“I look forward to working with everybody”: Archbishop-elect of Bloemfontein, South Africa

“When I was appointed as the bishop of Kokstad, being in charge of a diocese after having been a priest, I didn’t know where I was going to begin and go forward, but it has taught me a lot and given me so much experience. This is what I’ll take with me to Bloemfontein,” he said.

“I know what is expected of a bishop, and what to expect of the faithful, the priests and everybody,” the Prelate responsible for Formation, Life and the Lay Apostolate at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) added.

The multilingual Archbishop-elect also said he will be counting on the experience and guidance of his predecessor, Archbishop Nxumalo, who has been at the helm of the 69-year-old Ecclesiastical See since 2005.

“Having Archbishop Nxumalo there, being able to have some sort of orientation, really helps. And then I’ll have my own meetings, and then I can see what the expectations are and how we are going to move forward,” the Archbishop-elect said during the interview.

As part of his responsibility during his stint at his Congregation’s headquarters in Rome between 1998-2003, the Archbishop-elect visited his confreres in many countries of the world, an experience which his predecessor, Archbishop Nxumalo considers handy for Bloemfontein city, which he says “is becoming more and more cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and international because of immigrants from Europe, Asia and African countries.”

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The Archbishop-elect is the third successive Local Ordinary of Kokstad to be elevated as Archbishop, following Wilfrid Cardinal Napier who headed the diocese from 1980-1992 before transferring to Durban, and his successor Archbishop William Slattery who was transferred to the Archdiocese of Pretoria in 2010.

“The appointment brought mixed feelings for me,” Archbishop-elect Mpambani said and added, “I’ve been busy with a lot of work in Kokstad, and was still developing a few things, so being told I’ll have to be in Bloemfontein in two months leaves very little time to finish things off and more so because of the lockdown.”

Accepting the challenge, he said, “I know that the same work that I’ve been doing here in Kokstad I could also do in the Archdiocese of Bloemfontein, which tells me that I should look forward to the future.”