After more than twenty years of freedom and democracy South Africa still struggles to make the ideal of a united, democratic, free, non-racial, non-sexist society a reality. The National Development Plan states that South Africa remains “a deeply divided society” and recent findings from the South African Reconciliation Barometer (SARB) and media reports corroborate this statement. This indicates that the struggle to eradicate social exclusion, discrimination and polarization at a racial, ethnic, gender, age and class level is not yet over and requires serious investigation. International research indicates that the lack of social cohesion is not unique to the South African context, but those countries worldwide, with a longer history of democracy and freedom, are faced with the same challenge. Faith communities and in particular congregations have a role to play in addressing the factors that prevent social cohesion. The study applies intergroup contact theory to see how intergroup contact reduced social exclusion, discrimination and polarization over twenty years amongst diverse groups. A qualitative approach will be followed and the focus-group interview is administered to obtain data from participants in multicultural congregations in the Western Cape. The findings from the research will be able to assist other faith communities, congregations, government and civil society in the struggle against social exclusion, discrimination and the threatening polarization of our society.

Keywords: Faith Communities, Social Capital, Religious Capital, Spiritual Capital, Social Cohesion, Intergroup Contact, Congregations, Reconciliation, Transformation