa.

The MCSA focuses its work on the social sector. A large part of the community work is done by volunteers. The church supports the poor and marginalised through diaconal work, education and various projects. It maintains several social institutions such as the Elim Home.

Since 1963, Elim Home in South Africa has been taking care of more than 80 people with severe mental and physical disabilities, aged between 4 and 40. The residents are cared for and supported competently and lovingly under the maxim ‘Every life is valuable’. The help and support of the Elim Home is a great relief for the families concerned, as many come from poor backgrounds and have little access to medical care.

The residents receive personalised physiotherapy and occupational therapy and learn, within their abilities, how to do things independently. In addition, the home is developing new ideas and sustainable concepts: for example, residents can help with gardening in their own garden. The freshly harvested vegetables either end up on the plate or are sold to generate a small additional income. Solar panels have been installed on the roofs of the buildings, which not only saves on energy costs but also provides a sustainable source of energy in the region, where power cuts are frequent.

In the town of Elim, a mission settlement dating from 1825, Elim Home is the largest employer, providing work for around 45 women from the surrounding area.

Since 2013, two additional outreach groups have been established, each 40 kilometres from Elim Home. This ensures that people with disabilities whose families live too far away from Elim receive the care and therapy they need. It also allows family members to be better integrated into the project, thus strengthening community awareness.

When it was founded, Elim Home was the first and only institution for black children with disabilities in the Western Cape region. Today, it is still part of the MCSA's social welfare programme. Since the South African Ministry of Health covers only 40 percent of the home's costs, Elim Home needs our and your support.

For more than 60 years, the Elim Home in South Africa has been a home for 50 children and adults with multiple mental and physical disabilities. Here they are lovingly cared for and supported according to their abilities. Thanks to the financial support of some EMS member churches, a solar energy system was installed on the roof of Elim Home, making the home independent of the unstable power supply, which is subject to power cuts of up to 10 hours a day. Furthermore, the solar energy system reduces the rising costs of electricity.

Many South Africans suffering from AIDS are unemployed and have been abandoned by their families. Their outlook for the future is bleak - they are denied the ability to lead a normal life. Although they receive vital antiretroviral medication free of charge from the state, medication alone does not solve their problems. This is why the Masangane Project (Xhosa for let us embrace each other) - the MCSA's AIDS programme - has been in existence since 1996. HIV-infected people receive holistic help in the form of counselling and pastoral care. In addition, Masangane also supports these people in dealing with the authorities, as this makes it easier for them to get access to essential medication.

The aim of the Masangane Project is to give children and adults a regular life again. The project helps HIV-infected men and women to earn an income by providing them with chickens and building materials for stables. They earn their own money by rearing and selling the chickens. It is a big step for those affected to stand on their own two feet again, which gives them courage and strengthens their self-confidence.

Unfortunately, AIDS leaves many children orphaned - it is estimated that there are over one million in South Africa. The Masangane Project also provides them with food and education and helps them with their problems. Girls and boys receive help to apply for an orphan's pension, while kindergarten children are looked after all day in church kindergartens and receive hot meals there. For schoolchildren, the project pays for school uniforms and school fees. Time and again, the employees also discover so-called child households where both parents have died or cannot be found due to AIDS. In such cases, the children receive additional support in the form of food, clothing or household items. The carers, who in many cases are HIV-positive themselves, are also available to the children as a substitute mother.

In order to reach as many people as possible, Masangane Project has numerous volunteers who have been trained as home-based care workers in addition to the locations in the Eastern Cape region. They visit AIDS patients at home, document the progression of the disease and quickly recognise when a doctor is needed. As most of the staff are also HIV-positive, they give the patients hope that a normal life is possible despite the disease.