Revival Seeds Germinate Part 2 May 2023

Preface Chapter 1 Revival Seed at the Turn of the Century Chapter 2 Political, Evangelical, and Pentecostal Developments Chapter 3 Cape Inspiration Impacting the Nation Chapter 4 Varying Attitudes Towards Injustice and Oppression Chapter 5 Early 20th Century Christian Impact on Islam Chapter 6 Isolated Seeds of Integration Chapter 7 Influence of Prayer During Two World Wars Chapter 8 Cape Missionary Endeavours Chapter 9 Apartheid Entrenched, Communism and Spiritual Giants Chapter 10 Divide and Rule Effects of Apartheid Chapter 11 Church Unity in the Melting Pot Chapter 12 Mid-20th Century Gospel to Muslims Chapter 13 Diverse Power Encounters Chapter 14 Outreach to Jews Chapter 15 A Personal Journey Chapter 16 A Spiritual Watershed Chapter 17 Uptick in Spiritual Conflicts Chapter 18 Unusual Vanguards of Revival Chapter 19 The Gospel Expressed in Social Actions Chapter 20 Impact of the Hippie Revival and Jesus People Chapter 21 1976 Provokes Catalysts of Change Chapter 22 Gold from a Furnace Chapter 23 Trailblazers for Racial Reconciliation Chapter 24 A Turning Point Chapter 25 Personal Interventions Chapter 26 More Clashes Around Apartheid Chapter 27 Homeless 'Blacks' Challenge the State Chapter 28 New Impetus for Muslim Evangelism Chapter 29 Prayer Waves from the Cape Chapter 30 Church Growth Twinned with Reconciliation Chapter 31 Vicissitudes of the 1980s Chapter 32 Late 20th Century Revival Forerunners Chapter 33 Consciences of ‘Whites’ Touched Chapter 34 Moves Behind the Scenes Chapter 35 Winds of Change Hit the Country Epilogue Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Glossary Endnotes 1 2 2 7 17 39 49 55 59 67 73 87 99 105 121 129 137 143 161 177 181 195 199 205 209 215 225 229 235 243 257 263 275 285 297 307 313 327 335 337 342 345 346 1 MAIN ABBREVIATIONS ___________________________ ANC – African National Congress APO – African People’s Organisation CCM – Christian Concern for Muslims CCFM – Cape Community FM (radio) CODESA – Convention for a Democratic South Africa CSV – Christelike Studentevereniging DRC – Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) Ds. – Dominee (equivalent of Reverend) DTS – Discipleship Training School IDASA – Institute for Democracy in South Africa LMS – London Missionary Society OM – Operation Mobilization PAGAD – People against Gangsterism and Drugs PCR – Programme to Combat Racism SACC – South African Council of Churches SAMS – South African Missionary Society UDF – United Democratic Front UNISA – University of South Africa UCT – University of Cape Town UWC – University of the Western Cape WCC – World Council of Churches WEC – Worldwide Evangelization for Christ YWAM – Youth with a Mission YMCA – Young Men's Christian Association YWCA – Young Women's Christian Association 2 TERMINOLO GY USED IN THIS B O OK ___________________________ Throughout this book, I speak about 'Coloured' people. For this reason, I put ‘Coloured’ consistently between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to the racial group. To the other races I refer as 'Black' and 'White' respectively, with a capital B and W, to denote that it is not normal colours that are being described. In a country as ours where racial classifications have caused a lot of damage, I am aware that the designation 'Coloured' has given offence to many people of the racial group into which I have been classified. I will be referring to South African Indians when I mention the other major racial grouping of the apartheid era. In this book the distinction is made between a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and other English-speaking churches, by retaining the title ‘Ds.' before the name of a DRC pastor. It is the abbreviation of Dominee (derived from the Latin dominus meaning Lord). This is the equivalent of Rev. (Reverend) in English in practical terms. PREFACE ___________________________ God's 'higher ways' are better than our ways! The Bible verse from Isaiah 55:8, 9 was to play a big role in my life. 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ How often we say 'what a coincidence'? Something coincides with something else unexpectedly – and we call it a coincidence. Someone said: 'Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.' God is continually working in our lives so in many ways on many levels that we don't see and understand. This three-part treatise is my attempt to overhaul Seeds Sown for Revival, but with the addition of more autobiographical details and other material that I had 3 researched or that came to my attention later. With believers in different places, I continue to yearn for a big revival that has been prophesied to start here at the Cape. We expect this to impact the whole African continent and possibly even influence areas further afield. Part 2 narrates 'revival seed' of the 20th century, including my own lengthy personal sojourn in Europe. By January 1969, when I left South Africa for the first time, my own thinking in respect of the subtle indoctrination of our racially segregated country at that time had already had a significant correction. The Father dealt thoroughly with my racist prejudicial expectation that my future wife had to be a 'Coloured' South African. I was hoping to spare myself the destiny of an exile in that way. Picking up the theme of God's 'higher ways' in my life, they were sometimes linked to deep pain in the lives of other people. I came to learn that adversity and suffering seem to be among God's prime instruments to bring about significant change in the lives of people and even in countries. Leukaemia and the ultimate passing away of my teenage hero, Rev. Daniel Ivan Wessels, were for instance part of the run-up to my calling into ministry in 1968. It has been quite a humbling experience to discern divine over-ruling in my life. I made some grave mistakes that had tragic consequences and intense pain for many people around me. God thankfully rectified my errors sovereignly. One of the most striking divine corrections was when the Father turned around my unjustified extreme anger at the actions of our government and at my Church Board in November 1978 during a visit to the country. This led to my initial declining an opportunity to meet Professor Johan Heyns, the Chairman of the Broederbond and the apartheid think tank of that era. A repentant willingness to meet Professor Johan Heyns could possibly have contributed better to a process of change! God used the impactful SACLA conference of July 1979 to that end, notably with Professor Heyns. My subsequent correspondence with Professor Heyns was tarnished by my arrogant activism. Nevertheless, a change in the views of Prof. Heyns and other Dutch Reformed Church ministers regarding apartheid thankfully ultimately led to a major denominational switch in 1986. The same sequence as in 1968, namely the same type of cancer and the death of my only sister resulted in a strategic six-month stint in South Africa with my wife Rosemarie and our two eldest children – by special permission of the apartheid government. During those six months we were privileged to do back- 4 stage spadework as a contribution to the ultimate repealing of two pivotal laws that had been pillars of the apartheid edifice: the prohibition of racially mixed marriages and the infamous pass laws were removed from the statute books. In Holland we were blessed to assist significantly in the formation of the Regiogebed (Regional prayer) in 1988, of which the roots can be found in Dave Bryant's Concerts of Prayer. At a Regiogebed event in Zeist on 4 October 1989 we prayed for a divinely orchestrated move for South Africa, not knowing that the new State President had an important meeting lined up with two Church leaders the following week. How thankful we were when by the beginning of 1992, at our arrival in South Africa as a family, official apartheid was dying fast. A world-wide prayer army brought down the Communist Iron Curtain. We were blessed to discern divine revival seeds behind the scenes in this regard. In other autobiographical material we report how Rosemarie and I were blessed to contribute in a small way to undermine the despotic reign of Nicolae Ceauçescu of Romania. Before leaving for our missionary candidate's orientation at Bulstrode near London in 1991, I had also been able to arrange for the covert Albania role player Gesina Blaauw to come and speak at a Regiogebed meeting. The dynamic physically small believer would play a big role behind the scenes to bring down the last European Communist stronghold. The back of atheist Communism was broken by then, albeit that fierce repression of all expressions of faith was still present in China and North Korea. A personal challenge to tackle the Wall of Islam transpired only minimally when I studied at the Moravian Theological Seminary in the early 1970s. The institution was temporarily located in District Six at a time when the former slum area became increasingly Islamic. All the more, the challenge became strong during a visit to West Africa in the beginning of 1990 as part of our preparation and possible orientation for service there; to serve as a teacher in a school for the children of missionaries in the Ivory Coast. That trip to West Africa brought divine correction. It also included a significant part of the run-up to engage in prayer ministry in the battle against the Islamic ideology. On 1 September 2021, I gave a copy of the first edition of Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate to two intercessors who had just flown into Cape Town for a prayer assignment, soon their arrival. Patrick Kuwana immediately noted the three keys on the cover. (When I had phoned Anneline of Sela Publications in August 5 2019, I expressed my doubts about the suitability of the title Revival Seeds Germinate. She responded that she had completed a painting, a photo of which she would like to send to me. It looks very much as if I had ordered someone to paint something that would depict Revival Seeds Germinate!) I had also not been aware that a South African woman and man of Jewish descent (a Jew/ Gentile team) were given a set of three golden keys in Jerusalem on the 21st of November 2019, and that they planted one of those keys at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Lord then gave them instructions to return to South Africa with the other keys, one to be planted at the Drakensberg and the other at what we trust will in due course become generally known as Dove’s Peak. The notion of Durban as the spiritual eastern Gate came to me quite forcefully that day. As this trilogy had a prophetic element at its core, I could not ignore it. What a pleasure it is to honour the roles of other unheralded Cape spiritual giants in this volume. A few contributions by legends from elsewhere that impacted the Cape like Professor David Bosch and Rev. Michael Cassidy are also included. Briefly even that of someone from another country, such as that of Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda, is noted. I have included information in this book from hitherto unpublished manuscripts like Honger na Geregtigheid, The Mother City of the Nation, Some Things Wrought by Prayer and Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape. For bibliographical detail and the origins of quotations the reader is referred to some of them. Along with other titles, this material is accessible at www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com. Cape Town, May 2023 6 "Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has." — Billy Graham 7 CHAPTER ONE REVIVAL SEED AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY ___________________________ Two spiritual giants who significantly and positively contributed to Cape spiritual dynamics at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century both had the name Andrew: Dr Andrew Murray, the giant of the 19th century of whose ministry and influence we have written at some length in Part 1, and Andrew le Fleur, the Griqua spiritual giant from East Griqualand's Kokstad in the early 20th century South Africa, was exiled to Cape Town's present Waterfront from 1896 to 1903 as a convict. Andrew Murray's Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit The renowned Dwight Moody invited Andrew Murray as a speaker to an ecumenical missionary conference to be held in New York in April 1900. Moody could not attend the conference himself, and after falling ill in November 1899, Dwight Moody died on 22 December 1899. Dr Andrew Murray put into practice what he had taught about ‘waiting on the Lord’ when he was invited to be a speaker at the World Missions Conference in New York, billed as the biggest ever to be held. (At this time the effect of the Enlightenment and Rationalism had significantly diminished belief in unseen forces like the Holy Spirit in the West.) Andrew Murray had no inner peace about going to New York. Andrew Murray had no inner peace about going to New York. He felt 8 morally bound to stay with his people because of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). We may safely surmise that Murray was obedient to the Holy Spirit, only responding to instructions from the Lord. Prayer As a Special Key Murray’s subsequent absence at the conference ironically became one of the biggest catalysts of missions at the start of the 20th century. After he received the papers and discussions at the conference, Murray wrote down what he thought was lacking at the event in a booklet: The Key to the Missionary Problem. This booklet was to have an explosive influence on churches in Europe, America and South Africa. It is surely no mere coincidence that revivals broke out in different parts of the world in the years thereafter in such divergent countries as Wales, Norway, India and Chile. Missionary work is the primary task of the church. Murray also stated that missionary work is the primary task of the church, and that the pastor should have that as the main goal of his preaching. These sentiments were repeated in another booklet with the title Foreign Missions and the Week of Prayer, January 5-12, 1902. He, furthermore, suggested that 'to join in united prayer for God’s Spirit to work in home churches a true interest in, and devotion to missions (is) our first and our most pressing need.' A classic statement of Andrew Murray is found in his book The Kingdom of God in South Africa (1906): 'Prayer is the life of missions. Continual, believing prayer is the secret of vitality and fruitfulness in missionary work. The God of missions is the God of prayer'. Andrew Murray’s Closing Days In 1904 Andrew Murray founded the Prayer Union, which was open to believers who had pledged themselves to devote at least a quarter of 9 an hour daily to praying for others and also for the furtherance of the Kingdom. Andrew Murray ended his life on earth on 18 January 1917 in typical fashion, praying and urging others to pray. Few men have ever impacted more people for the cause of the Spirit-filled life than Andrew Murray. He was, undoubtedly, the Church’s most prolific writer on the subject of prayer and the deeper life, publishing over 240 titles between 1858 and 1917. Several of his penned works have been translated into as many as fifteen different languages. Soon after the Christian Literature Society for China translated Dr Murray’s book, The Spirit of Christ into Chinese, revival reportedly broke out in inland China. Even today his writings are still shaping the way multitudes of hungry Christians think about prayer and the Spirit-filled life. Missionary Endeavour as a Worldwide Priority The Cape was divinely used to establish missionary endeavour as a worldwide priority, an important spur to a big conference at Edinburgh in 1910. This conference can be regarded as a harbinger of the World Council of Churches. General missionary conferences contributed greatly to the 1910 world event in Edinburgh. An interesting fact is that the great missionary William Carey had proposed holding a conference on missions at the Cape of Good Hope a hundred years earlier. This was the nudge for the global Lausanne Consultation to be held in Cape Town in 2010. This was possibly the most representative major Christian event to date. A cross section of participants attended – young and old, females treated as equals also in sharing the Word! An Exceptional Orator Andrew le Fleur distinguished himself as an exceptional orator among contesting factions as a protest and resistance leader. Through his insatiable hunger for justice and equality in an era where oppressive colo- 10 nial laws destroyed the morale of his people, Le Fleur collided with the authorities who misinterpreted his strong non-violent stand at times as revolt and incitement. Andrew Le Fleur, after being chosen as Griqua chief, travelled the length and breadth of the country, reorganizing the strewn Griqua remnants into a new nation, forming treaties with 'Bantu' tribes, and trying to convert other 'Coloured' tribes to the Griqua cause. He would not allow disappointments to deter him. His love for the Lof, the inspirational praise songs, made him strong. The many meetings he held, soon led to the authorities branding him as an agitator. He was taken to court in Kokstad, accused of causing an uprising, and subsequently sentenced to 14 years hard labour. He was sent to prison in Cape Town on the 5th May, 1898. Three angels appeared to him in his cell and said: 'We are the three angels who appeared to Father Abraham when he was about to offer his son on Moriah. Fear not, for we are sent by God to lead the way.' This eventually led to him prophesy nine years before his sentence was due to expire, that he would walk through the prison doors as a free man on Friday, 3 April 1903 at 3 o’clock. The prophecy was fulfilled to the minute. When Andrew Le Fleur walked out of prison a free man he did so while singing the Lof. Praise as a Uniting Force After his release, he was held in even greater esteem than before among the Griquas, and many more lost sheep were brought back to the fold. He organised conferences in the city of Cape Town and on the Cape Flats. After the commemoration of the Lord's resurrection in 1920, in particular, he sent the Griqua message to many corners of the country by means of girls’ choirs, who were called Roepers (callers), inviting all and sundry to follow Jesus, but even more so to join the Griqua cause of nation-building. They travelled many miles on foot. They are the unsung, yet not forgotten Griqua heroes. Some of them (and their off-spring) are still living at Krantzhoek, Knysna, Vredendal and elsewhere, still singing 11 in choirs and working towards Griqua unity. The planning of new branches took shape in Le Fleur's office in Caledon Street in District Six. Meetings were envisaged in places like Paarl, Retreat and Elsies River, but Le Fleur also preached on public spaces like the Grand Parade. Sir Frederick de Waal, the Administrator of the Cape Province, made an appeal to assist the impoverished families after the copper mines of Namaqualand had been closed down in 1919 after World War I. Andrew le Fleur grabbed the chance to put the Griquas on the map with the Roepers. The choirs went onto the busy streets during the week collecting funds. On many a Sunday they went to Cape suburbs in the North and South and on the Cape Flats, bringing their takings to the Grand Parade where he would preach. How surprised Sir Frederick De Waal was when Le Fleur came there the first time with a pillowcase full of money. The movement went into a crescendo when the Griqua Choirs Association was started on the weekend of 5-6 July 1919. Uniting the Griqua Nation Andrew le Fleur spent his life campaigning for the restitution of land that the Griquas lost when the British colonial authorities annexed Griqualand East. He sought to unite people called Griqua, Nama and 'Coloured' under the Griqua banner. Emulating Mohandas Ghandi who had started The Indian Opinion in 1903, Andrew le Fleur also started a newspaper, The Griqua and Coloured People's Opinion, in January 1920. As part of his calling, Le Fleur started organizing great treks from all over the country, and notably from Kokstad, Namaqualand and the Orange Free State. Eventually, they were due to come to Krantshoek near Plettenberg Bay. Not all Griquas moved to Krantshoek, however, and many of them still form smaller or larger communities in places as far apart as Kimberley and Griqua Town, Kokstad, Namaqualand and the 12 Cape Peninsula. Andrew le Fleur established the Griqua Independent Church as a counter to the European-controlled mission churches. Le Fleur started the Griqua Independent Church over the Resurrection Commemoration weekend in 1920 in the Maitland Town Hall, Cape Town, as a counter to the European-controlled mission churches. Very special about the Griqua spirituality was the emphasis on Lof (Praise). Joyful praise accompanied every achievement. Andrew le Fleur, who became lovingly known to his followers as Die Kneg (Servant of God), had already begun his career as a revivalist in the mid-1890s. Tackling the land issue in various ways and fostering a united Griqua identity by spiritual means, he was to become the most prominent indigenous Khoesan leader of the early 20th century in South Africa. Le Fleur also founded the Griqua National Conference (GNC), which became the official mouthpiece of the Griqua people, at the time of his appointment as successor to Adam Kok III. He thus became the Paramount Chief of the Griquas. Although all his agricultural resettlement schemes failed, with the exception of Krantzhoek, he was instrumental in fostering Griqua pride in the GNC's spiritual identity. He promoted a 'Coloured' identity, believing that segregation would be the solution to the economic and political problems of the Griquas. Le Fleur died in a little cottage on a farm in the Robberg Peninsula near Plettenberg Bay on 11 July, 1941. Internationally, Andrew (Andries) Abraham Stockenstrom le Fleur did not gain recognition near to what Nelson Mandela was to gain at the end of the 20th century. The stature of Andrew le Fleur, a great man of God, remained fairly unknown even in South Africa. He was later maligned, because he attempted to obtain stability for first nation people in an independent homeland. (The homelands policy of the apartheid government left a bad taste for a meritorious idea that was implemented, in my view, in an unfair and grossly discriminate way.) The Start of the Cape Town City Mission 13 Mr Frederick George Lowe came to Cape Town in 1896, as a concerned Anglican and a businessman who sold cheap clothing. He soon became involved in loving outreach to the poor and needy, especially at the time of the bubonic plague in 1901. Lowe started what he called the City Slum Mission in 1902, combining compassionate outreach with evangelism. When he moved to Well’s Square, known as a venue for drunkenness and prostitution, he held meetings that drew hundreds. The Cape Town Mission practiced a combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach. After Lowe’s death the mission got its present name, the Cape Town City Mission. In later years churches and all sorts of institutions of charity were started across the Peninsula. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which they derived from their models, the Glasgow City Mission and the Salvation Army – became an integral part of their ministry. This remained the case until the 1990s when the evangelistic sector became a part of Kingdom Ministries, led by Pastor Alfie Fabe. The Cape Town City Mission later became a powerful channel for the gospel throughout the 20th century, notably after Pat Kelly, a British missionary, started night Bible schools at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) premises in Darling Street in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie, the dynamic leader of the late 20th century, along with his wife Joan, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently. Revival in Villiersdorp The news of the Welsh revival at the beginning of the new century caused the Dutch Reformed Church commission to issue a call for all churches to join together to pray for South Africa. Dr. Andrew Murray, together with Prof. N.J. Hofmeyr and Ds. Botha, organized a conference on revival for ministers, which was held at Stellenbosch Seminary in May 1905. 14 The main topic was the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the church. Soon local awakenings were taking place all over the Cape Province, in both Afrikaans and English-speaking churches. At a Christian Endeavour service in Villiersdorp on 23 July 1905, about 130 young people were suddenly gripped. Such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place that the whole company became acutely aware of the presence of God and his holiness. The Holy Spirit led them into a concern for sin, which turned into brokenness, tears and a spontaneous calling on the mercy of God. Every evening people gathered in meetings of up to three hours. The number swelled and attendance increased from 350 to 500. Sometimes a number of people could be heard praying simultaneously. Nothing else was talked about and more than a hundred villagers were converted, including the roughest and most reckless men in the district. Hundreds of nominal Christians were transformed into fearless witnesses who testified with great power, and urged their friends to respond, praying for them by name in the open meetings. The revival transformed the local Kerk Jeug Vereniging (KJV), (Youth Church Society,) which soon became a mission band with 62 members. One of them, Karl Zimmerman, became a missionary in Nigeria. On 7 August 1905, the KJV of Villiersdorp visited Franschhoek, telling a filled church what had happened in their town. Concern and spiritual hunger developed with prayer meetings springing up in different places. The Revival Spreads Three months after the revival started, the minister appealed for help from his colleagues, because it was spreading. This move of the Spirit began to influence thirty other Dutch Reformed congregations, chiefly in the Western Cape, the Boland and the Eastern Province. The news of the revival in Villiersdorp nudged the Christians in the Karoo town of Prince Albert to start with prayer meetings in homes. Soon the homes were too small, so they met at the school. One Sunday evening the Holy Spirit caused a spirit of conviction to break out among people of all ages. Even the children of the parish became so concerned that they filled another hall in the village, astounding the leaders and adults with their prayers for their own salvation, their families and friends. Whole households were 15 converted, some of them led to the Lord by their own children. In September 1905 Rev. William M. Douglas from the Methodist Church, who had ministered powerfully in the Eastern Cape and in the Karoo, was invited to Wellington for a convention. He shared about the ministry with Albert Head, a well-known speaker from England. Dr. Andrew Murray presided over the convention. A conviction settled over the gathering and soon scenes of revival surfaced as people sought salvation. A prayer meeting evolved with the two hundred people present and continued into the early hours of the morning and led by Rev. Douglas, became the focal point of the convention. Human Rights as Revival Seeds Taking general human rights as revival seeds, the contribution of another giant at the Cape who straddled the centuries has to be mentioned: a female from Scotland. By the 1870s, the movement to expand education to young women had been gaining momentum in the English-speaking world. A committee in the Cape Colony was setting up the first educational establishment for women, and, on their behalf, Reverend Andrew Murray approached Georgiana Thomson in Scotland to lead it. She decided to accept the challenge and emigrated in 1873 to South Africa. She was the inaugural principal of what is now the Good Hope Seminary High School. At the Cape she met the liberal politician, newspaper proprietor and great 19th century parliamentarian, Saul Solomon. He is known for his belief in equality among creed, colour and class. Their views tallied on many matters, not least girls' education. The Cape was soon to play a big role indirectly in the fight for voting rights for women globally. Georgiana Solomon, as wife of Saul Solomon, became involved in this movement after their emigration to Great Britain in 1888. 1895 Julia Frances Solly, who came from England in 1890, became active in the move to secure the vote for women. From the beginning of the 20th century, she concentrated on this issue after settling at Knorhoek, Sir Lowry's Pass, in 1901. As a close friend of Olive Schreiner, she was one of the chief personalities in the National Council of Women in South Africa. In 1902 Georgiana Solomon returned to visit South Africa, where she 16 assisted in the campaign for women's suffrage. On 16 October 1904 she co-founded the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie (South African Women's Federation) with Annie Botha, wife of the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. She maintained her involvement in South African developments from her base in London. Solomon offered hospitality to the visiting delegation led by William Schreiner who had come to London to press for equal suffrage for all races. She opposed the South Africa Act of 1909, which limited the franchise (unlike the Cape qualified franchise), which is when she came to know Gandhi. She opposed the Natives Land Act, 1913, thinking the colour bar 'un-British'. St Monica’s Maternity Home Established The 1914 Anglican Diocesan Mission Board report to their synod mentioned the establishment of a ‘temporary shelter for women and girls returning to the Christian faith, or who desire to become Christians, but are without Christian friends and relations with whom to take shelter.’ In January 1917 Miss Frances Edwina Shepherd suggested to the Muslim Mission Committee of the Diocesan Mission Board (DMB) that she could begin training suitable ‘Coloured’ females as midwives. She had already instructed several women when they had accompanied her to deliveries. She approached Dr. Murray, the Secretary of the Western Cape branch of the Medical Association, in order to get this instruction recognised. He stressed that training should ideally take place in a Maternity Home. A committee was set up by the DMB under the chairmanship of the Rev. Canon S. W. Lavis. They recommended the setting up of a training institution for ‘Coloured’ midwives. This was approved by the DMB, and Garth House at 108 Buitengracht Street was opened on 1 April 1917, relocated later to Bree Street as St Monica's Maternity Home. 17 CHAPTER T WO POLITICAL, EVANGELICAL AND PENTECOSTAL DEVELOPMENTS ___________________________ The run-up to the South African War (1899 -1902) and its aftermath had many spiritual ramifications, both in the expansion of the Gospel and ambivalently also as a curb to its spread. The imperialist greed displayed by Cape Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes was a major cause of the war. Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer epitomising the very opposite of greed, had a profound influence in South Africa. A Giant Pioneer for Justice, Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of India’s non-violent independence movement. As a lawyer, he advocated against British rule, and in South Africa for the civil rights of Indians at the turn of the century. A seminal moment for Gandhi was when, on June 7, 1893, during a train trip to Pretoria, South Africa, a man objected to Gandhi’s presence in the first-class railway compartment, even though Ghandi had a ticket. When he refused to move to the back of the train, Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown from the train in Pietermaritzburg. Gandhi’s act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to fight the 'deep disease of colour prejudice.' He vowed that night to 'try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.' From that night forward, the small, unassuming man grew into a giant force for civil rights. Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 to fight discrimination, in this way sowing the seed for the start of 18 the African National Congress in 1912. Gandhi prepared to return to India at the end of his year-long contract until he learned, at his farewell party, of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would deprive South African Indians of the right to vote. Fellow immigrants convinced Gandhi to stay and lead the fight against the legislation. Although Gandhi could not prevent the law’s passage, he drew international attention to the injustice. After a brief trip to India in late 1896 and early 1897, Gandhi returned to South Africa with his wife and children. Gandhi ran a thriving legal practice, and at the outbreak of the Boer War, he raised an all-Indian ambulance corps of 1,100 volunteers to support the British cause, arguing that if Indians expected to have full rights of citizenship in the British Empire, they also needed to shoulder their responsibilities to this end. Truth Force In 1906, Gandhi organized his first mass civil-disobedience campaign, which he called Satyagraha (“truth and firmness”), in reaction to the Transvaal government’s new restrictions on the rights of Indians. This included the refusal to recognize Hindu marriages. Truth Force is the literal translation of satyagraha. The word satyagraha was coined by Gandhi early in his South African campaign. Gandhi distinguished non-violent non-cooperation from passive resistance. Passive resistance, he maintains, implies weakness; whereas non-violent non-cooperation (satyagraha) implies strength. 'Real suffering bravely born melts even a heart of stone. Such is the potency of suffering… there lies the key to satyagraha.' After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of South African Indians in 1913, including Gandhi. Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. After a lifetime of passive resistance to racism and active demonstration of a self-disciplined lifestyle free from materialism and greed, Ghandi was killed in India by a fanatic in 1948. 19 Spadework for Apartheid In 1900, Lord Kitchener began his burnt earth policy. The British army could not defeat the farmers in the Free State. Kitchener then had his soldiers burn down farms and put women and children in concentration camps. Around 25 000 died there within 2 years. Bitterness ensued in the hearts of the Free Staters and Transvalers towards the Brits. Incited by the women in the concentration camps, the Boers decided that they would fight to the bitter end, even if it would cost them their lives. These Bittereinders would not surrender and make peace. The implementation of burnt earth and concentration camps led to the Broedertwis (brother quarrel) among Afrikaners. The Broedertwis between Bittereinders (fighters to the bitter end) and the likes of Cape generals Jan Smuts and Louis Botha who were propagating reconciliation, split the Afrikaners as a nation. At the peace Treaty of Vereeniging, signed on 31 May 1902, the Bittereinders very reluctantly laid down their arms. It was the side-lining of all people of colour in the negotiations at the Treaty of Vereeniging that ultimately led to apartheid. The greed of the British was reflected in the land law of 1913 where eighty percent of the land was reserved for 'Whites'. This was the basis of the Homelands policy of the apartheid era. The resentment of people of colour towards all 'Whites' has carried on simmering into the present. A combination of British greed and Afrikaner Nationalism, comprising a worldview of survival and self-determination – no matter what it would cost them – eventually culminated in apartheid, no matter what it would do to those people who were not 'White'. An Agent of Rehabilitation and Reconciliation British-born Emily Hobhouse (1860 – 1926) is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions inside the British concentration camps, that were built to incarcerate Boer civilians during the Second Boer War. When the reconciler and anti-war campaigner Hobhouse went to England and presented her report of the shocking conditions in the concentration 20 camps to the British parliament in June 1901, she received scathing criticism and hostility from the government and many of the media, but she did eventually succeed in obtaining more funding to help the Boer civilians. The British government eventually agreed to set up the Fawcett Commission to investigate her claims. However, when Hobhouse returned to Cape Town in October 1901, she was not permitted to land and was eventually deported five days after arriving, no reason being given. Early the next year Hobhouse went to Lake Annecy in the French Alps where she wrote The Brunt of the War on what she had seen during the war in South Africa. After the war Emily Hobhouse returned to South Africa where she set out to assist healing the wounds inflicted by the war and to support efforts aimed at rehabilitation and reconciliation. With the help of Margaret Clark, she decided to set up a home industries scheme. They taught young women spinning, weaving, and lace making so they would have an occupation in their lonely homes. Ill health, from which she never recovered, forced her to return to England in 1908. Her speech for the inauguration of the National Women's Monument in Bloemfontein commemorating the 27 000 women and children who died in the British concentration camps, that called for reconciliation and goodwill between all races, was read on her behalf. Emily Hobhouse never returned to South Africa and died in London in 1926. The Legacy of Olive Schreiner The legacy and memory of Olive Schreiner, one of nine children of a Wesleyan missionary couple of Wittebergen near Herschel in the Eastern Cape, by far surpassed her politician brother, William Philip Schreiner, a late 19th century Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Olive Schreiner's special contributions to humanity were only properly discovered late in the 20th century. South Africa is greatly indebted to her and also to Ruth First, who was killed by one of the most brutal apartheid machinations – a letter bomb. That tragedy helped perhaps to highlight the Olive Schreiner biography, which Ruth First and Ann Scott wrote in 1980. Their study provides testimony of Olive Schreiner’s ‘continuing ability to speak to new generations’. 21 All her life she fought against injustice, including the discrimination of women. Olive Schreiner’s prophetic role in human relations is noteworthy. In a continent where the separateness of English, Dutch, Jews, South African Indians and 'Black' inhabitants was rife, ‘her voice proclaimed that all in the world is one.’ Long before anybody dreamed of a rainbow nation, Olive Schreiner highlighted ‘the marvellous diversity of races among us’. In a letter to her brother, William Schreiner, dated 24 April 1909, she stated her intention to read a paper to 'White' workers, urging them to stand by the 'Black' Africans. On world politics Olive Schreiner wrote prophetically, for example in 1919: ‘America and Russia are the two points at which the world’s history is going to be settled.’ Her keen interest in science made her prophesy atomic energy in 1911: ‘Already today we tremble on the verge of a discovery... through the attainment of a simple and cheap method of controlling some widely diffused... natural force.’ Even more accurate was her suggestion in the same book Woman and Labour, ‘The brain of one consumptive German chemist who, in his laboratory compounds a new explosive, has more effect upon the wars of modern people than ten thousand soldierly legs and arms’. Olive Schreiner became very famous as a pioneer of positive feminism worldwide and as an authoress. Through her novels Olive Schreiner put South Africa on the literary map of the world. Olive Schreiner's Woman and Labour (1911) formed the most influential theoretical contribution by a South African author to early feminism. Recognized by the Afrikaans and English press, this book had a far-reaching impact on feminism outside South Africa. It was translated into a number of languages. Olive Schreiner also distinguished herself through her love for Dutchspeaking Afrikaners. She did much for reconciliation between the two main 'White' people groups of South Africa, a fact which became fairly widely recognized. However, her intervention on behalf of the other underdogs after the South African War, South African Indians, 'Blacks' and the Chinese who had been imported by Lord Milner, is hardly known. Olive Schreiner put South Africa on the literary map of the world. 22 A Slave Descendant Pioneer Olive Schreiner’s contact with Anna Tempo, a daughter of Mozambican slaves, is also by and large unknown. Anna Tempo started the Nanniehuis in Bo-Kaap, a ministry of compassion to ‘fallen’ young women and prostitutes. The Nanniehuis in Bo-Kaap’s Jordaan Street became the model for similar projects in other parts of the country after Ms Tempo had been awarded the King George Coronation Medal for her work in 1937. She later became the matron of the Stakesby-Lewis Hostel in Harrington Street, District Six. By the early 1960s there were 288 welfare agencies in the city, of which less than half were run by religious organizations. The City Mission was by far the best-known of them all. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach continued unabated. Women Implement Their Own Strategies The record of a few 'White' women like Emily Hobhouse and Olive Schreiner fighting for their own rights and for the underdog is so much better known than their early twentieth century 'Black' female compatriots. Thus, no records reveal the level of women’s participation in the inaugural meeting of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in Bloemfontein in January 2012. The resistance and actions of the ‘Black' women of Waaihoek in 1912 deserve more recognition in our national history covering the early days of the Union of South Africa. It is recorded that the Bloemfontein town council had demarcated 3 locations along tribal lines already on 3 June 1861: among them, the Fingo’s and Barolong were required to move to the area which lies to the right of Kaffirfontein, while the 'Hottentots' and 'Basters' ('Coloureds') had to move to the Waaihoek 'Black' residential area. The passive reaction of Waaihoek women was thus possibly racially mixed. It is perfectly clear that women of the Waaihoek location on the outskirts of Bloemfontein resolved to take firmer actions on their own. First, they circulated a women’s petition throughout the Orange Free State towns 23 and villages. Then they sent an all-female delegation to confront the government on the question of women’s passes. Rev. Walter Rubusana and Senator W.P. Schreiner assisted in securing an interview in Cape Town with cabinet minister Henry Burton, on 3 April 1912. A member of the delegation, Katie Louw, the twenty-three-year-old President of the Methodist Women’s Prayer Association, soon emerged as the leader of passive resistance. On the afternoon of 28 May 1913, women held a mass meeting in the Waaihoek location and concluded that a passive resistance campaign was the only course left to get rid of the despised passes. They were thus pre-empting the ANC and PAC campaigns of the 1950s against the hated ‘dompasse’ by a few decades. In the ensuing saga, eighty women were arrested, followed by a dancing, singing, shouting procession of 600 women through the centre of 'White' Bloemfontein to the Magistrates’ Court’. There they pleaded guilty but refused to pay any fines. The sympathetic magistrate Ashburnham dismissed all the charges, thus averting a major crisis. The mayor of the city, Mr Haarburger, hereafter led the women to believe that there would be no further arrests for pass offenses, but later he had to concede that the Town Council had no authority to change these laws. While municipal officials became increasingly irritated by the women’s campaign, support from the oppressed communities blossomed. The National Impact of Women’s Resistance The bravery of the 'Black' women of Waaihoek set a precedent that was to have a national impact. Faced with little sympathy from local officials, and accused of public violence, they suffered imprisonment for two months during an exceptionally cold July winter of 1913. They refused to pay any fines. After being initially quite skeptical about the 24 wisdom of the women’s methods, political leaders like Solomon Plaatje, the General Secretary of the SANNC and APO leader Dr Abdurahman began championing their cause. The latter boasted that ‘Six hundred daughters of Africa taught the arrogant 'Whites' a lesson that will never be forgotten.’ Mayor Haarburger’s reading of the women’s resistance was a harbinger of the apartheid government’s reaction later in the century, who placed the blame on instigating outside forces. Haarburger assumed that ‘the elite men controlled the women’s campaign’. Just like the oppressed of the UDF in the 1980s, the women maintained their female solidarity and refused to be divided along class lines. Similarly, ‘the resisters’ commitment was boosted by increasing support from the 'Black' community nation-wide, as well as from a section of the ‘White public’. In March 1914, Louis Botha, the Prime Minister, appointed a select committee to investigate the pass laws throughout South Africa. A draft Bill was passed in June 1914 which allowed the Union government to sidestep responsibility for deciding whether or not women should carry passes, passing the buck to local municipalities. The outbreak of World War I prevented any debate over or the passage of the bill. The 'Black' women heroically battled through to victory, albeit a pyrrhic one. Early in 1919, tensions exploded in Bloemfontein. The women’s pass campaign merged with general unrest over the coast of living as residents declared an end to their wartime moratorium on political activity. Other parts of the country were soon joining in the resistance. In March 1919, a major anti-pass campaign began among male workers on the Rand, using passive resistance. In July miners in Kimberley won higher wages, simply by threatening to strike and in Cape Town the successful dock workers’ strike led to the launching of the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa). Simultaneous Evangelism and Church Growth Concurrent with the political shifts among South African people groups at this time, there were significant developments with regard to indigenous churches and a measure of understanding was arising of the multicultural and gender equal nature of the kingdom of God. 25 Missionary Drive from Cape to Cairo By 1902, ‘Ethiopianism’ was used for the entire indigenous Church movement. For many a 'Black' clergyman, Ethiopia was the model land where 'Blacks' ruled their own country. The spiritual impact of ‘Ethiopianism’ was minimal because various compromises like polygamy, ancestor veneration and animism were retained. It was only natural that the ‘Ethiopian’ Methodists of South Africa linked up with the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Bishop Levi Coppin was sent here as the first ‘Black’ bishop. Their headquarters were in District Six. The missionary drive of 'Ethiopianism' was quite significant. The missionary drive of ‘Ethiopianism’ was quite significant. James Dwane, who was earmarked to be ordained as the first South African bishop of the merged AMEC, reflected on the broad aims of the movement: 'Africa must not be evangelised by Europeans, not even by American ‘Blacks’, but by real Africans.' The desire grew to bring the Gospel to the rest of the continent. A negative tenet of ‘Ethiopianism’ was the tendency to polarise, criticizing everybody who did not join them. Lovedale-trained Elijah Makiwane concluded: 'Those who refuse to join this movement are now called White men or Britons.' There were however also positives moves evolving from Ethiopianism. Indigenous Church Planting from District Six One of the first indigenous church planting movements at the Cape started in District Six. A strong element of 'Coloured' nationalism was present when Rev. Joseph J. Forbes – a former ordained minister of the Methodist Church – started his Volkskerk van Afrika on 14 May 1922, formed as an independent Reformed denomination under his leadership as its first and founding minister. Two separate churches, one in District Six and one in Stellenbosch, led to the establishment of Die Volkskerk van Afrika as a denomination. 26 Rev. Forbes had the courage of his conviction to start a denomination for the upliftment of the poor from the Cape to Cairo, the reason that he gave his church a continental name. The denomination made inroads in geographical areas where the first Cape churches had lost their passion for evangelism. The Volkskerk even started a fellowship in the Moravian mission station Genadendal! Africa Evangelistic Band In 1895 three sisters, May, Emma and Helena Garratt, were invited to preach the gospel message in the Methodist Church at Donegal in Ireland. This historical happening became the start of their lifelong ministry. In 1916 the three sisters decide to sell their home in Ireland and move to South Africa for a year. Shortly after their arrival they became involved with the International Christian Police Association, which they eventually came to consider the ministry closest to their hearts. Over time they became intently aware of the big spiritual need in the South-African countryside. After much prayer and discussion with fellow believers and spiritual leaders, the Africa Evangelistic Band was established in 1924. Eventually the influence of this ministry had an impact in African countries even as far north as Kenya and the Belgian Congo. Within only a few decades the work of the AEB had spread right across South Africa, and the Gospel was being preached with great blessing and lasting effect. Still today the AEB board is characterized by hours spent in prayer before matters are thoroughly discussed and decisions made. Pilgrims discipled new believers and brought life to many spiritually dead churches. The Pilgrims, as the women were called who joined them in their evangelistic ministry, evangelized in pairs. They discipled new believers as they criss-crossed the country and brought life to many spiritually dead churches. Later men also joined the movement. The Pilgrims, however, always operated initially as same sex couples. 27 A Special Bible School In the early part of the 20th century formal theological education in South Africa was only available in the universities. In the 1920s three church leaders, the Rev. Marsh, Rev. Douglas and Rev. Dr J. R. L. Kingon, were concerned with the commitment to Bible teaching in the theological departments of the time. They planned to establish a college where the evangelical doctrines of the Bible would be taught. In 1923, they founded the Bible Institute of South Africa (BI) in Mowbray in the Cape Peninsula. Their intention was to create academic training of a high quality – at a degree level – in order to provide churches in South Africa with men and women equipped to meet the challenge of a post-war world. Immediately prior to World War II the Bible Institute moved to Kalk Bay and has developed into the present campus where the B.Th. programme is accredited by the South African Council on Higher Education. It is interesting that BI had female students from its earliest days. At all mission institutions in the country at that time, including the one in Wellington started by Andrew Murray, one could only find male students. In the picture below (around 1928) of BI students there are more females than males. Another special feature of BI was breaking through the racial barrier quietly. Thus, fishermen from Kalk Bay would be invited to attend lectures. At the night classes Majied Pohplonker, an Indian and former Muslim had not been a Christian very long, when he became eager to learn more, and attended many evening and correspondence classes there in the 1980s. Mainline Church Evangelistic Efforts The mainline churches in the Cape at the end of the 19th century hardly had a vision for evangelism. In fact, to preach biblical conversion was regarded as sectarian. This is borne out by how the mission work of the 28 Anglicans is described by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG): 'The primary aim of the SPG was to save Anglicans from lapsing into paganism, but a subsidiary aim (the author's emphasis) was to convert non-Christians to Anglicanism'. The outreach of the Dutch Reformed Church in District Six by Ds. G.B.A. Gerdener, who served there from 1911 to 1917, was nevertheless quite significant. He had the foresight to stimulate the buying of a building, ‘Uitkoms’ in Virginia Street, District Six, for the discipling of converts from Islam. However, the effect was minimal because the initial purpose was diluted. The building was used for the accommodation of people other than converts from Islam. The lesson was taken to heart at the beginning of the third millennium when various believers from Islam were taught and groomed at the Moriah Discipling House in Mowbray. This building was the product of generous donations from overseas via the ministry of Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ International. Other Protestant churches, apart from a few individuals from these groups, appeared to show little interest in bringing people into a living relationship with God. They were content to keep their flock together and were usually quite satisfied to bring into their fold those from other denominations who were disgruntled for some reason or another. In these churches, conversion became almost a ‘swear’ word. To all intents and purposes bekering (conversion) was confined to a tradition. In subsequent decades it became the vogue to be ‘converted’ at Pentecost, with little or no discipling or follow-up! Of all the mainline churches, the Dutch Reformed Church was nevertheless, in spite of the apartheid albatross, the most active in missions, notably in Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia respectively), Nyasaland (Malawi) and Mozambique. A South African Tale of Two Cities Durban and Cape Town are the cities where interaction occurred as rivalry between the two world religions Islam and Christianity escalated between 1930 and 1961. After the encounter of 13 August 1961 at Green Point, Cape Town, which we treat in more detail elsewhere, the spiritual battle heated up with Imam Ahmed Deedat as the main Islamic propo- 29 nent. He crossed swords in public debate with many an evangelist or Christian apologist in the latter decades of the 20th century. Early Life of Ahmed Deedat The controversial Ahmed Deedat played a role with international ramifications, starting in Durban. Born in 1918, he came to Kwazulu Natal at the age of nine where he became a self-taught scholar of Islam and the Qur'an. Ahmed Deedat was not only well-versed in Islamic studies but also in Christianity, including the Bible. He took a more active interest in religious debate after reading about the efforts of Christian missionaries in India a century earlier. He bought a Bible and held debates and discussions with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to answer. Ahmed Deedat started attending Islamic study classes held by a local Muslim convert named Mr. Fairfax. Seeing the popularity of the classes, Mr. Fairfax offered to teach an extra session on the Bible and how to preach to Christians about Islam. Shortly thereafter, Fairfax had to pull out and Deedat, by this time quite knowledgeable about the Bible, took over teaching the class, which he did for three years. Deedat never formally trained as a Muslim scholar. Beginnings of the Bethesda Movement Meanwhile in Durban, the British-born John A Rowlands, and especially his son John Francis, were making big inroads among Hindus. We highlight their contribution because many Cape Hindu-background Christians have their origins in the Bethesda and Bethshan movements in KZN. Rowlands, a miller from Bristol, and Ebenezer Theophilus, a local Indian trader, were jointly responsible for the beginnings of what later became Bethesda, the largest Christian movement among Indian South Africans. Educated at a Quaker school, J A Rowlands, was a successful businessman who became a devout evangelist. Ebenezer Theophilus owned a fruit stall in the market opposite Rowlands’ Milling Company. A chance meeting led to a lasting friendship between the two. Theophilus was especially drawn to J. A. Rowlands 30 because of Rowlands’ commitment to ‘holiness theology’, with a strong emphasis on abstinence from smoking and drinking, and rejection of every link to ‘worldliness’. At a meeting held on 17 July 1925 in Theophilus’s home The United Pentecostal Mission of Natal (UPM) was established. In 1928 the Rowlands family suffered a sudden financial crisis. On 6 May their seven-storey Natal Milling Company was razed by fire, and they were reduced to an ‘almost penniless position’. Rather than rebuild the business, J A Rowlands hereafter devoted himself almost totally to the work of the mission and formally became its ‘pastor’. His son John Francis Rowlands, was later to become famous and influential and frequently recalled how decisive his family’s financial loss had been for his own ministry. In 1927 Stephen Jeffries, a visiting evangelist, was holding revival campaigns countrywide. His meetings brought new life to many Pentecostal churches in Durban and Pietermaritzburg. John Francis Rowland, who had a small press, was able to edit and print Stephen Jeffries’ Revival News free of charge. He also founded the Pietermaritzburg Tract Distributing Society which distributed millions of tracts. The experience he acquired during this time was vital for the later production of Bethesda’s well-known monthly bulletin, Moving Waters, the first issue of which appeared in January 1940. J F Rowlands’ responsibilities increased from 1928 till 1931. Ebenezer Theophilus never became a pastor but continued his important supportive work as a missionary. Innovations and Zeal in Tandem The young Rowlands brought great innovations and renewed zeal into the work of the mission. ln May 1931 J F Rowlands preached a sermon in which he urged the church to fast and pray for the ‘fire of the Holy Spirit’, complaining that ‘modern society was rather in the supper room than in the upper room... Nowadays there was more fire in the kitchen than in religion’. In August 1931 a ‘breakthrough’ came at last after a bold ‘step of faith’ was taken and the Hindu Young Men’s Association (HYMA) Hall in the lower Church Street was hired for three weeks. A ‘Revival and Healing Campaign’ was advertised, and every member of the mission was given 31 some responsibility at these meetings. J A Rowlands shared the preaching responsibilities with his son in this campaign. J F Rowlands was a preacher of natural ability. The perception that he that a 'White' preacher had a psychological advantage in being considered ‘more learned’ and superior than an Indian preacher probably influenced the decision to promote J F Rowlands rather than Ebenezer Theophilus as the natural successor to J A Rowlands. An Indian weekly recorded how Pastor J F Rowlands sought the will of God: He stepped aside in a certain street to pray behind a little bush that was growing on a piece of vacant land. Two days later, on 17 October 1931, the first Gospel meeting was held at the Durban Corporation Barracks. That is regarded as the beginning of Bethesda. This description was often repeated in the sermons of Bethesda’s pastors and in Moving Waters. Essentially true, it glossed over the roles played by others in the early days of Bethesda, notably that of Rowlands’ father and Brother Ebenezer Theophilus. A new phase of the work began in 1933 when J F Rowlands returned from Bristol to settle permanently in Durban, later joined by his mother and his brother Alec. Both fulfilled important functions in the church’s development. Alec Rowlands, who was later also ordained, acted as personal assistant to his elder brother. Edith Hartland Rowlands, the mother, was not only the driving force behind the sons, neither of whom married, but she also led the women in the church until her death in 1955. Unprecedented Identification With SA Indians J. F. Rowlands achieved a level of identification with the Indian congregation unprecedented for a 'White' man in South Africa. For a time, he was the guest of an Indian family, the Warners. Then he moved into a small room with his Indian co-worker, Frank Victor, where he shared lodging and meals with his Indian helpers. By 1932 the growing congregation had moved into their own meeting hall. In 1933 they embarked on the first of many ‘evangelistic campaigns'. The first campaign started on 1 October 1933, to celebrate the second year of the founding of the church in Durban. This was also the first of many ‘Back-to-the-Bible’ campaigns. The theme is significant because it indicates 32 the basic stance of this young congregation vis-a-vis the traditional Christian churches, calling for a return to ‘biblical precepts on holiness’. Campaign Amid ‘Black-out’ Restrictions The ‘Tenth Anniversary Campaign’ of Bethesda in 1942 was conducted during the time when ‘black-out’ restrictions were imposed in Durban. On 12 October, at the very beginning of the service, the raid siren sounded, and the service continued in ‘pitch darkness’. Reporting on this, the evening newspaper stated: 'Mr Rowlands called for every light in the temple to be put out and the congregation continued the service in darkness, which seemed to accentuate the fragrance from 3000 red roses, which bedecked the altar and rostrum ... for an hour and a half the crowd listened with rapt attention to what was one of the most memorable sermons ever preached.' This gave Bethesda’s members cause to distinguish themselves from other Christians. Their monthly bulletin reported: ‘Other churches closed their doors and the congregation struggled home... but Bethesda carried on.' Rowlands’s sermon on the twelfth night of this ‘Tenth Anniversary Campaign’ was entitled ‘Plug into Pentecost’ in which he stated that in Bethesda, which had been dubbed a ‘mushroom church’, the revival flame has been constantly fanned by persecution, but there has been no looking back. Well smitten by both fanatics and formalists, Bethesda had little difficulty in keeping her sane balance. Bethesda’s twenty-first anniversary in 1952 was another ‘high point’ for its members. The anniversary campaign was preceded by eight days of ‘solemn assembly’ with three services per day. Hundreds gave themselves to ‘intercessory prayer and fasting’. Worship services in Bethesda always ended with a commitment to ‘do something for Christ’. Thus, these campaigns seemed to have roused members to ‘active service’ which led to the expansion of the church, increased lay involvement. This created a sense of general spiritual well-being among its members. 33 Durban Riots of January However, after racial segregation had been formalised at the polls in 1948, one should not be surprised that the arch enemy would try to use the 'Eastern Gate' of the country, that was demonstrating such unprecedented spiritual growth, for an onslaught. On the evening of Thursday, 13 January 1949 ethnic Indians in the centre of the Indian business area of Durban were assaulted by 'Black' Africans. The riots began at Victoria Street in the heartland of the Indian commercial centre. The assailants began to attack individual Indians, stoning vehicles driven by Indians and looting Indian stores while chanting Usuthu!. The violence was initially limited to destruction of property and looting which subdued after a few hours of rioting. An account by a police detective present at the riots states that there was an organized element to the riots within the Zulu community and 'The talk was that the time had come to rid the country of the whites.' The next day, African leaders from Cato Manor organized rioters from workers' hostels and from social networks such as the ingoma dancing troupes and boxing clubs. Taking advantage of the slow police intervention, the assailants attacked the Indian business area with an assortment of improvised weapons, attacking both property and people. Numerous reports suggest that ‘Whites' cheered the African assailants and joined in looting Indian stores. Divinely Wrought Unity The looting event was indicative of Durban as a city of simmering tribal and racial tension. The Zulus had conquered and subjected many other 'Black' tribes in the 19th century and the humiliation and the concentration camps of the Boer War was nowhere forgotten by Afrikaners. Into this tense situation God used William Branham, an American evangelist, a phenomenon in the area of prophetic healing to bridge the racial barriers leaving 'Black' and 'White', English and Afrikaners stunned. Divinely wrought unity became a reality in November 1951. The segregatory way of life was still operating when Jerrell Miller, an American reporter, noted that 'There was still great separation among the races but what God did in a moment's time would be eternal as 45 000 people came to the meetings. God’s power was strongly present when the meetings began with 34 "Only Believe, Only Believe, All Things are possible Only Believe." Person after person was called out by prophecy through a word of knowledge about their condition. Branham mentioned medical practitioners by name, and what people were wearing when they were diagnosed by the doctors. The finest detail was verbalised. A Jewish woman who could not see was called out: 'If you will confess your faith in Jesus Christ you will be healed.' Immediately she dropped to her knees. When she rose, her sight was recovered. A 'White' South African doctor asked Branham: 'I’m their doctor. How did you do that, with hypnotism?' Branham replied: 'You doctors might do that with hypnotism, but this has been done by the power of God!' A Campaign Shared with Nicholas Bhengu Bethesda also shared a campaign with Nicholas Bhengu of the Assemblies of God in which Africans and South African Indians, estranged in the 1949 riots, worshipped together. The Silver Jubilee celebrations in October 1956 were preceded by three large projects which meant ten months of intense activity. The first was a ‘Bethesdascope’ held in the Durban City Hall on 29 January 1955: A prophetic-drama-sermon depicted the way of the church in the Middle Ages by visual means. A Mighty Anglican Move in Durban At this time nobody would have suspected that Nicholas Bhengu would later team up with Anglicans. At St. Faith's mission in Durban when Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu was the curate, a daring young Bill Bendyshe Burnett made contact with him. That Rev. Zulu invited him to preach in his church was not special, but that Burnett reciprocated, inviting him and his youth to join them to form a non-racial youth club, was ground-breaking in the 1940s. A Gigantic Move in Bloemfontein On 27 November 1957 Rev. Bill Burnett, who had been born and bred in the Orange Free State, was installed as Bishop in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Andrew. His sermon at that occasion on John 17:21 could have had the effect of a bomb had there been TV dissemination. 35 In the spiritual realm the sermon’s call for 'unity among men' amounted to warfare. It also was an attack on apartheid, '...the doctrine of race separation. We unite with almost the whole Christendom in rejecting the doctrine as repugnant to the Word of God...' Burnett went on to dream of significant change in the denomination to become indigenous, a church where all South Africans feel at home. He warned against the attempt to preserve British traditions. The expressed vision of the new Bishop of Bloemfontein for the Church is universally valid, also for our time: '... it is her task to cleanse and fructify all culture.' A decade later both Zulu and Burnett were Anglican bishops. Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu became Bishop of Zululand in 1968. Zulu's rise to the office of a bishop was beyond the imagination of many, given the apartheid laws and the persistent racism in Christian institutions, including the Anglican Church at that time. The close friendship forged in Durban may have prepared the way for Burnett and Zulu to be chosen by a synod of Bishops to represent the denomination at the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) plenary occasion in New Delhi in 1961. There Bishop Zulu was elected as one of the six presidents. Many years later, Archbishop Bill Burnett led the charismatic movement in the country with Bishop Alphaeus Zulu and Nicholas Bhengu as his assistants. (The Cape 'Coloured' Ps. Theo Bowers was still a rookie in this illustrious company.) A Maligned Zulu Spiritual Giant Bishop Zulu was to play a pivotal role in the fight against racism in the country, but he was maligned by many through what 'politically correct' folk regarded as his participation in tribalism. A better appraisal is to recognise that he brought politics and religion into a creative tension, when he served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in the Kwazulu Homeland. According to Chief Mangusuthu Buthelezi, Bishop Zulu and President Kaunda of Zambia had been partly responsible for his founding of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), as they had each independently suggested the founding of a uniting body for the people that would help focus the struggle of South Africans at that time. In this view spiritual leaders held politics and religion together in ministry, to bring transformation to both the church and society. In this regard Bishop Zulu was 36 possibly second only to Archbishop Bill Burnett. Bishop Zulu did not see change as the responsibility of members of one race only, but as something that all races must take responsibility for. But he also felt strongly that 'Black' people needed to be more self-reliant. It was this desire to address poverty and to promote self-sufficiency that led Bishop Zulu and Chief Albert Luthuli to found the Natal Bantu Cane Growers' Association in 1934, which enabled families to start small gardens so that they could become self-sufficient. The issue of non-violence featured as the main point of difference between Bishop Zulu and many people of colour. He was a committed pacifist in his approach to conflict, believing that only peaceful means could bring about change in South Africa. From his contact and association with Chief Albert Luthuli, he is said to have been convinced that a peaceful outcome was a possibility. With Luthuli he hoped that when 'Blacks' saw themselves to be the equals of 'Whites', and acted accordingly, 'Whites' would behave as equals themselves'. Bishop Zulu would not accept any form of violence and promoted passive resistance, which accounted for his controversy with the World Council of Churches (WCC). The WCC made a decision to send contributions from its Special Fund to Combat Racism to guerrilla fighters. As one of the six presidents of the WCC, Bishop Zulu opposed these resolutions, supported by Mr. John Rees, the Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches. They argued that the WCC should rather encourage those investments that would help to uplift 'Black' South Africans. They also argued that sending funds to guerrilla fighters would imply support for violence. Some 'White' people held Bishop Zulu in very high esteem. In 1974, when the Anglican Church was considering the election of the Archbishop of Cape Town, Rev. Tim F.D. Bravington, asked him if he could allow his name to be put forward. Part of his letter stated: 'I also believe that you are a wise man and this is a gift which is enhanced by age. I also feel that we need an Archbishop who is more than just a local figure. Your position in the World Council of Churches has, I believe, given you a world vision of the position of your church and it is this sort of vision which I think we need from our Archbishop. You are South African, if I may use this term widely, and I do not think this is the moment for us to look 37 overseas for a new Archbishop. You are also Black and I think this is important for the church in South Africa today. I am White, English born and trained, South African educated and ordained.' Bishop Zulu's Image Restored Bishop Zulu founded the Inkatha Freedom Party with Chief Mangusuthu Buthelezi. This was possibly his Achilles Heel, which would tarnish his image as a spiritual giant. He was a member of the Inkatha central committee and helped to shape it right from its inception. His participation must have triggered the party's commitment to non-violence as stated in its mission statement. The Bishop however, did not consider himself a politician, but saw himself as being there to encourage and help 'Blacks' to achieve their goals. He never aspired to political power and always exercised his wisdom when making political decisions relevant to the suffering people. Bishop Zulu was criticised for what his opponents saw as his 'partisan' politics with the IFP. However, even if he had continued to be a member of the ANC, he would still be identified with 'partisan' politics. His joining the IFP and KwaZulu politics seemed to have alienated him from some people in the church. The IFP was after all an ethnic-based organisation. His affiliation was understandably interpreted as if he was promoting ethnic-based politics. his image was restored years later in the Charismatic Movement when he became co-leader with Pastor Nicholas Benghu under the overall leadership of Archbishop Bill Burnett. A Revival That Impacted the Nation The revival of the Kwasiza Bantu Mission had an international spin-off with mixed race evangelistic teams that sometimes included Lydia Dube, a young woman who was supernaturally raised after she had died in 1973. Erlo Stegen, the leader for many years is a German evangelist had been trained through the Hermannsburg Mission. (It was the founder of the Hermannsburg Mission, Ludwig Harms, who had once the vision in the mid-19th century of African evangelists bringing the gospel back to Europe.) Teams from Kwasiza Bantu ended up serving in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and even in India in the 1970s. In 1986 they 38 were invited to the USA and in 1987 to Australia. In South Africa the mission had various posts including a farm near to Malmesbury in the Western Cape where many drug addicts were rehabilitated. Sadly, reports from disgruntled former residents brought the Kwasiza Bantu into disrepute in the new millennium. Legalism and various forms of abuse, which of course one can find anywhere, hurt the cause of the gospel deeply because the revival among the Zulus in Kwazulu had had such a wide influence for so many decades. 39 CHAPTER THREE CAPE INSPIRATION IMPACTING THE NATION ___________________________ The Cape revival of the 1860s resounded in the Zoutpansberg in Northern Transvaal in the late 1870s, and spread to all sections of the population in that area. The Dutch Reformed Church, however, could not comprehend or adapt to some of the manifestations of that revival. At the end of 1890 and early in the 1900s born again believers were experiencing the baptism with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues, but in various parts of the world Christians had difficulty with this phenomenon. In Protestant churches it was only accepted, often very reticently, at the end of the 20th century, notably via the Alpha movement. A small sector in the Roman Catholic Church latched onto it sooner. The Pentecostal Revival Comes South God used the Africo-American William Seymour at the famous Azusa Street Pentecostal revival to bless the world. It has been reported that William Seymour prayed 5 hours a day for three years and 7 hours a day for two years immediately thereafter. His main prayer request was to be baptized with fire. At the height of the revival, he was praying about 8 hours a day. Ripples of that revival found their way to the Cape via John G. Lake and George Bowie. 40 The South African Assemblies of God dates back to 1908 with the arrival in South Africa of some early Pentecostal missionaries. George Bowie had the vision to evangelise the indigenous inhabitants of South Africa. This vision never faded. The South African Assemblies of God took the preaching of the gospel to many areas in South and Southern Africa, as far north as the Belgian Congo. A great work was also done in the Cape 'Coloured' Community. Many churches were planted, even in rural communities like 'Tiervlei’ (now called Ravensmead) in the northern parts of the expanding city of Cape Town. John G. Lake and his family left the US for South Africa in April 1908. A tremendous revival began with mighty healings, miracles and deliverances, which were to impact the African continent profoundly for years to come. The ‘Black’ church that was started by a missionary couple in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, was soon attended by ‘Whites’ after one of the servants had been healed under the powerful ministry of John Lake. Out of that ministry came the Bree Street Tabernacle in Johannesburg, which became the pristine beginnings of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) Church, led from 1914 to 1943 by Petrus le Roux, a missionary protégé of Andrew Murray in Wellington. The mainline churches gave free publicity to the AFM ministry, by preaching and teaching against it. At that time many a theological institution in Europe and America was teaching that faith healing ceased with the age of the apostles, a doctrine that was also applied at the Cape. The Cape Peninsula and surrounds continued to impact the country significantly. A Cape-Born 'Mr Pentecost' Enters the Picture A Cape-born spiritual giant came through the faith healing ministry at the Bree Street Tabernacle of Johannesburg, David du Plessis. David was born at a place called Twenty-Four Rivers on the Cape West Coast in February 1905 among a community of Christian believers that grew out of the powerful ministry of a Norwegian evangelist. The birth of David du Plessis was the result of prayer. His father wrote that '... Before he was born, his mother and I prayed every day: ‘Lord, give us a son for our first born, and we promise we will bring him up for your service.' 41 After David de Plessis’s father was healed, the family left the Dutch Reformed Church. He declined a serious offer in politics and a lucrative one in business, and became the national secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM, the strongest Pentecostal church in S.A.) in 1936, a post he held until he resigned in 1947. Petrus le Roux was his President until 1943. Almost single-handedly David du Plessis put the denomination on the church map when he started the AFM Bible School with sixteen students. After only a few years, he had trained fifty committed men. In his first year as general secretary of the AFM, David du Plessis organised the itinerary of Smith Wigglesworth and acted as the interpreter in Afrikaans congregations. David was still a young man of thirty at the time when Smith Wigglesworth shared a prophecy that was destined to redirect his life. The prophecy was that this young man from South Africa would be chosen of God to travel to the United States and be a major catalyst for the Charismatic Renewal. David Du Plessis's Ministry Despised The ecumenical work that David Du Plessis became engaged in was not appreciated in his own denomination. He was invited to become the secretary of the Pentecostal World Fellowship in Toronto in 1958. At that occasion he was given the ‘cold shoulder’ and all but pushed out of the Pentecostal movement. Du Plessis felt clearly led to resign from every position that he held, and to follow God wherever He would lead. Sovereignly God over-ruled. In 1959 he was lecturing in the theological institutions of a wide spectrum of denominations. This resulted in Du Plessis being invited to the World Council of Churches (WCC) conference in New Delhi, due to be held in 1961. There he met Professor Bernard Leeming from Oxford, who was the personal representative of Pope John XX111. One thing led to another until Du Plessis wrote from New Delhi that he would make a stopover in Rome. There David du Plessis spent many hours in prayer, 'considering the difficulties that lay ahead for Protestants and Catholics in matters of trust and forgiveness.' The Lord first had to deal with him through His Word. In fact, it came to him through the context of the Lord’s Prayer. ‘...If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 42 passes’ (Matthew 6:15). He said: 'I am certain the Lord spoke to me about the many burdens of unforgiveness and suspicion' between Catholics and Protestants. He concluded: 'The souls of Christians will live when all learn to forgive.' Notwithstanding, du Plessis learned this lesson in his personal life when, shortly after his move to the United States in 1962, the Assemblies of God revoked his ministerial credentials. Increasing International Influence The 1960s and 1970s were years of spreading the Gospel wherever the doors were opened. Around 1963, three clusters of charismatic experience in the UK were identified by Peter Hocken, a British theologian and historian of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Hocken describes them as partly geographical and partly theological-denominational. The visits of Larry Christensen and David Du Plessis at that time stimulated networking between these clusters and helped to give birth to the Fountain Trust under Michael Harper in 1964. Harper subsequently became a major charismatic international shaker. His claim of the charismatic movement as 'the most unifying in Christendom' might have been somewhat exaggerated, but it had some clout and is definitely a tribute to the ministry of David du Plessis. Du Plessis averaged over 100 000 miles of travel each year, ministering to the broadest group of people imaginable, including Anglicans, Presbyterians and Catholics. In 1972, and as a result of Vatican II’s desire to understand the growing Charismatic Renewal going on around the world in Catholic churches, David was crucial in initiating a series of dialogues between the Roman Catholic Church and a team of Pentecostals led by himself. Because he did not belong to any of the formal Pentecostal denominations, he became the ideal person for the job, as there were strained relationships between mainline Pentecostal denominational churches and Catholic churches around the world, especially in South America. As Du Plessis’s influence grew amongst global ecclesiastical representatives, denominational leaders were surprised to meet an impressive and ‘rational Pentecostal,’ while the Pentecostals became very uneasy about his apparent ‘compromises.’ Nevertheless, if Pentecostals didn’t want his 43 ministry, there were many who did. David’s work was slowly accepted by most Pentecostals, although his credentials as a minister were not reinstated until 1979. David du Plessis would later be called ‘Mr Pentecost.’ Into the Vatican and Further In Rome Du Plessis met Dr Strandsky, the secretary of Cardinal Bea, who headed a new Roman Catholic secretariat for promoting church unity. Strandsky had a special charge to learn as much as he could about the Holy Spirit and the Pentecostals. Because David du Plessis was now a ‘mere zero’ in the Pentecostal movement, he was ideally placed to be used at the Vatican. When Cardinal Bea asked him for his personal opinion, God used David du Plessis to minister to millions of Roman Catholics all around the globe. He advised the Vatican to 'make the Bible available to every Catholic in the world ... If Catholics will read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will make that book come alive, and that will change their lives...' This was at a time when Roman Catholics were forbidden to read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Du Plessis opined furthermore that changed Catholics would lead to the renewal of the Church. The words of ‘Mr Pentecost’ turned out to be very prophetic. His contribution in 1964 ushered the charismatic renewal into the Roman Catholic Church. At the Vatican Council it was decided to make the Bible available to every Roman Catholic person in the world. God also used Du Plessis to usher in a thaw in the relationship between Protestants and Roman Catholics worldwide. Empowering the Underdogs In America, a separate denomination had been started in the early 19th century among Afro-Americans because of racial discrimination. Desiring religious autonomy, they formed a new Wesleyan denomination, the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). The AMEC played a significant role in the Cape liberation struggle, by enabling South Africans of colour to study in the USA. Among the very prominent believers who went to study in the USA was the social worker and teacher Charlotte Maxeke who studied at Wilberforce University in Ohio. She grad- 44 uated there in 1905, the first ‘Black’ woman from South Africa to earn a bachelor’s degree. Overseas she married Dr Marshall Maxeke, a fellow South African. After their return to the country the couple impacted many 'Black' South Africans. One of the persons influenced at the Cape by them was Rev. Zaccheus Mahabane. He was to become an influential personality in the African National Congress (ANC) from its early beginnings and for many decades. Charlotte Maxeke founded the women’s league of the ANC. Cape-born Frances Gow returned from the USA with a doctorate. In 1956 he became a bishop in the AMEC denomination, one of the first western-trained bishops on the continent. The AMEC, with its origins among the Africo-Americans of the USA, was a great propagator of the indigenization of the church at the Cape. Under Dr Gow's leadership the denomination expanded rapidly. AME churches were started in different parts of the Peninsula. Blessings From the Northern Hemisphere A significant spiritual influence at the Cape was the Student Christian Movement, led by John Mott, along with the Edinburgh meeting of evangelicals in 1910 that became the forerunner to the World Council of Churches. All this seemed set to spawn worldwide evangelization. Mott spoke at the Huguenot Hall in Orange Street on the outskirts of the City Centre at the beginning of the century. This led to the establishment of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA). The Christelike Studentevereniging (CSV) also played a huge positive role in Afrikaner circles in subsequent decades. A related ministry in the 1920s was the Oxford Group, started by Frank Buchman, a German-born American. Edgar Brookes, a great liberal politician of the apartheid era, described the influence of the Oxford Group as follows: 'Undoubtedly its first impact on South Africa was that of a genuine religious revival, and this made itself felt quite remarkably in the field of race relations.' 45 A New Fire for Evangelism Unexpectedly, the depression of the early 1930s sparked a new fire for evangelism. The start of the Docks Mission is a case in point. When John Crowe listened to an open-air service of the Salvation Army in Adderley Street in the Mother City in 1932 as a young man, he was touched. How happy his prayerful mother was when he told her that he had decided to follow Jesus! The ‘slightly Coloured’ family – as those with a fair complexion from that racial group used to be called – attended the Baptist Church in the Mother City’s Wale Street. Almost immediately the eighteen year old Crowe wanted to share the Gospel with other people in the neighbourhood of Roggebaai, near to Three Anchor Bay where Jan van Riebeeck landed on April 6, 1652 with his fleet of three ships. John Crowe soon struck up a partnership with his namesake, John Johnson, and they became involved in open-air services at different places. Later they were especially active on the Grand Parade, the big square in the City Centre where military parades were conducted in earlier days, and where various political groups and others had open air meetings. When people started committing their lives to Jesus through their ministry, the young men asked for permission to conduct meetings in one of the railway cottages. Starting their outreach in the Dockyard, the Docks Mission operated from the ‘Tin Shanty’, a wood and iron structure. From its earliest years prayer and fasting was a custom of the Docks Mission. People of Colour as Missionaries At the ‘Tin Shanty,’ many Friday nights were used for an all-night prayer meeting. No wonder God gave the new denomination, the Docks Mission, phenomenal growth. On the third Saturday of every month, a combined prayer meeting was soon held in their Gleemoor sanctuary. Later these combined prayer meetings rotated to the other branches. From its earliest years, prayer and fasting belonged to the habits of the Docks Mission. New Docks Mission fellowships started on Brown's Farm (Ottery) and Factreton Estate, a new housing scheme, and also further 46 afield in Wellington and Grabouw. In due course, they conducted gospel meetings in the Community Centre of the Bloemhof Flats in Constitution Street, District Six and in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) building in Chiapinni Street, Bo-Kaap. From their early beginnings the Docks Mission also started with outreach at the prison in Tokai and at the nearby Porter Reformatory. Many lives were changed through this ministry and at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital where services were held for many years till the hospital authorities closed them, for fear of TB infection being spread. After the services at the ‘Tin Shanty’ on Sundays, some members went to Somerset Hospital to pray with nurses there. Cape Inspiration for Operation World The family of Hans von Staden, the founder and Director of the Dorothea Mission, moved to Stellenbosch in 1920. The writings of Dr Andrew Murray, especially The Key to the Missionary Problem, was to have a profound influence on young Hans. In 1942 he experienced God’s call to his lifework, the founding of the Dorothea Mission. He wrote: ‘I discerned His commission: we were to dedicate our lives to the evangelization of the people in the dark city townships of South Africa’. Soon he had a band of evangelists who pitched a tent for evangelistic purposes in many a 'Black' location. One of the converts was Shadrach Maloka, a gangster, who later became a powerful preacher himself. He was used by God in Canada, Germany and Holland. Also preaching in Afrikaans, Shadrach Maloka was one of the few 'Black' preachers to whom Afrikaners would come and listen in the apartheid era. South African Roots of the Global Prayer Movement At the end of the booklet The Key to the Missionary Problem, Andrew Murray advocated the observing of 'Weeks of Prayer for the World'. Patrick Johnstone comments: 'So far as I know this was not taken up earnestly until 1962 when Hans von Staden, the Founder and Director of the Dorothea Mission inspired the launching of a whole series of Weeks of Prayer for the World in both Southern Africa and Europe.' It was the Weeks of Prayer that made the provision of prayer information so important. They led to 47 Von Staden's challenge to Patrick Johnstone to write a booklet of information to help in these Weeks of Prayer. Hans von Staden also proposed the name Operation World in 1964. The very first booklet, with basic information which covered 30 countries, was printed by the Dutch missionary Cees Lugthardt at the presses of the Dorothea Mission in Pretoria. In Johnstone's own words: 'So the book was South African-born, but then went global.’ Operation World has been published in whole or in part, in many languages. It became clear over the ensuing years that a highly significant element contributing to revival is targeted prayer. This principle and some powerful examples of this in the nation will be expounded upon in more detail in Chapters 29 and 31. Other Elements of Revival: Praise, Worship and Fasting A Bible verse quoted quite often is Zechariah 4:6, Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty. This is basic to revival, but it is unfortunate that the context is usually not considered when the verse is quoted. Other basic principles are contained in this prophecy (Zechariah 4), namely that of the power of the weak and the ‘few' were involved in the erection of the temple. Shouts of thanksgiving declare that all was done by grace alone (v.6-8). Praise is used in the Word a few times in the attacks on God’s enemies. Probably the most well-known of them is Joshua and the seven trumpets. The gathering marched around Jericho, culminating in the united shout after the seventh time on the seventh day. Note the repetition of the number seven, the biblical number for completion and perfection. Sometimes fasting, prostrating worship and praise occur in close proximity in Scripture (e.g. Nehemiah 9:1, 4; 2 Chronicles 20:3ff). Similarly, King Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20) did the militarily unorthodox thing to let praise singers and musicians lead the army. That ushered in the supernatural intervention that gave the Israelites the victory over the mighty Assyrians. Fasting as a tool in spiritual warfare lost its initial purpose to some extent. It was either completely neglected, or it became an ‘effort’ to earn God’s favour like fasting during Lent. Jesus himself fasted and prayed 48 for forty days and nights before He started His ministry (Matthew 4:2). When His opponents pointed to the fact that His disciples were not fasting, the Master did not dismiss the feasibility of it. He merely stated that the disciples would be doing it when he, the Bridegroom, will have left (Matthew 9:15). Jesus did, however, attack fasting as an outward show to impress others (Matthew 6:16; Luke 18:12). The Master was operating fully in line with teaching in the Hebrew Scriptures, where we read for example that God rejects fasting when those who are fasting are living in luxury, evil pleasures and oppress (underpay?) their workers (Isaiah 58:3). The Old Testament teaches just as clearly that fasting can be a sign of penitence (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Jonah 3:5; Daniel 6:18; Joel 2:15). It was also used as a weapon in fighting the enemy (Esther 4:16). The Master, furthermore, highlighted prayer and fasting as the only way to handle difficult matters: “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:21) All three of these prayer elements, praise, worship and fasting, were employed profitably in early 20th century ventures at the Cape. 49 CHAPTER FOUR VARYING AT TITUDES TOWARDS INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION ___________________________ The ‘Anglo-Boer’ (1899-1902) War indirectly influenced the situation at the Cape. Because of the war and the run-up to it, many refugees streamed to the Cape from the interior. The population of the Mother City more than doubled from 79 000 in 1891 to 174 000 in 1900). An influx of 'Whites' to the Mother City significantly diminished the proportion of Muslims. Additionally, the Mother City had already become completely cosmopolitan. Already in the 18th century this was immediately apparent to visitors. ‘In the coins of their change they could receive Dutch guilders, German schellings, Spanish reals, ... Colombo fanum, East Indian rupees, Javanese bronze, or Arabian piastres’. In 1838 a German visitor commented: ‘there are probably few cities in the world which, within so narrow a space, could show a greater variety of nations than Cape Town does’. 'Black' Leaders in Costly Reconciliation Generations of political leaders in South Africa, particularly among the first ones of the ANC, drew on Christian values for the building of a broader political unity. Coming from the African background of an understanding of our broad humanity, ubuntu, there was, they believed, an ethical imperative to move beyond narrow identities of family, clan and race. In contrast, the thinking of 'White' and 'Coloured' churches was bedevilled by the neat separation of politics and religion. Long before their denominations embraced any concept of ubuntu 'Black' South Africans had already discerned the importance of the unity in Christ. 50 A Catalyst for Peace and Reconciliation Over the years, the Church in South Africa has been a major catalyst for peace and reconciliation. Strong personalities, like Reverend John Langalibalele and Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, played a moderating and conciliatory role in the early days of the ANC. Successive 'White' governments failed to appreciate this gold-mine of human resources, by not listening properly to 'Black' Church leaders. One of the ANC pioneers at the Cape was Rev. Zaccheus Richard Mahabane, a Methodist minister, who was posted to Cape Town in 1916. He joined the Cape African Congress in 1917 after hearing political speeches of Charlotte Maxeke and her husband. In 1919 Mahabane became president of the Cape African Congress. In 1924 he was elected president-general of the national ANC and again from 1937 to 1940. He voiced his opinion in 1925 that 'the universal acknowledgement of Christ as common Lord and King breaks down the social, spiritual and intellectual barriers between the races.' Richard Mahabane propagated moderate conciliatory views of compromise. For example, he accepted that a separate voters’ roll for 'Blacks' was acceptable if 'Whites' found the prospect of a common roll too menacing. Richard Mahabane propagated moderate conciliatory view of compromise. A Hub of Resistance of the Oppressed Notwithstanding the moderate voices of reason, the decade after 1935 has been described ‘a renaissance in the history of struggle by the oppressed in South Africa after the 'dark years' of the early 1930s’. A thrust started with opposition to the three ‘Native Bills’ which spontaneously united 51 non-'White' people. The Bills intended to remove 'Black' South Africans from the common voters’ roll in the Cape, entrenching segregation. District Six became the national hub of resistance. District Six became the national hub of resistance in the struggle against racist oppression. It was the cradle of 'a national solution for all of South Africa and the structures and ideas upon which a truly national liberation movement came to be based.' The National Liberation League (NLL) was started there in 1935 with Cissy Gool, the daughter of Dr Abdurahman, President of the African People’s Organisation (APO), a readymade leader. The NLL became one of the main forces in the All African Convention, which met from 15-18 December 1935. The All African Convention prepared the ground for the Non-European Unity Front (NEUF) and the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM). The Non-European Unity Front (NEUF) was officially launched in January 1939, with Cissy Gool as President. The NEUF can be regarded as the forerunner of the UDF of the 1980s. On 27 March 1939, twenty thousand people gathered on the Grand Parade for a rally of the NEUF, the biggest demonstration of opposition to the government that the Mother City had seen up to that moment. In a moving ceremony Cissy Gool lit a torch which was passed on to the masses, who likewise had torches. The NLL anthem, which was written by James La Guma and Johnny Gomas, was sung as the crowd marched to parliament, led by the Moravian Hill Brass band, an adaptation of an old English working class song: Dark folks arise, the long, long night is over… and the DAY is here. The Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), which was founded in 1943 was also a major vehicle of protest. It had the Teachers’ League of South Africa (TLSA) as one of the most influential affiliates. Teachers had taken the lead countrywide in the resistance to the oppressive government, due to the influence of Genadendal, along with the mission and church schools which fanned out from District Six. 52 The Freedom Charter of the ANC was like an imitation of the Ten Point Plan of the Unity Movement. A good example of the influence of the resistance movement in District Six was how the Freedom Charter of the ANC of Kliptown in 1955 was 'nothing but an imitation in many respects of the Ten Point Plan of the Unity Movement', on which (later professor) Z.K. Matthews and Lionel Bernstein could build in 1955. There is indeed great similarity between the Freedom Charter and the People’s Charter of June 1948. Indifference of the Church To the shame of the Church the disenfranchisement of 'Blacks' finally came about in 1936, after General Hertzog, the contemporary Prime Minister, had consulted the churches ten years earlier. The Church seems to have been silent by and large at this time. Some new life was seen when the World Council of Churches was started in Amsterdam in 1948. However, by the 1950s its effect had faded and no clear biblical guidance was forthcoming from the church leaders. Ds. Nicol, in his inaugural address at the formation of the Christian Council in Bloemfontein in 1936, bemoaned the fact that self-interest was predominant in the churches. Even the missionaries were silent, and were not standing up for the rights of the oppressed. There was no clear Biblical guidance from church leaders. In respect of education the churches presented a poor image in the 1930s as well. Ds. Nicol asked with regard to the education of 'Blacks' whether the churches were trying to try to outwit each other and thus damage the issue at hand. He suggested naturelle-opvoeding (education of natives) as a matter of the highest priority; that the Church should not be afraid to tackle such matters urgently. But Ds. Nicol’s call was like the proverbial voice in the wilderness. Dr Abdurahman might have been a bit harsh on missionaries regarding 53 land settlements, describing them as ‘tax-gatherers of the meanest type, because they worked under the cloak of religion’. This terminology was ironically favoured in the apartheid era for critics of the clergy. Prime Minister Vorster used a standard letter in which he expressed respect for concerned Christians, but that he despised people who ‘practised politics under the cloak of religion’. The fact was, however, that the churches accepted land from the government too uncritically. Dr Abdurahman might also have been a touch too sarcastic with his lashing of the Dutch Reformed predikant (minister), asserting that it was the DRC's aim to make the ‘Coloured’ man travel in a different compartment on his journey to heaven. He was alluding of course to the apartheid practice of train compartments for the respective races. Yet, his use of nigra sed formosa (black but beautiful) – an adaptation of Song of Solomon 1:4 – was too radical for many people of colour. Even as late as the 1970s many ‘Coloured’ people – after all the years of racist indoctrination – still had difficulty in appreciating the slogan ‘black is beautiful’. The Dismal End of a Great Politician Because of his membership of the City Council, Dr Abdurahman was very much involved with the building of the Schotsche Kloof Flats in BoKaap from 1937. He was highly honoured by Muslims at this time and for quite a few years thereafter. These flats gave Bo-Kaap its Islamic stamp. Before that it was very much a predominantly Christian residential area. Via apartheid it later became an Islamic suburb officially. Through Dr Abdurahman's participation in the Commission of Enquiry regarding the Cape ‘Coloured’ population, however, he became tainted politically. He was suspected of trying to obtain respectability in the eyes of 'Whites' in an unprincipled way. Dr Abdurahman could have regained some credibility via a minority dissenting voice. The findings and recommendations of that group turned out to be a blueprint for petty apartheid legislation. One could find measures there like job reservation, designated residential areas and housing schemes in which 'Coloureds' would be separated from 'Blacks'. The Schotsche Kloof Flats now stand there not as a proud monument of Abdurahman’s efforts for the Cape Muslims in Bo-Kaap, but as an 54 indictment, a sad reminder of a great politician with a dismal end to his career – a man who started off fighting for the rights of all oppressed people, but who ended as a collaborator with segregation politics. Paternalism as an Evangelistic Hurdle Missionaries whose lives had been transformed through personal faith and conversion, often expected that this would also happen in society at large automatically – if the Gospel would only be effectively preached. Satan hit back, when an artificial and unbiblical differentiation between Christian action and evangelistic outreach caused an ever-widening rift in the Church. Although the prominent South African proponents of the ‘Social Gospel’ embraced education, social work and politics, they very rarely suggested these as replacements of evangelism. However, they were all too often accused in this way by right-wing evangelicals. An academic of the 1930s accurately described a liberal failing that was too often overlooked: 'The greatest moral danger in the heart of the liberal spirit is that it is so apt to become paternalistic and condescending'. For 'Blacks', the discussion was academic, because as Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, a 'Black' Christian leader, stated: 'the secular-sacred dichotomy was foreign to their African cosmology'. 55 CHAPTER FIVE EARLY 20 TH CENTURY CHRISTIAN IMPACT ON ISLAM ___________________________ At the beginning of the 20th century there was hardly any outreach to Muslims. The Anglican Church was involved in a low-key way, notably at the St Paul's parish in Bree Street. The clarion call of Rev. Thomas Lightfoot, Anglican pastor of St Paul's Anglican Church in Bo-Kaap at the beginning of the 20th century, saying ‘...whether the time has not arrived when special efforts ought to be made by competent champions of the Christian faith to present the claims of that faith in an effective way to the attention of these more cultured Moslims...’, has by and large gone unheeded. Prayer Assistance From Abroad Possibly the first person to put Islam in South Africa on the map was the so-called ‘Apostle to Islam’, Dr Samuel Zwemer. Most maps showing the spread of Islam in the world ignored South Africa altogether. This is hardly surprising for Muslims are still a tiny minority in this country. Yet, when Zwemer wrote his book Mohammed or Christ in 1916, he devoted a whole chapter to Islam in South Africa. In 1929, when he wrote his book Across the World of Islam, he devoted another whole chapter to the same subject. One of the chapters in this book was simply titled Islam in North Africa and the next Islam in South Africa. 56 During a visit to the country in 1926 Zwemer saw great opportunities for developing sound friendships between Christians and Muslims summarizing his impressions very forcibly as follows: The Moslems of South Africa are accessible and live in the midst of Christian communities. They are approachable and responsive to kindness to a remarkable degree. Many of them are strangers in a strange land and hungry for friendship. Help from abroad was needed and it came as an answer to prayer. In England prayers had been offered for many years. These prayers for the ‘Cape Malays’ – as the Cape Muslims were erroneously called – came into focus after the publication of an article about South African Muslims in 1925 in the Muslim World, by Dr Samuel Zwemer, who was arguably the greatest missionary of all time to the Middle East. It seems that his challenge to the Keswick Convention in England about ten years earlier also sparked prayer for the Cape Muslims. This intercession was mentioned to the German missionary Gerhard Nehls by Lionel Gurney, the Director of the Red Sea Mission at the time when Nehls and his family had left Johannesburg because of health reasons in the 1970s. Gerhard Nehls later became a pioneer in the resumption of significant outreach to Cape Muslims from 1980. Islam on its Last Legs? The depression of the 1930s affected every part of society. By the end of the 1940s, Cape Islam appeared to be on its last legs yet again, all but finished. The proposed Coloured Affairs Council split the Bo-Kaap community down the middle, the Muslims included. Cissy Gool – the daughter of Dr Abdurahman, the dynamic politician who died in 1940 – stood firmly for no compromise with anything that reeked like racial segregation. Even before its official inauguration in government in 1948, the apartheid ideology had started to divide and rule. Even before its official inauguration in 1948, apartheid ideology had started to divide and rule. 57 The respective governments manipulated with the qualified franchise: education and other barriers had been used to suppress people of colour. The formation of the Coloured Affairs Council (Department) in 1943 was the brainchild of Harry Lawrence, a cabinet Minister of Jan Smuts. Islamic Reprieve Through Apartheid Apartheid became the agent through which Islam was reprieved. Dr I.D. du Plessis, the director of the ‘Coloured’ Affairs Department (C.A.D.) from 1952-62, had a soft spot for the ‘Malays’, as he preferred to call the Cape Muslims. Du Plessis really had a love for the Muslims, but he was trapped by his Afrikaner background and the developing apartheid ideology. His emphasis on ethnicity was bound to backfire. The suggestion to give the blame for the deterioration of the picturesque original ‘Malay Quarter’ to those who had moved in, namely to the ‘natives and others who are not Malays’, was racist at its core. This was not surprising in the light of Du Plessis’s upbringing. In his biased thinking the ‘Malays’ were the good guys and the 'Blacks' the bad ones. Nevertheless, Du Plessis initiated practical concern for the deteriorating historical houses of the 'Malay Quarter'. He probably also used his influence as the first Director of the 'Coloured' Affairs Department and as a member of the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond – to the embarrassment of anti-apartheid fighters among the ranks of Cape Muslims. For one, Du Plessis had the likes of influential no-compromise politicians like Cissy Gool – the daughter of the renowned Dr Abdurahman – against him in opposition. A much bigger geographical area was finally allocated to Cape Muslims than the original 'Malay Quarter' when the Group Areas Act was implemented for the old Bo-Kaap. Christianity, Judaism and Islam co-existed next to each other amicably. Christianity, Judaism and Islam co-existed next to each other fairly amicably in the 20th century at the Cape till the advent of apartheid’s Group Areas legislation. This was notably the case in District Six. The synagogues best known were those in Buitenkant, Constitution, 58 Roeland and Van der Leur Streets and two in nearby Vredehoek. Even today many Muslims are still working with and for Jews without any feelings of rancour, although isolated radical elements within the Muslim community did try to stir up anti-Jewish sentiments from time to time, for example when discrimination towards the Palestinians in Israel tarnished the image of Zionism towards the end of the 20th century. This fed the propaganda of anti-Zionist critics who would ultimately even refer to Israel maliciously as an Apartheid state. Disastrous Racist Separatist Thinking The focus of so many church leaders on the government’s apartheid policy of yesteryear was either in defense of it or in opposition to it. Correction was definitely needed. Even the evangelical churches had no eye for the Muslims in their midst. The unspoken rule that one should not speak to Muslims about religion, won the day. It was in this regard that help from abroad was surely an answer to prayer. 59 CHAPTER SIX ISOLATED SEEDS OF INTEGRATION ___________________________ The almost classical guilt – going right through to the present – derives from the refusal of the Church to listen to the warnings and advice of prophetic voices, especially with regard to outreach to Jews and Muslims. Although people like Dr J. M. Arnold had already in the last quarter of the 19th century spelled out the need for the Church to give its best people for evangelism among Muslims, this call was not heeded. In general, the Church authorities persisted in looking for people who could achieve quick results. A notable exception was the Dutch Reformed Ds. Davie Pypers, who persevered for many years to reach out to South African Indians in the second half of the 20th century. Cape Prophetic Voices With regard to racial segregation, the warning voices of theological professors Barend B. Keet and Ben Marais should be added. At the Dutch Reformed Church synod of 1940 Prof. Marais warned his denomination not to accept apartheid because it was scripturally unjustifiable. However, he was side-lined. Prof. Keet, who was at some time heading the Kweekskool, the Theological Seminary in Stellenbosch, was at it again in 1956 with his 60 book Wither South Africa? warning that ‘the test of our civilisation is our treatment of the underprivileged. Everything which bears the stamp of oppression debases the oppressor just as it degrades the oppressed’. The young student Beyers Naudé was deeply influenced by Professor Keet who was firmly opposed to the growing racist theology in the DRC. Writing in the Kerkbode, Keet frequently clashed with theologians who claimed that apartheid could be justified on biblical grounds. Prayerfulness of the Defiance Campaign The deep religiosity and prayerfulness of the Defiance Campaign of the early 1950s has been described by the historian Tom Lodge as a 'mood of religious fervour [that] infused the resistance.' He went on to note: 'When the [Defiance] Campaign opened, it was accompanied by days of prayer, and volunteers pledged themselves at prayer meetings to a code of love, discipline and cleanliness… and even at the tense climax of the campaign in Port Elizabeth people were enjoined on the first day of the strike to conduct a prayer and a fast in which each member of the family had to be at home.' 'White' Supremacy Taken for Granted Much of the disunity between churches in the 20th century centered around paternalism. The 'White'-dominated English-speaking Church spokesmen gave the impression that the other races only needed equality of opportunity, which the 'Whites' owed to the others. Afrikaners generally thought themselves more or less called to be the guardians of the non-'White' races. 'White' supremacy was, thus, taken for granted by both groups. Both groups were unaware that they were hurting themselves by denying dignity to others and thus seriously hindering the cause of the Gospel. Even among missionaries, full equality of all races, and possible total integration, were dragged and postponed to a distant future. Full equality and total integration of all people was postponed. Nobody put the thinking of Afrikaner Christians at this time more 61 clearly than Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid. It was his conviction that the 'Black' man had to be kept in his place, in subjection and servitude. Somehow the teaching that unity is foundational for effective prayer, did not penetrate into the churches. That does not mean though that the message was not verbalised at all. Donald Fraser, a former Scottish missionary, preached in twenty-six South African towns and cities in 1925 during the United Missionary Campaign. He invited 'Whites' to abandon their fears of a so- called 'Black menace,' claiming wisely that, there is 'no menace when people are determined to do justice to one another.' Nicholas Bhengu – A Rising Star This book concentrates on revival-related events at the Cape. Some exceptions are those occurrences which had a national impact. The Assemblies of God (AoG) denomination began to cooperate in part because of the need for fellowship and partly because of the governmental objection to having dealings with a multitude of independent missionaries. Nicholas Bhengu was one of the most successful twentieth-century Pentecostal church leaders in South Africa. He was born on 5 September 1909 at Entumeni, KwaZulu-Natal, where his father was a pastor of the American Lutheran Mission. He received his early education at the mission school but later attended two Roman Catholic schools, at Inkumama and Mariannhill respectively. When Bhengu completed his schooling, he was employed in various capacities: as a clerk, a teacher, a health inspector and a court interpreter. For a while he involved himself in the struggle for African advancement when he became a member of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union and worked in their Durban offices. He later moved to Kimberley where he joined the Communist Party. When Bhengu was about 21 years old, he was converted at a Full Gospel campaign in Kimberley. Soon after his conversion Bhengu returned to Natal where, from 1931, he served under the auspices of the Full Gospel Church. From 1934 to 1936 he attended the South African General Mission Bible School at Dumisa (today’s Union Bible Institute, Sweetwaters). 62 In 1937 Bhengu, who was at that time a court interpreter, answered an advertisement in a Zulu magazine Ubaqa for a teacher at Emmanuel Mission near Nelspruit. He was ordained into the ministry at the Emmanuel Mission. A number of people from the mission, among them Bhengu, later joined the Assemblies of God. Two friends of Bhengu joined him at the mission and the men had a fruitful ministry at Nelspruit. Here they did not serve as helpers of the missionary H.C. Phillips but, significantly for that era, as ministers in their own branch of the work. Their ministry was characterized by an ‘independence of mind, a sense of dignity and self-confidence’. Nicholas Bhengu became a leader in the Assemblies of God (AoG). Because of Bhengu the AoG did not become a segregated church like some of the other Pentecostal churches. In 1940 Bhengu became a member of the first multi-racial executive council. From 1945 he served in the Eastern Cape, mainly in Port Elizabeth and East London. He opened the Pilgrim Bible School in Port Elizabeth in 1950 and held revival meetings in various Eastern Cape towns. However, it is for Bhengu‘s ‘Back to God Crusades’ that he is best remembered. In October 1950 he launched his first campaign in Duncan Village, East London. With its highly organized publicity, its equipment and highly trained personnel, the ‘tent ministry’ was a new experience for 'Black' people. Thousands attended the services, some to hear the preacher, some in search of healing and many out of curiosity. Bhengu was a successful evangelist and thousands of people were converted. Lives were changed and by May 1951 there was a clearly defined congregation. From 1952 Bhengu decided to concentrate on the congregation in East London. On Sunday 27 October 1957 a church, 63 built with the sacrificial contributions of thousands of 'Black' people, was opened in East London. By 1959 there were 50 assemblies that had been started through the ministry of Bhengu. He himself retained some control over the new churches and continued to work as an evangelist in the expanding work until his death in 1985. These wholly 'Black' churches were ‘autonomous, self-governing, self-supporting and especially self-propagating’. Leadership Change of a Denomination By 1936 the AoG, just like many other denominations, was predominantly a 'Black' church with the control in the hands of expatriate missionaries. The AoG conference in 1938 adopted a radical and unprecedented policy which opened the way for missionary bodies to come under the umbrella of the AoG in SA. It entrenched the concept of a church body consisting of groups cooperating within a single movement, but not having to sever ties with their respective mission boards. This prompted H.C. Phillips and the Emmanuel Mission to join the AoG, thereby bringing Nicholas Bhengu and James Mullan into the group. The new policy also permitted people within the AoG to branch out and establish groups of their own, which were still affiliated to the AoG in the country. Mullan and Bhengu subsequently planned to form a partnership, with the aim of going to parts of South Africa where there were no AoG churches or missionaries. Their agreement was a Peter-Paul arrangement (i.e. Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles) with Bhengu going to the 'Blacks' and Mullan to the 'Whites'. The AoG had been a predominantly 'Black' church under expatriate patronage until the advent of Jim Mullan and Nicholas Bhengu. Thereafter it developed a significant 'White' membership. Its 'Black' members came to operate under 'Black' leadership rather than expatriate 'Whites'. During the period 1936-1944 the AoG executive became multiracial. This was a major breakthrough for non-racialism in the country, albeit that the influence was limited. Until that time, the executive had consisted of expatriate 'White' missionaries. 64 Mullan and Bhengu in Concert Irishman James (Jim) Mullan served with his wife, the English Mary Paynter, as missionaries in the Congo under the renowned pioneer missionary and Bible teacher William F.P. Burton. James and Mary Mullan left the Congo in 1935 to join Hubert Phillips at the Emanuel Mission in Nelspruit. From there they were sent to Tzaneen where they spent 9 years of ministry. During this time James established a few churches amongst the 'Black' people, and also 2 amongst the 'Whites', one at Tzaneen and another at Pietersburg. In the 1940s James Mullan arranged a campaign in Port Elizabeth for Bhengu. Miracles of healing took place through his ministry. Crowds flocked in and 1000 conversions were recorded in a few weeks. Bhengu announced that he intended starting a church and invited those who wished to join, to stay with him. The others he urged to return to their churches. About 500 stayed and were formed into 3 congregations in different areas in PE. Bhengu's work grew dramatically with thousands of people being converted in a very short space of time. His meetings were characterized by power, both in preaching and healing, attracting thousands. In 1957 a church in the shape of a cross and seating between 4000 to 5000 was opened in Duncan Village, East London, internationally one of the first megachurches. Even the international media were interested in Bhengu. TIME magazine of 23 November 1959 calling him "the black Billy Graham" and stating that his ministry resulted in the crime rate dropping by as much as a third in some areas. At one meeting the police took away 3 van loads of stolen goods and weapons that people surrendered when they came to Christ. The TIME article states, 'it is not unusual for Evangelist Bhengu to end up by walking down to the police station hand in hand with someone on the wanted list.' On one occasion more than 1000 people were baptised in the Buffalo River in East London. In 1944, after his historic agreement with Bhengu, Jim Mullan moved to Port Elizabeth, living in a caravan with his wife and children. Without support or contacts, he founded an assembly. After 5 years Jim Mullan moved to East London, and planted an assembly there, which later grew 65 to over 300 people under the ministry of Paul Lange. Thereafter he travelled the country, going as far north as Zambia. Between 1945 and 1964 he established some 20 Assemblies that stretched from Cape Town to Zambia and Zimbabwe. 66 67 CHAPTER SEVEN INFLUENCE OF PRAYER DURING T WO WORLD WARS ___________________________ Influences of Prayer on World War I During World War I it seemed as if England was on the losing side in 1916. Then, along came Chaim Weizmann, a Jewish scientist, with the offer of his newly developed explosive TNT. He was willing to give Britain the formula in exchange for a promise that they would help liberate Israel from the Arabs and Turks who were living there and if Jews would be allowed to return to Israel. The Balfour Declaration was signed and General Allenby, a committed Christian, was sent to Israel to liberate the country. Possession of TNT tilted the World War in favour of the Western allies. It was reported that General Allenby asked God to enable him to drive off the Arabs and Turks without bloodshed. God answered his prayer. When Allenby’s troops marched into Jerusalem, the panic-stricken Arabs and Turks sent a delegation to negotiate their surrender. Without a single shot fired, he took over the land. Israel came under a British mandate on 24 July 1922 and the birth of the new nation Israel became a fact. The return of Jews to the Promised Land ushered in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. However, the final liberation of Israel had to wait for more than a quarter of a century. The Jewish nation had to go through the crucible once again before this came into being. It is a sad irony that the Nazi holocaust sped up the formation of the Jewish state like no other event in history! 68 Concurrently, Christians worldwide were now challenged in a new way to look at biblical prophecies. Profound Influence of Prayer in World War II The influence of prayer on World History was perhaps never recorded better than the intercession of the Welshman, Mr Rees Howells, before and during World War II. It can be said quite firmly that God used him to avert a worldwide demonic Nazi takeover by Adolf Hitler. Already in March 1936 Howells began to see clearly that Hitler was ‘Satan’s agent for preventing the Gospel going to every creature’. In the four years prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Lord shifted the burden on Howells from local concerns to national and international affairs. As Howells testified, he and the group of intercessors linked to the Bible College in Swansea, Wales ‘... were led to be responsible to intercede for countries and nations’. The strategic prayer offered, led from Swansea, effectively opposed the progress of Hitler during World War II. ‘There was no hope for Tommy, humanly speaking’, when King George VI decreed a day of prayer throughout the British Empire. Also at the Cape, Christians were praying for divine intervention. What was the result? Hitler was supernaturally stopped at Dunkirk in a way that reads like a repetition of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. A storm came up on the side of the Germans while on the British side of the English Channel it was ‘like glass’. And what about the aerial crisis in the battle of Britain in September 1940? Norman Grubb painted the scenery in his book Reece Howells, Intercessor: 'Mr. Churchill, in his War Memoirs, gives September 15 as 'the culminating date' in that Battle of the Air. He tells how he visited the operations room of the R.A.F. that day and watched as the enemy squadrons poured over and ours went up to meet them, until the moment came when he asked the Air Marshal, "What other reserves have we?" "There are none," he answered, and reported afterwards how grave Mr. Churchill looked, "and well I might," added Mr. Churchill. Then another 69 five minutes passed, and "it appeared that the enemy were going home. The shifting of the discs on the table showed a continuous eastward movement of German bombers and fighters. No new attack appeared. In another ten minutes the action was ended." There seemed no reason why the Luftwaffe should have turned for home, just at the moment when victory was in their grasp. But we know why. After the war, Air Chief Marshal Lord, Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, made this significant comment: "Even during the battle one realized from day to day how much external support was coming in. At the end of the battle one had the sort of feeling that there had been some special divine intervention to alter some sequence of events which would otherwise have occurred." Was it mere co-incidence that Hitler repeated Napoleon’s mistake to take on the Russians during winter, ushering in his own demise? Or was it much rather divine intervention once again? Rees Howells concluded: ‘God laid bare His holy arm and wrought as He alone can’. Through all the years of the war, the whole college in Swansea, Wales, was in prayer every evening from seven o'clock to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper. They never missed a day. This was in addition to an hour's prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday. There were many special periods when every day was given up wholly to prayer and fasting. Prophetically, Rees Howells had predicted, concerning Joseph Stalin, that ‘the devil may yet use this man to be the greatest foe to the Church that the world has ever known’. These results of sustained prayer only came to the surface in recent years – much less than the efforts of the Moravians in the 18th Century. Stalin in Russia and Mao Zedong in China were yet to stage major offensives against Christianity, although the deportation of missionaries and the persecution of Christians in China combined ironically to start an unprecedented church growth in the 1970s. This was the result of fervent prayer by followers of Jesus around the globe, not least of all in China itself. Prayer indirectly saved the Cape from coming under Hitler’s dictatorship. The ‘Greyshirts’ had already disseminated Nazi propaganda in the Mother City. 70 Lack of Political Prophetic Action Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, the namesake of Onze Jan of the 19th century and a devout Christian linked to the Cape Town Baptist Church in Wale Street (which later moved to Orange Street), became an increasing voice in the wilderness after World War II. In March 1946 Hofmeyr, as the understudy of Smuts who was poised to be the next Prime Minister, warned that the struggle for freedom is a continuing one, calling for 'unwearying devotion and eternal vigilance.' He went on to point out that racial prejudice made South Africans 'victims of the anti-Semitic doctrines… that we have fought to destroy.' The brilliant Afrikaner Prime Minister Jan Smuts from the Boland town Riebeeck Kasteel seemed to have forgotten that he had predicted evil days with regard to racial segregation. Notwithstanding these warnings, a pattern of racist oppression continued. Excessive repression revived revolt again and again. The United Party (UP) lost the elections of 1948 narrowly. ‘Coloured’ voters, almost 100% Afrikaans speaking on the countryside, contributed to the difference, voting for the National Party in protest. A few years later ‘Coloureds’ were removed from the common roll by this same party. Another two decades later, the UP was no more. The new ruling National Party (NP) made the iniquitous apartheid policy common practice. The NP survived a few decades longer than the UP. Spiritual Vitality of Praying Women The spurning and suppression of 'Black' women of this era with regard to leadership did not discourage them. Instead of becoming bitter and resentful, ‘Black’ women appeared to have accepted male leadership gracefully. Until the late 1940s, these women organised activity among themselves independently. They would often allow the men to formally open meetings, in which they participated as speakers. 71 Xhosa women at the Cape reshaped their meetings to provide more practical instruction and opportunities for community activism. The manyanos (the Xhosa word for prayer unions) became instruments of 'Black' empowerment virtually second to none. Women leaders would not only pray and preach, but it was here that their dignity and political awareness were also developed. Whereas 'White' and some 'Coloured' church women’s groups concentrated on fund raising, 'Black' women’s groups called themselves collectively Prayer and Service Union. The social and mutual support offered by prayer groups helped to compensate for the isolation and poor social structures which Western missionaries held up as models. Testimonies, preaching and spontaneous prayer became the lifeblood of 'Black’ Christian groups. In the manyanos they could develop their potential as orators without first having to be literate. 72 — 10 Ferment, 44 73 CHAPTER EIGHT CAPE MISSIONARY ENDEAVOURS ___________________________ The Cape has a long history of missionary enterprise, starting with the dynamic Georg Schmidt in the Mother City and in Genadendal in 1737/8. In Part 1 we highlighted the special contribution of the visionary Dr Henricus van Lier, who initiated the four forays of missionary endeavour into the interior that ultimately led to the start of the South African Missionary Society (SAMS) in 1799. Soon thereafter we had Rev. Michiel Christiaan Vos, who has been described as one of the pioneers of missions at the Cape. He discerned the potential of Maart, a converted slave from Mozambique, to equip him ‘... to qualify him to accompany some other missionaries to... introduce into his native country ...that gospel which brings healing and salvation in its wings’. Early Cape Missionaries The crowning of Dr Van Lier’s aborted short stint at the Cape of a mere 7 years (1786-1793), because of his tuberculosis-triggered demise, transpired when South Africans went to the mission fields themselves. Cornelis Kramer was the first Cape Christian to offer his services for missionary service. Jan M. Kok was the next Cape missionary and the first ‘Coloured’ of the Van Lier era. He had to fight against racial prejudice because he was the son of a German colonist and a slave woman. Ds. M. Vos, who went to Ceylon (today called Sri Lanka), was the first missionary of South African origin who went to a foreign field. 74 Church-Related Missions Early 19th century missionary societies from Europe and America were all still operating fairly closely to mainline churches. The Moravians set the pace with the use of artisans and Genadendal was the model mission station. Of the missionary vision and exploits of Andrew Murray we have written in great detail in Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate and in the first chapter of this volume. The mission institute in Wellington supplied missionaries to other denominations also. The vision of the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) to use indigenous folk, impacted the country, notably when prominent believers were given the opportunity to study overseas. Youth Setting the Pace During and after World War II the absence of a positive father figure (a male role model) in the home led to many social problems. Generally, church structures did not cater for young people. A new initiative brought dynamic young evangelists into the frame who started using revolutionary methods. Youth for Christ (YFC) became an international Christian organization with its core mission and vision to communicate the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to young people. An interdenominational Christian para-church organization for college and university students was founded in 1951 at the University of California in Los Angeles. Bill Bright and his wife Vonette started Campus Crusade for Christ which was to blaze a trail for revival at tertiary institutions around the world. Also, elsewhere youth movements were setting the pace in breaking down walls of traditionalism, denominationalism and, to some extent, also that of racism. In South Africa this was also happening in the 1970s and 1980s where Scripture Union, Youth for Christ, and Youth with a Mission played significant roles in schools and on the campuses of tertiary institutions. As a slogan, 'Youth for Christ’ found emulation in different ways like ‘Cops for Christ’, ‘Jews for Jesus’ and ‘Athletes for Christ.’ 75 Ministry to Children At the age of sixty Jesse Overholtzer read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon which said, ‘A child of five, if properly instructed, can as truly believe and be regenerated as an adult.’ Remembering how he had been put on hold as a child, Jesse wanted something better for other children, and this helped to motivate him to start Child Evangelism Fellowship in 1937. The South African field of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) started ten years later. God used Colin Sylvester in the 1970s to 'revive' the CEF work in Cape Town. He concentrated on establishing a sound base for the future of CEF nationally, but especially in the Cape. A dynamic ministry for CEF training became known as the Petra Institute in White River, Mpumalanga. CEF’s students were trained there. In 1996 the institute compiled its own training material that was adapted to the African context. In 2003, Bernard Joubert, an export grape farmer from De Doorns near Worcester, who had received training at Petra Institute, opened the De Doorns campus. This campus merged with Petra Institute in 2011. Former students of Petra Institute serve in 67 countries around the world – Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the Far East and some in the Americas. A Special Missionary Pioneer Francis Grim, the Founder and President of Hospital Christian Fellowship (now called Healthcare Christian Fellowship International), established missions in over 110 countries. In 1936, Francis Grim, then a Christian businessman, daily visited his elderly father in a local hospital. During the terminal illness of their father, Francis and Carl Grim recognized that patients have spiritual needs in addition to their physical and psychological needs. As Francis Grim regularly proclaimed: 'More people pass through the hospitals of the world than through the churches.' Francis noticed that patients are often spiritually receptive and eager to reach out to God. The medical staff are often too busy, or not sure what to say, while physicians seldom include a spiritual assessment in their examination. He concluded 76 that if healthcare staff were inspired and properly equipped, they could play a key role in ministering to the needs of their patients. To address these issues, Hospital Christian Fellowship was started. For 67 years Francis Grim challenged, evangelised, discipled and trained doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to share the good news of Jesus’ love, forgiveness, healing, joy and salvation to their patients and co-workers. Hospital Christian Fellowships were established throughout the world to minister to body, mind and spirit. Pioneering journeys to Europe, the Middle East and Africa were undertaken by the founder Francis Grim, from 1951 onwards, and then from the '60s to Asia, Oceania and the Americas United in Christ in the Great Commission Francis Grim also founded Action Moral Standards, Intercessors for South Africa, Heart Publishers and South African Action for World Evangelisation (SAAWE). Many a believer was impacted by the dynamic ministry of Francis Grim through booklets that he had published. Peter Hammond, the founder of Frontline Fellowship, was struck by a booklet of Francis Grim with the title An Ideology for South Africa while travelling on a train. The cover of the booklet has Table Mountain in the background. Three hands of 'White', 'Black' and 'Brown people hold up a cross in front of the South African flag. Francis Grim’s message in An Ideology for South Africa was that God has placed us at the foot of Africa to evangelize all of Africa. — Book Cover (used with permission by Healthcare Christian Fellowship)18 Murray Louw was deeply impacted by the same booklet. Subsequently he became the director of SAAWE which he and his wife Christine have been leading for decades thereafter. 77 Grim's conviction was that there was no political solution for the racial conflict prevalent in South Africa, only a spiritual one. South Africans will only find unity in Christ Jesus. Francis Grim challenged Christians not to allow denominational divisions, racial discrimination, or personal and political differences to prevent them from uniting to fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. That challenge is still valid. Training Grounds for Missionaries In chapter 3 we highlighted the significant influence of the Student Christian Movement that led to the establishment of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA) at the beginning of the 20th century. The Christelike Studentevereniging (CSV) played a huge and positive role in Afrikaner circles in subsequent decades with a snowball effect towards the Studenteweek in Stellenbosch. The annual mission week at the Studentekerk of Stellenbosch that was started in 1955, played a prominent role, and served as a model for other tertiary institutions throughout the country. The work of the student ministry among ‘Coloureds’ only really came into its own in the second half of the 20th century where ‘Mammie’ le Fleur pioneered this work with Nic Apollis as the next itinerant secretary until the early 1960s. They were followed by Chris Wessels from the Moravian Church after his return from studying in Germany and Holland. At a camp for theological students in Genadendal, a tokkelok (theological student) from the Sendingkerk, Esau Jacobs, had been deeply moved with regard to ecumenical work, notably for the work of Ds. Beyers Naudé and the Christian Institute. Cassie Carstens was the executive head of the CSV from 1990 to 2000 and came to international prominence as the chaplain of the national rugby team that won the World Cup in 1995 where he caught the eye of the international media. This led to the founding of the International School for Sports Leaders in Stellenbosch. At the Hofmeyr Centre of Stellenbosch Jan Hanekom influenced scores of students at the end of the 20th century, linking some of them to the South African Action of World Evangelisation (SAAWE). 78 Furthermore, the Cape townships served as a training ground for South African missionaries. Especially through the activity of David Bliss of the Andrew Murray Centre in Wellington, the Western Cape led the missions’ scene of the country in the 1980s. The Bless the Nations conferences were soon operating in tandem with student weeks on many Afrikaans tertiary campuses. In the latter half of the 1990s this was done in conjunction with Love Southern Africa. The annual mission conference – which was followed by different short-term outreaches – was started in Wellington and later decentralized. Over the years, the number of South Africans serving in Muslim countries increased significantly. Many of these new missionaries had been challenged while they were students. Radio and Film Missionary Impact Already in the 1950s listeners could tune into evangelistic and mission programmes via short wave like those from Monte Carlo and relayed into southern Africa from Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) and Swaziland (that became Eswatini in recent years). One of the most well-known radio mission agencies was the one of Trans World Radio (TWR) in Monte Carlo. An example of their impact is that 25 churches were established through listening to TWR programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo among people who had been illiterate and who could not write letters. Andrew McDonald, a former organist of Cape Town Baptist Church, became the national director of TWR, serving Southern Africa from Kempton Park, Johannesburg. Radio Kansel, a ministry that started at the Cape, was impacted by Trans World Radio. It had a ripple effect with various Christian community radio stations throughout the country in the 1990s. The Start of a Local Christian Radio Station John Thomas’ Zimbabwe-born wife Avril was a visionary from the word go. From their early days in the Cape, Avril Thomas initiated a multiracial prayer meeting for women in the city. When they had a guest speaker, her husband John also came along. One of their visions that 79 they shared for prayer at different venues - like in the boardroom of the defunct Cape of Good Hope Bank in St Georges Street - was for a Christian radio station to be started. Radio Fish Hoek became a prime force in halting the Islamization of the Cape. Six years after the Thomas family came to the Cape, they started Radio Fish Hoek (renamed to Cape Community FM, CCFM) in 1993, the first Christian community radio station of the country. The radio station became a prime force in stopping the Islamization of the Western Cape when PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) attempted to enforce this from 1996. Radio Fish Hoek was soon followed by Radio Tygerberg, which started as an Afrikaans language station. The two stations alternated on a twelve-hour basis until 2004, when both stations received twenty four-hour transmission status. A Mission Week Ripple Effect More than one by-product evolved from the Stellenbosch mission weeks. The above-mentioned Murray Louw qualified in Stellenbosch as a civil engineer. Fairly early in his period of study he was significantly impacted at the Stellenbosch mission week. Dr Paul Smith of Toronto, the son of the famous evangelist Dr Oswald Smith, was the mission week speaker. Deeply moved during that mission week, Murray Louw considered going into full-time service for the Lord, but the green light came only later after he was already married to Christine. The arguably most profound mission week impact was when Brazilian pastor, Edison Queiroz, was the speaker at a number of them in Stellenbosch in the mid-1990s. God's Holy Spirit moved mightily and many attended the services of the Studentekerk, which was packed far beyond its capacity. Students even filled the aisles, sitting on the floor and on all the galleries. A second evening service was added each night and then the services were moved to the rugby stadium. One evening about 600 came forward to testify: “If and when God confirms my calling, I will become a missionary”. Many of them did that subsequently. 80 A Major Missionary Effort to Cape Muslims The major missionary effort to reach out to Muslims at the Cape in the last quarter of the 20th Century happened more by chance. God moved in his own special way when the German missionary Gerhard Nehls came to South Africa as a missionary of the Bible Band in 1954. He soon noticed the unreached Muslims in Johannesburg. When they were challenged by reason of his wife Hannelore’s health to leave Johannesburg in 1974, God answered their prayer for guidance, directing the Nehls family to Cape Town. During their home leave in Europe, Lionel Gurney of the Red Sea Mission had suggested to them out of the blue that they should pray about coming to Cape Town. Gurney also mentioned that Christians in Britain had been praying for sixty years for a missionary to go the Cape Town ‘Malays’, as the Cape Muslims used to be called. International Youth Moves with Cape Participation Operation Mobilisation (OM) started in 1957 with literature distribution. By 1960, the visionary George Verwer and his colleagues turned their attention to Europe, focusing on mobilising the national churches to global missions. Verwer's vision for the global mission was that leadership would come from the local Christian community, wherever possible, rather than from foreigners. In the northern summer of 1962 the first short-term mission teams of Operation Mobilisation (OM) moved into Europe, coming from the UK, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, the US and elsewhere. In the summer of 1963, more than 2 000 young people served in Europe to encourage Christians and to carry God's Word throughout the continent and find creative ways of getting it behind the Iron Curtain. OM and Verwer's vision for spreading the Gospel expanded to the seas with the purchase of the ship MV Logos in October 1970. In late 1987, a renewed vision for reaching Europe was born, which led to the ‘Love Europe’ outreaches that started in July 1989, just prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. OM planned for 5 000 young people from 50 nations to participate; in fact, about 7 000 from 76 nations came. With this first ‘Love Europe’ conference, the vision of OM – birthed in Europe – had been renewed. 81 A ship built in 1907 was used as an army troop transport vehicle in the first nine months of World War I. It was renamed MERCY and converted to a hospital ship at the New York Navy Yard. She was commissioned on 24 January 1918. Another ship, MV Anastasis, was a 159-metre hospital ship owned and operated by the YWAM-related humanitarian organization Mercy Ships. Built in 1953, the ship was renovated and equipped as a fully functioning hospital ship to serve as the flagship of the Mercy Ships fleet for 29 years until it was succeeded by MV Africa Mercy in 2007. Ophthalmic, maxillofacial, and plastic reconstructive surgeries were performed on board the ship by volunteer medical crew. Cape Youth Impact on Missions The Cape led the country in local Church involvement with foreign missions. Until the 1970s it was, however, only a church here and a fellowship there that was sending out missionaries. Countrywide it would be young people who led the way, as it also happened at the beginning of the 20th century. It is probably not surprising that a congregation from the Docks Mission, with its strong emphasis on prayer, spearheaded the foreign missionary endeavour. Peter Tarantal later even became a national leader of Operation Mobilisation and Theo Dennis was appointed as the Western Cape regional co-ordinator of the mission agency. Theo’s sister Denise married Dennis Atkins, who was the principal of the Bethel Bible School until his retirement in 2006. Freddy Kammies, who grew up in the nearby notorious township of Kewtown, came to the Lord at this church and he was discipled through the ministry of the Gleemoor congregation. He and his German wife Doris later left the shores of the Mother City as OM missionaries. After their return to South Africa in 1997, the couple pioneered the WEC ministry amongst sexually broken people. They joined YWAM in 2009 in a similar capacity. The Rondebosch Dutch Reformed Church was nudged towards missions when the minister’s son Ernst went to the William Carey International University in Pasadena, part of the US Center for World Missions, in the USA in 1991. This led to an intensification of the church’s involvement in 82 missions. This was even more so when Ernst van der Walt (jr.) became the personal assistant of George Verwer, the international leader of OM for a year. After his return to the Cape, Ernst (jr.) worked closely with Graham Power in the run-up to the first Newlands Rugby Stadium event of 2001, of which he was the co-ordinator. Dr Ernst van der Walt (sr.) became involved in missions in a big way, notably when he was one of the founders of the Western Cape Missions Commission. There he inspired many a younger role player like pastor Bruce van Eeden. The Rondebosch Dutch Reformed Church became a Cape hub for missionary involvement, with a close link to serving India. Missionaries Breaking Through Apartheid Barriers Sydney Dean, an English-speaking Capetonian from the suburb of Vredehoek, married Annamie, an Afrikaner from the Boland town of Bonnievale when marriages like that were still frowned upon – at best tolerated. After receiving training at the WEC Missionary Training College in Tasmania, they were refused visas for Indonesia, the country that they perceived to be the one to which God was calling them. With nobody to lead proceedings at the WEC Headquarters in Durban, they were requested to fill the gap. Very bravely and prayerfully they fought against the apartheid hurdles. Along with the Anglican priest Trevor Pearce, Peter Ward, and Eugene Johnson, they boarded one of two Operation Mobilisation ships, the Doulos, in 1978 as the first missionaries of colour with an international mission agency. They were followed by two young people from the Cape, Caroline Duckitt from Bishop Lavis Township in 1979 and June Domingo of Steenberg in 1980. The latter two became the first South African female missionaries of colour in the apartheid era to go abroad with faith missions. The two went to Brazil and France respectively with WEC International. Two 'Blacks', viz. Newman Muzwondiwa from Zimbabwe and Abraham Thulare – both of whom served in Japan – pioneered a new recruitment base for Southern African missionaries. Abraham Thulare later joined the OM leadership in South Africa, with a special focus on mobilising the African church. On the negative side, 83 the emphasis on full-time missionaries marred the possibility of ‘tentmaking’ ones from Africa at that time. Sydney Witbooi and Peter Tarantal, respectively from the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) and Operation Mobilization (OM), broke through racial marital prejudices. Witbooi married Andrea, the daughter of Gerhard Nehls, the well-known Life Challenge missionary pioneer. Based in Pretoria from 1989, Peter Tarantal, a young man from Athlone, was groomed by Francois Vosloo, the OM national leader to become his successor. From there he made many a foray into Eastern Europe, notably when he led 110 young missionaries from South Africa to the first ‘Love Europe’ in Germany in 1989. He met Kathi Kraai from the US during an international training course for OM mission leaders in the UK, whom he subsequently married in 1992. He represented Africa and she was the leader in Hungary. And for interest’s sake, Peter Tarantal is now one of the international directors of OM. Quite a few racially mixed marriages followed within Operation Mobilisation (OM) ranks through the ministry on their ships. Peter Tarantal started the Cape base of OM in 1992, from the big 'heart transplant’ of the Doulos that was performed in the Cape Town Dock Yard the following year. He worked closely with David Bliss in the ‘Love Europe’ forays from 1989 until his relocation to Pretoria to become the national leader of OM. YWAM and its 'Off-Spring' Youth with a Mission (YWAM) started in 1960 with the main focus to help youth become involved in missions. The first ministry in South Africa started in Hammanskraal near Pretoria, and in the Cape in Kraaifontein in the northern extremities. From a relatively big teaching base in the Boland town Worcester, many a small Discipleship Training School (DTS) was initiated, some of them only for a season. Many a YWAMer went on to start agencies or ministries of their own, some of them close to the mother organisation or even as subsidiaries. Among the most prominent people in this category were Floyd and Sally McClung who started All Nations International in Trinidad, Colorado in 1993. Floyd and Sally moved to Kansas City in 1999, and started the 84 first hub there from which missionaries were sent out. There are now five hubs: Kansas City, Cape Town, Hamburg, Kampala, and Tainnan in Taiwan. In South Africa Mike Burnard started Incontext Ministries in 2010. Mike Burnard, born in Gauteng, came to the Lord in 1976. In the same year he joined a YWAM outreach team for the Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. Thereafter he went to do his first DTS in Hawaii. After his marriage to Helen, the couple did another DTS on the YWAM mercy ship Anastasis. In 1982 he and his wife started the Western Cape office of Open Doors. A strong link to the YWAM base Muizenberg found expression through Mike’s connection to the Coptic Church in Egypt. The focus of Open Doors on service to and blessing the persecuted Church, led to a strong interest of the Muizenberg YWAM base in the Middle East and in the Muslim world at large. Graham Vermooten went to serve with Youth for Christ straight after his training at Cape Evangelical Bible College in 1982. There he subsequently held the position of National Team Director. He and his wife Diane were divinely used at St James Church in Kenilworth where he served as youth pastor, seeing scores of young people coming to the Lord, many of whom still serve in Christian leadership positions around the country. In 1992 they joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Graham and Diane were especially impacted by the teaching of Landa Cope during their Discipleship Training School (DTS). She challenged the students to broaden their vision and to be used by God to influence nations. Graham and Diane discerned that this could be done if evangelicals would also get into the mainstream media, to be salt and light there, instead of merely criticizing as Christians sadly often do. In 1995 the couple started Media Village as a ministry from the YWAM base in Muizenberg. Among the first productions was a short film used on the ferries going to Robben Island. Over the years students from over 90 nations were trained at Media Village. Working closely with Graham Power, Graham and Diane became 85 powerful partners in the international spread of the Global Day of Prayer, creating media and documentaries for the roll-out of the largest prayer event in recorded history. In 2021 Graham formed a new ministry, Sustainable Missions, helping ministries and individuals to become sustainable in what they are called to do by God. A Cape Mission Catalyst Bless the Nations conferences in 1990 influenced the Church at the Cape quite significantly. Bruce van Eeden, a pastor from Mitchell's Plain, was powerfully touched by God. For the next 5 years he was groomed at the Western Cape Missions Commission by well-seasoned missionaries and the likes of Dr. Ernst Van Der Walt, who already had a vast knowledge of missions and a heart for the unreached in China and India. Pastor Bruce van Eeden started Great Commission Conferences in many ‘Coloured’ churches on the Cape Flats, networking closely with Dicky Lewis and Patrick Klink of the Silvertown Baptist Church. In 1995 Bruce van Eeden, as part of a delegation, attended the Global Consultation for World Evangelization in Seoul (South Korea). Immediately after that conference Bruce made his first missionary journey through Communist China where he ministered to the persecuted believers in the underground churches. This included the dangerous 'donkey ministry' of smuggling Bibles from Hong Kong into China. For five years thereafter Bruce made several trips into Hong Kong and China. The highlight of Bruce's mission to China was working alongside one of the most fearless Chinese pastors, the indomitable Allan Juan, whom the Communist could not stop from preaching the gospel. After his mission in China, Bruce went on his first mission to India where he spent a month establishing a base for missions among the largest unreached tribe in the jungle of East India, the Kui Tribe. A few months after his return to SA, Bruce established the missions movement Ten Forty Outreach. This missions vehicle attempted to mobilize the Church for missions, creating opportunity for believers to go on short term mission trips into the 10/40Window. Fast forwarding – 28 years later – Bruce van Eeden was honoured by church leaders in India as the longest serving missionary among the 86 Kui tribals. He ministered the gospel to four generations. More than 300 partnership churches were planted in North, South and East India with 160 full time local evangelists and pastors serving them. Thirteen years prior to time of writing this book, Bruce established the Africa Arise missions movement which since then went to 27 African countries with the aim to see the Church in Africa become obedient to the command of the Great Commission. Six years ago, Bruce sensed the call of God to go to Pakistan where he now has a partnership ministry with more than 100 churches. Locally Bruce van Eeden pastors the Evangelical Mission Church in Cape Town. This fellowship is reaching out to drug addicts, gangsters, ex-prisoners, and Muslims! 87 CHAPTER NINE APARTHEID ENTRENCHED, RISE OF COMMUNISM AND SPIRITUAL GIANTS ___________________________ Ambivalent Responses to Racism Racism became legally entrenched as apartheid. Anglican Bishop Trevor Huddleston and others were making inroads through their stand against the apartheid policy and legislation that became official in South Africa after 1948. With the passing of the Group Areas Act in 1950, Bishop Huddleston became involved in protests against forced removals in Sophiatown, a slum area in Johannesburg. In the 13-year period of working in South Africa, Bishop Huddleston gained a reputation as a respected priest and an anti-apartheid activist. Bishop Huddleston gained a reputation as a respected priest and an anti-apartheid activist. The most effective initial opposition against apartheid came – quite surprisingly – from within the ranks of the Dutch Reformed denomination. Eerwaarde1 (Reverend) Isaac D. Morkel, influenced a dynamic mover, a young clergyman, Eerw. David Botha of the Wynberg Sendingkerk. Academics from the theological sphere had been coming on board, blazing a trail, notably Professors Barend B. Keet, Ben Marais and Albert S. Geyser. The latter paid the price for being one of the first Afrikaner Nationalists to speak out against the Broederbond and apartheid on theological grounds. He was ostracised from the Afrikaner community. 88 These ministers opposed the apartheid policy long before the famous Dr Beyers Naudé. The Sendingkerk Ring (circuit) of Wynberg agreed unanimously with the motion tabled by the dynamic Rev. Isaac David Morkel (1910–1983), to oppose apartheid on scriptural grounds. The participants at this meeting included quite a few Afrikaner dominees because there were still very few ministers of colour ordained in the 'Coloured' sector of the denomination before 1950. The Wynberg Sendingkerk Circuit protested against the proposed legislation of the new regime, appealing to the government urgently not to implement apartheid laws.2 That the Malan Cabinet ignored their protests was not as deplorable as the fact that the very same dominees who voted in October 1948, did not pitch when all Sendingkerk ministers were invited to a meeting to discuss the legislation. Although 28 congregations were represented, only two ‘White’ dominees attended this meeting. Another meeting on 14 October 1949 resolved to encourage believers to retreat into a day of prayer on 16 December 1949 ‘to be relieved from the apartheid affliction.’ In 1950 Ds. Morkel and 26 members of the Rondebosch congregation left the Sendingkerk to form the Calvynse Protestantse Kerk (CPC). The nationalist government suppressed the CPC. Rev. Isaac Morkel, unlike Dr Allan Boesak a few decades later, did not have the media on his side to construe him as a prophet against apartheid. The international community also then did not take notice of the Nationalist government’s tactics to oppress Morkel and his denomination. 'White' DRC Opposition Against Apartheid Already in 1950 Professor Ben Marais wrote a controversial book Kleurkrisis in die Weste (Colour Crisis in the West). The resulting controversy caused the popular preacher to be effectively silenced by the tactics of the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond. Church councils had to make sure that he would not be invited to preach. In 1956 the Stellenbosch academic Professor Barend Keet raised the question in his book Whither South Africa? whether apartheid (or the better sounding term ‘separate development’) could be applied in a just manner as claimed by his leaders. Five years later he and eight other 89 Afrikaner theologians answered the question with a resounding NO! in their book Delayed Action. They spelled out clearly that apartheid implied discrimination. Compassionate Identification with the Underdog At the Cape Provincial congress of the national ANC in August 1953 Professor Zachariah Keodirelang (ZK) Matthews (1901-1968), a prominent 'Black' academic, proposed the summoning of a ‘national convention just after his return from a lecturing stint in the US. At this event all races should be represented to consider our national problems on an all-inclusive basis to ‘draw up a Freedom Charter for the democratic South Africa of the future’. The idea was endorsed by the ANC’s annual conference in September 1953. Where the Moravians were leaders with regard to education and practical Christianity, the Anglicans and the Dutch Reformed Church, along with the Roman Catholic Church, led the field in ministries of compassion. As in so many other fields, the Mother City was prominent. Reverend Arthur William Blaxall, an Anglican clergyman, came to South Africa in 1923 to work with the deaf. At the Cape he was open for the need to reach out compassionately to other peripheral groups of the society like the Muslims. In the 1930s he headed the Athlone School for ‘Coloured’ blind children, which was later relocated to Glenhaven, Bellville South. For many years Rev. Blaxall was secretary of the South African Christian Council, which was established in 1936. He was also chairman of the South African branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Over the years Rev. Blaxall developed ‘an ever-deepening sense of solidarity’ – in his own words – with the 'Blacks', ‘Coloureds’ and Indians in their struggle against apartheid. Trusted as a friend, he received money in the 1960s from exiled ANC and Pan African Congress (PAC) leaders, passing it on to former political prisoners and their families who were in need. This led to his arrest in 1963 and conviction under the Suppression of Communist Act. Communism Made Attractive The rotten fruit of Colonialism and Imperialism were clearly visible. 90 Oppressive practices became the hallmark of these ideologies, and this made Communism attractive to many young 'Black' South Africans. The atheist Communist ideology would never have thrived among the masses on the African continent if it were not for the unfair benefits of Colonialism and Imperialism to the Caucasian races and the countries from where they originated. One third world country after the other came under Communist influence in the early 1970s. Islam was still a sleeping giant at this time, yet this would change via events in Cape Town that started in the 1960s, notably the apartheid-related Group Areas legislation and a spiritual encounter on 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track, which made Ahmed Deedat an international Muslim celebrity. Albert Luthuli, Another Spiritual Giant 'White' Christians were by and large out of touch with the spiritual dynamics of the resistance against the heretical ideology which became government policy from 1948. The practices and hurts inflicted by the apartheid society was often the reason for determined resistance in the 1950s. Before this, substantial resistance to the oppressive race policies came from the ranks of 'Black' church leaders. One of the most prominent of them was South Africa’s first Nobel Prize peace laureate, Albert Luthuli. Helen Joseph, a Jewish anti-apartheid campaigner lamented in respect of the Defiance Campaign of the 1950s: 'The Church turned its back on the ANC, [but] the ANC never turned its back on the Church'. In the middle of April 1953, Chief Albert Luthuli, the PresidentGeneral of the ANC, proclaimed that the Defiance Campaign would be called off so that the resistance groups could re-organize, taking into consideration the new political climate in South Africa. Albert Luthuli was, nevertheless, tried for treason. He was assaulted and deposed as chief of his Zulu clan. The defiance campaigns, including bus boycotts in South Africa, served as an inspiration to civil rights activists in the United States. In a similar way the discriminatory experiences in South Africa had been the bedrock of what was inappropriately called 'passive resistance' – in 91 opposition to violent revolutionary stuff. Mahatma Ghandi used and developed 'passive resistance' in India to get national independence from Britain in the late 1940s. Christian Defiance of Apartheid in District Six Archbishop Geoffrey Clayton was a fearless fighter for social justice, but he was rigidly consistent with orthodox (i.e., Pauline and Augustinian) principles governing the relationship between religion and politics. The experiences of Rev. Clive McBride, a Johannesburg-raised clergyman who served for quite a few years in the St Timothy's Anglican Church of Factreton, and later as a chaplain at the Valkenberg and Lentegeur psychiatric institutions, typified the problems of so many people of colour in the apartheid era. They however also highlight the ambivalence within the denomination at the time. When McBride approached Rev. French Breytag, his local priest in Johannesburg, regarding his sense of calling to the priesthood, it was relayed to Bishop Ambrose Reeves who stated however that there was no place for 'Coloured' priests in the diocese. Bishop Breytag was well known for his staunch opposition to apartheid. He was ultimately incarcerated for 'treason' and subsequently deported. McBride wrote to Archbishop Geoffrey Clayton about his predicament. Clayton, who held firmly throughout his church career to a controversial interpretation of Scripture that politics and religion must be separated fully, surprisingly went out of his way to deal with the matter. He took time out during a visit to Johannesburg to meet the young man Clive McBride. Looking back, this very much looks like divine intervention because the result of the interaction at that occasion was very special. The first (and only) non-racial theological institution in South Africa started at Zonnebloem in District Six in January 1954 with Clive McBride and another student.3 It might also have been the moment of truth for Archbishop Clayton, and the start to a change of his hitherto firm beliefs not to oppose apartheid publicly. On Ash Wednesday 1957, the day before he died, Clayton signed on behalf of the bishops of the Church of the Province of South Africa, a letter to the prime minister of South Africa, refusing to obey and refusing 92 to counsel the people of the Anglican Church in South Africa to obey, the provisions of section 29(c) of the Native Laws Amendment Act. The act sought to force apartheid in all Christian congregations. ‘...We should ourselves be unable to obey this Law or to counsel our clergy and people to do so. We therefore appeal to you, Sir, not to put us in a position in which we have to choose between obeying our conscience and obeying the law of the land...’ A Special Afrikaner Impacted Born in Kuruman in the Northern Cape in 1929, David Bosch was raised in an Afrikaner home where there was little regard given for his nation's 'Black' citizens. If the English were the 'enemy' to the young Bosch, 'Blacks' were essentially non-persons. The typical Afrikaner attitude toward 'Blacks' was not overt hostility but benign neglect. 'Blacks' were hewers of wood and drawers of water, “a part of the scenery but hardly a part of the human community... They belonged to the category of ‘farm implements’ rather than to the category ‘fellow-human beings.’” David Bosch recalled how he and his friends were once shocked to hear that some of the local Anglican and Roman Catholic priests actually shook hands with 'Blacks'! No self-respecting Afrikaner would have considered shaking hands with a ‘Black’ man; that would have in his own words been 'a sign of full acceptance into the human community.' After secondary school, Bosch went to Pretoria in 1948 with the intention of becoming a teacher. This was the same year that the National Party came to power and began implementing its programme of apartheid. Bosch welcomed it. At the University of Pretoria he joined the Student Christian Association and was more exposed to 'Black' members of the community. This began a lifelong involvement in Christian mission and he was soon questioning the apartheid system. Sensing a call to be a missionary, Bosch changed to the Theological school and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity and a Master of Arts in languages (Afrikaans, Dutch and German). He then went to Switzerland to study for his doctorate in the field of New Testament at the University of Basel, under Professor Oscar Cullmann, who influenced Bosch significantly. 93 Paradigm Shifts A major paradigm shift occurred in the heart of David Bosch when the 'Coloureds' were removed from the Common Voters’ Roll. Another one occurred during a short visit to Willie Jonker in Amsterdam during his studies in Switzerland. Bosch recalled how the two days that he spent with Jonker helped him tremendously. Finally he had met a fellow Afrikaner who could speak articulately to the apartheid issue and say why it was wrong. Jonker thus played an important part in Bosch’s development. He was, hereafter, ready to break with the apartheid establishment. In 1957 Bosch began working as a church planting Dutch Reformed missionary in the Transkei, during which he not only became fluent in Xhosa, but he also learnt to see 'Blacks' as equal persons. In 1967 he took up a position as lecturer in church history and missiology at the Theological School where 'Black' church leaders were trained. There he built ties with Roman Catholic and Anglican clergymen, and there he also began to develop his ministry of writing on mission theory. Bosch wrote about his concerns that the Christian mission to bring good news to 'Black' Africans could be confused with colonial and nationalistic motives that entrenched racial divisions. Isolated from the majority in the DRC who supported apartheid, Bosch became Professor of Missiology at the University of South Africa in Pretoria in 1971, which at the time was South Africa's only non-racial university. A few years before this, another spiritual giant had entered the arena, Rev. Michael Cassidy. He had started Africa Enterprise in 1962. The Example of President Abraham Lincoln The voyage on the steamer from England to Cape Town was to impact Cassidy deeply when he was challenged by a quote from John Foster Fraser: 'When God desires to shake, shock or shape any age to save sinners, he always chooses people'. The Holy Spirit ministered to Michael Cassidy to be that man for Africa, more especially for South Africa. Immediately after his arrival in Cape Town, God used Archbishop Joost de Blank to refer to the neglect of 94 evangelicals of “incarnational responsibilities”: The Bible verse starting with ‘if my people humble themselves and pray …’ (2 Chronicals 7:14) became one of the favourite Bible verses of Michael Cassidy. He used Lincoln’s example to challenge John Vorster and Ian Smith, the prime ministers respectively of South Africa and Rhodesia by giving them a copy each of Lincoln’s biography with the title Abraham Lincoln, Theologian of American Anguish. Cassidy himself would be God’s instrument in the turbulent 1985 to call not only the National Initiative for Reconciliation (NIR) from 10 to12 September, but also as a pivot in a national day of prayer by this group on October 9, i.e. less than a month later. (See Appendix 2) Student Outreach Even though Michael Cassidy did not start Campus Crusade in South Africa, hardly any other agency impacted campuses in the country more than AE. Already in 1965, their first year of full-time ministry, the University of Natal invited them. The University of Cape Town had its turn in 1969 and Stellenbosch in 1980. In the main address on University Evangelism at the Lausanne Congress on World Mission in 1974, Michael Cassidy stated that: ‘the Christian has a unique right to be on the campus, not simply as an agent of evangelism, but as an agent of reminder that the university as we know it is really a uniquely Christian creation. It was born out of the mediaeval synthesis with its unified Christian world view… Jesus as heart of the universe, was the key to everything… The university is the offspring of the logos doctrine, for in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…’ In September 1976 the South African AE team held a mission to the teachers’ training college in the Capetonian suburb Mowbray. This was their best outreach yet to a teachers’ college. They were thankful to the Christian students who prepared thoroughly for the mission ‘in a fervency of prayer’. Michael Cassidy and Festo Kivengere visited and preached as equals in the Afrikaner stronghold of Stellenbosch. This was a bold step, building on the foundation laid by Professor Nico Smith at the Theological Faculty. With evangelical involvement in the Black ghetto of Soweto since 1976, Africa Enterprise would be God’s choice 95 instrument for change in Africa over the next decades. A Phenomenal Bridge Builder Bosch also made an impact on the church in Africa through his contributions at regional and continental Christian gatherings. In a sense he and Rev. Michael Cassidy, with whom he worked closely after a friendship that was forged in Nairobi, were ‘twin’ spiritual giants, whom God would use to perform foundational spadework towards South Africa’s democracy. Tragically he would not live to see it finally materialise. Particularly significant was Bosch's impassioned address on the 'Renewal of Christian Community in Africa Today' at the 1976 Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) in Nairobi. Bosch spoke of the need for the Church to be an 'alternative community.' It had to be serving as an agent of reconciliation and a sign of hope for the world. Bosch appealed to the Cross as the model for the life of the church in Africa. In the Cross, God’s model of costly reconciliation was demonstrated, and serves as a challenge for believers to walk in its way. Of all Bosch’s public addresses, this message has been the most widely disseminated. According to Bosch, a truly Biblical understanding of the Church demanded that it be both an agent of judgment and of reconciliation within every society. He believed that this concept provided a model or paradigm by which South African Christians could transform their society. It is precisely as Christians work for the renewal and unity of the church, and live out the implications of their faith in the world, that they could most effectively challenge the values and standards of the society around them. The Church should not copy the world’s agendas or strategies; instead, it must furnish an alternative vision of reality, of life in the kingdom of God. That the conference achieved quite a lot was testified by many including Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda, who said that: “PACLA marked a turning point for the Church in Africa. Here for the first time on this scale men and women from every part of Africa from north to south and from west to east, came together… We came with all our problems, difficulties and tensions... But we found that Christ was strong enough as a 96 common denominator to hold us.” The Greatest South African Theologian? David Bosch, in my view the greatest South African theologian to date, was offered the Chair of Mission and Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey in the United States twice. He chose to decline consistently, preferring to remain opposing apartheid from within South Africa and the DRC. In 1979 he helped coordinate the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) under the auspices of Africa Enterprise led by Michael Cassidy. The two main speakers were Rev. Michael Cassidy and Professor David Bosch at the gathering of more than 5 000 African Christians from every background. This was a demonstration of the Church as an alternative community embodying the Kingdom of God. In 1982 Bosch promoted an open letter to the Dutch Reformed Church, signed by more than 100 pastors and theologians, publicly condemning apartheid and calling on the church to unite with 'Black' churches. Bosch also bridged evangelical and ecumenical divisions in the global Church, participating in both the first Lausanne Congress and the World Evangelical Alliance events, while also serving the World Council of Churches. He was an active member of the International Association for Mission Studies and the key leader, and inspiration of the South African Missiological Society and founding editor of its journal, Missionalia. Bosch died in a car accident on 15 April 1992 in South Africa at the age of 62. His contribution and influence in mission studies globally was immense. South Africa lost one of its greatest sons of the 20th century! Another Great Afrikaner W.P. Esterhuyse, the highly respected academic from Stellenbosch University, wrote the following in 1986 about Anton Rupert, the astute businessman and entrepreneur behind the Rembrandt Tobacco empire, “His creative thinking his impeccable style and his sense of social responsibility have earned Anton Rupert respect and admiration both at home and abroad... What South Africa needs in order to win the future is not a laager mentality produced by fear but a mature vision that generates 97 hope and motivates people positively. That is why Advocate of Hope is a book for today a book that urges South Africans to meet the future with hope and to turn the possibilities of the present to creative advantage.” The damage of cigarettes to the lungs of people only slightly tarnish the image of the gigantic South African who dared to plead already in 1950 at the Ekonomiese Volkskongres for initiatives that would give 'Blacks' opportunities to develop. At this time, he was opposing many fellow Afrikaners who were still unashamedly promoting 'White' baasskap (masterhood). His was possibly a voice in the wilderness. Rupert's plea in Durban in July 1960 for partnership of all races needs to be rated even higher. It was delivered after all only a few months after the tragedy of Sharpeville had been sending shock waves throughout the world: ‘Together we form a multiracial country in which, I believe, a strong centrifugal force of common patriotism is operative which has hardly been noticed, let alone developed.' As an entrepeneur whose initiatives has been creating thousands of jobs, the country honours a great South African who was far ahead of his contemporaries! Social Justice and Anti-Apartheid Activism Alan Michael Lapsley was born on 2 June 1949 in New Zealand. He was ordained to the priesthood in Australia where he joined the Anglican religious order the Society of the Sacred Mission. In 1973 Rev. Lapsley arrived in Durban as an undergraduate student. Soon thereafter, during the height of apartheid repression, he became a chaplain to students at both 'Black' and 'White' universities in Durban. In 1976 he began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained and tortured. In due course Father Michael, as he became known widely, took a stand as national chaplain to Anglican students. In September 1976 Lapsley was expelled from the country. He went to live in Lesotho, where he continued his studies and became a member of the African National Congress and also a chaplain to the organization in exile. During this period he travelled the world, mobilizing faith communities, in particular, to oppose apartheid and support the 98 liberation struggle. After a police raid in Maseru in 1982 in which 42 people were killed, he moved to Zimbabwe. It was here that in 1990, three months after ANC leader Nelson Mandela's release from prison, he was sent a letter bomb by the apartheid regime. It was hidden inside two religious magazines. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast, and was seriously burnt. In 1992 Lapsley returned to South Africa where he developed a programme called the Healing of Memories. The workshops explore the effects of South Africa’s past at an emotional, psychological and spiritual level. At the Institute for Healing of Memories in Claremont they try to support those who have suffered as they struggle to have their stories recognised. In 1993, he became Chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, which assisted the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This work led to the establishment, in 1998, of the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) in Cape Town. The IHOM aims to allow many more South Africans to tell their stories in workshops where they work through their trauma. 99 CHAPTER TEN DIVIDE AND RULE EFFECT S OF APARTHEID ___________________________ By cleverly co-opting collaborators, the apartheid rulers caused division in all communities. The 'Coloureds' thus got a South African version of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the debating facility near to the University College of the Western Cape. There Tom Swartz, a government appointee, led the sham 'Representative Council'. Deep division was also caused within the opposition to apartheid in all sectors of society. Rifts appeared also in churches and families. Discrimination in Sports Discrimination in sports highlighted inequalities. In the sports-loving country of South Africa this proved to be the Achilles heel of apartheid. The first recorded instance of interference by a politician in this arena was performed by none less than Cecil John Rhodes. The renowned Cape Colony Prime Minister of the late 19th century was the culprit. Bowing to political pressure from the Prime Minister in 1894, the head of cricket in South Africa left someone out of the national touring team to Britain because of his race. Armien 'Krom' Hendricks was possibly the fastest bowler of his era. Individuals like Jake Tuli, who became the flyweight champion of the British Empire in 1952, hardly ruffled feathers of the apartheid establishment at the time. The golfing feats of Sesunker (Papwa) Sewgolum, a former caddy from Durban who twice won the Dutch 100 Open, and who even once had the beating of the renowned Gary Player – one of the best players ever – hardly moved 'Whites'; the sport was one for the elite anyway. Mixed-race competitions were prohibited in South Africa in 1957. Two years later the South African Sports Association (SASA) was founded. It fought to allow non-'White' athletes to represent South Africa. The same year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates questioned whether South Africa's practices violated the Olympic Charter's ban on discrimination. South Africa's isolation increased when the country left the British Commonwealth and became a Republic in 1961. South Africa was thus no longer eligible for the Commonwealth Games. In 1962 a ban was announced preventing South African mixed-race teams from competing in competitions inside or outside the country. This led to the establishment of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC). South Africa's isolation increased when the country became a Republic. The D’ Oliviera Controversy Quite a number of gifted non-'White' people left South Africa because their skin pigmentation prevented them from using their talents to the full. One notable example is the saga around the cricketer Basil D’Oliviera. Raised in Bo-Kaap’s Upper Bloem Street, he was one of the greatest cricketing all-rounders which South Africa has produced. He had to go elsewhere to get the recognition he deserved. Although he was already well beyond his prime, he was able to go to the UK. Basil D’Oliviera had an illustrious career in England, where he was picked to play for England in 1966. A dilemma arose when the British team was due to tour South Africa at the end of 1968. South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster used all sorts of intrigue to prevent D’Oliviera from becoming a member of the touring team. South African cricket officials exerted pressure on the Marylebone 101 Cricket Club (MCC) hierarchy, which led to the decision not to pick him as part of the English team to tour the country. When Tom Cartwright was ruled out because of injury, D' Oliveira was called up. According to Prime Minister B. J. Vorster, it was not a team of the Marylebone Cricket Club, but of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The tour was canceled. Unlike the 19th century case, there were many negotiations in the case of the Bo-Kaap prodigy Basil D' Oliveira. They were of no avail. Yet, the D' Oliveira affair had a massive impact in turning international opinion against the apartheid regime. It triggered changes in South African sport and eventually in society at large. 'Whites' Who Suffered Because of Sports Isolation 'White' sportsmen and women suffered because of the sports isolation. The invincible cricket team of the late sixties white-washed Australia in the 4-match series 4–0 in 1970, but it would take another 22 years before the national cricket team could participate internationally. Zola Budd, as a barefoot prodigy, broke world records. She became a symbol of South Africa's oppression, and was unfairly blamed for Mary Decker's Olympic nightmare in 1984. District Six Getting an Islamic Flavour In District Six something was happening quietly. During my two years of residing there while studying at the Moravian Seminary, we witnessed how the residential area was getting an Islamic flavour right before our eyes. Jews had moved from the residential area long before the 1966 proclamation. Their shops in Hanover Street were being bulldozed one after the other. Christians were moving out in greater numbers than Muslims while their churches, having accepted compensation from the government for their buildings, were being raised to the ground. The Muslims had opposed the legislation fiercely, refusing to take money from the government as bait which would have led to the demolition of their three mosques in the residential area. This left the impression ultimately that the area had been Islamic. Used by Muslims, this would have severe ramifications into the 21st century. 102 Mission Policy Tainted by Apartheid Thinking 'White' supremist practices and racial discrimination influenced the whole of South African society through much of the latter half of the 20th century. The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), the denomination that had a big vision for mission and evangelism till well into the 1960s, and that was arguably the most influential denomination in the country till 1990, was more adversely affected by the racist ideology than any other denomination. It is very sad to note that the race policy of the government slowly but surely killed the promising beginnings of the outreach to the Muslims of the early 1960s. It brought the 'White' portion of the denomination almost into complete isolation. The 'White' DRC developed a mission policy that was clearly tainted by apartheid thinking. The missions to Muslims and Hindus were respectively given to the ‘Coloured’ and Indian sectors of the church as their responsibilities. A lone exception was the unique St. Stephen’s Church, the historic congregation started by a Lutheran and a Presbyterian minister together as a non-denominational institution for the freed slaves in 1843. Later, in 1857, this ‘Coloured’ congregation was linked to the 'White' DRC synod. In the 20th century two ministers connected to that congregation were known to have had a heart for the Muslims: Ds. P. S. Latsky (1930-55, and 1961-68) and Ds. Davie Pypers (1956-60). Ds. Latsky had studied at the renowned Princeton University in the USA under the well-known Dr Samuel Zwemer. Latsky and Pypers had the odds heavily stacked against them because they were operating as Afrikaners at a time when Muslims increasingly hated the apartheid ideology. Nevertheless, Bo-Kaap Muslims afforded the hospitality to them for which they are well-known. Not once in his long-time service among Cape Muslims, was Ds. Davie Pypers refused entry into a Muslim home. The links of the DRC denomination to the apartheid government must have been like an albatross around their necks. Throughout its history into the apartheid era, St. Stephen’s had a 'White' pastor. Only in the 21st century did Ds. Dennis Naidoo serve there for a short period after his retirement as a pastor. The 'White' dominees serving 'Coloured' and Black' congregations were in this way of course hampered in their credibility; all came from 103 Afrikaner stock. The bulk of the 'White' dominees conveniently 'played safe', although they were very much aware of the injustices perpetrated in their name when they disagreed with the opinions expressed by the Church leadership. A notable exception was Ds. Herbie Brand who served at St Stephen's from 1977 until his retirement in 2001. He dared to make himself very unpopular even at synods many times, in opposing the official apartheid policy that was supported by his denomination. Apartheid Influence on the DRC Church Ds. Davie Pypers was understood to minister to the South African Indians in the 1960s as a racial entity. Thus he was expected not to concentrate solely on either the Muslims or the Hindus as an unreached religious grouping. Ds. Chris Greyling was an exception to some extent in this regard when he understood that his predominant role was to minister directly and indirectly to Muslims. However, he was simultaneously also the pastor of the Sendingkerk in Wynberg. When Rev. Greyling moved to the University of the Western Cape as lecturer in Biblical Studies in 1977, the Sendingkerk lost its sharp edge with regard to outreach to the Muslims. Unintentionally, Greyling thus fell into the same ‘trap’ as Prof. Gerdener decades before him, who had later become a respected professor of Religious Science at the Indian University of Durban-Westville. Dr Henry Dwyer, who died in July 1998, started a ministry in District Six and Bo-Kaap, with the definite intention of also reaching out to Muslims. He was due for further studies in Lebanon when war broke out in that country. He still went to study Islamics and Muslim Evangelism in Birmingham, but after completing a doctorate in the social sciences, Dwyer eventually ended up as hospital chaplain on behalf of his denomination, with hardly any ministry to Muslims. Nevertheless, although the changes in South Africa after 1994 made it increasingly difficult for any Christian pastor to minister to people of other faiths, Dr Dwyer did share his faith in a non-threatening and loving way with many a Muslim. Restructuring in his denomination due to financial constraints included the scrapping of the post. 104 Mission Responsibility Delegated It appears that the Sendingkerk almost completely lost its vision to reach out to the Muslims in the late 1970s and 1980s, and that the opposition to apartheid became the major cause to pursue. The leaders of the ‘Coloured’ sector of the DRC seemed obsessed by the struggle against apartheid, led by Dr Allan Boesak after his return from Holland in 1976. The perception was created that their outreach to the Muslims had stopped or at best that they delegated their responsibility to Rev. Paul Manne of Frontier Life Ministries. Rev. Manne, an Indian with Buddhist and Hindu roots, was already ministering to Hindus when the German missionary pioneer Gerhard Nehls staged a seven-week seminar in Mitchell's Plain in 1981. Manne hereafter started working as a Muslim co-worker with the Life Challenge team of Gerhard Nehls, operating in the (then) new ‘Coloured’ townships of Lentegeur and Westridge. Valuable work continued in the DRC church where parishioners were trained to minister to those church members who married Muslims or contemplated doing so. In the process they also reached out to Muslims, not without success. In 1983 Paul Manne was asked by the Sendingkerk to be their man. Manne’s own outreach in Mitchell's Plain decreased when he became more of an itinerant evangelist to different parts of the world in the late 1990s, becoming a blessing to churches in Kenya, Tanzania, Australia and New Zealand. From then on, he was predominantly involved in the training of believers, including Arab-speaking Christians in Australia whom he trained in Muslim Evangelism. 105 CHAPTER ELEVEN UNITY IN THE MELTING POT ___________________________ In the 1940s, the Boer-Brit rift was still prevalent among 'Whites' in South Africa as a legacy from the Anglo-Boer War at the end the 19th century. This escalated when the Dutch Reformed Church withdrew from the Christian Council of Churches (CCC). The unity in the Council, that was started in 1936 with Dutch Reformed ministers in leading roles, had been quite frail. Despite this, the sense of unity that had been experienced at the inauguration of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Amsterdam (1948), reverberated in many countries, and church unity also grew in South Africa. Professor Gerdener wrote in 1959: 'With thankfulness we observe signs to come together and work together, also in our own Dutch Reformed Church.' Racial tension continued to simmer, however, like an albatross around the neck of the Church. Denominational Disunity as Sin The teaching of unity as a Biblical priority has been generally neglected down the centuries. There have been only very few exceptions such as that of Count Zinzendorf who practised and preached the unity of the Body of Christ with verve. He was quite unhappy when Moravians were forced to become a denomination – a requirement for them to operate in Britain. In no way dare one condone an airy-fairy covering up of petty 106 differences. We must recognize that division is sinful. Disunity and lies belong to the arsenal of satan's main weapons. If he can use the Church and its leaders for this purpose, he will never hesitate. Differences between Zinzendorf and John Wesley and later between Wesley and George Whitfield left scars which impacted the mighty revival of the 18th century negatively. Through the ages the arch enemy has succeeded in sowing division in many evangelical churches. Unity in Christ must be practised and seen to be a reality in the lives of believers. The Church's disunity must be acknowledged for what it really is – sin! It is debatable whether mere discussion of doctrine can promote church unity as Bishop Brent from the Philippines thought at the launching of Faith and Order at the Lausanne Church Conference in 1927. What Bishop Azariah (India) said at that occasion had more clout: ‘The divisions of Christendom may be a source of weakness in Christian countries, but in non-Christian lands they are a sin and a scandal.’ Cindy Jacobs, an international prayer leader from the USA, put it even more strongly when she not only referred to the idolatry of denomination and pride in doctrine as sectarianism, but she also called it a demonic stronghold. Viv Grigg, another US American, wrote very aptly: ‘The spiritual unity of believers is a key to spiritual power... The Holy Spirit may not work significantly in a situation where he is grieved due to disunity.’ Conversely, and I quote Grigg yet again, ‘prayer is a common denominator around which many diverse Christian groups can work in unison.’ This proved to make a big difference in the 21st century. Freedom Via the Cross After Albert Luthuli had been dismissed as chief in November 1952, he responded with his famous address which started with the momentous words: 'Thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door…' He ended with a powerful sentence: 'It is inevitable that in working for freedom some individuals and some families must take the lead and suffer – the road to freedom is via the Cross.' (The full address can be found in Appendix 1). Long before 'Black Theology' was in vogue, Chief Luthuli expressed his conviction that apartheid degrades all who are party to it. He was 107 optimistic, despite all evidence to the contrary, that 'Whites' would sooner or later be compelled to change and accept a shared society. Luthuli was elected ANC president-general by a large majority the following month. An Emerging Church Unity As President of the ANC, Albert Luthuli was asked to address a predominantly Afrikaner study group in Pretoria in the early months of that year. He recalled: 'In my audience, on this occasion, there was an unexpected mixture of Afrikaner theologians and professors and foreign diplomats, and to my surprise some of the Afrikaners had come from as far afield as Potchefstroom, about two hundred miles away’. Soon thereafter, Luthuli was escorted from the Cape Town railway station to ‘an open square packed with people’, pre-figuring the event on the Grand Parade with Nelson Mandela after his release many years later. Bans imposed in early 1953 were renewed in the following years, completely silencing Luthuli in 1959. Government Oppression Breeds Resilience 1960 became a year of nation-wide turmoil. The Cape was no exception. Robert Sobukwe, the leader of the Pan African Congress of Azania (PAC), with a strong emphasis on non-violence, called on thousands of 'Blacks' to leave their discriminatory passes at home on the 21st March 1960 and present themselves at police stations for arrest. Only 'Blacks' were required to carry these passes with them at all times. These actions would fill prisons to overflowing and make influx control unworkable. Cape Town 'Blacks' responded enthusiastically to the call. On the morning of 21 March 1960 – the same day as the notorious massacre of Sharpeville – thousands of 'Blacks' congregated at the Philippi police station, forming an orderly line, declaring that they had come to hand in their pass books and wanted to be arrested. The bemused policemen at the station took their names, telling them to go home and await a summons to appear in court. The crowd left peacefully, 108 leaving great piles of pass books at the police station. The PAC had called a meeting for the same evening to take place at Langa to report on the progress of the anti-pass campaign. Many turned up that evening, unintentionally defying a ban on meetings in Langa that day. They were left with the impression that they would receive an official response to their protest. The meeting had just been opened with prayers when ‘a strong force of police drove up in a Saracen armoured car and wire-meshed troop-carriers formed up alongside the road’. An officer with a loud-hailer ordered the crowd to disperse and then proceeded to order a baton charge. This was the first of several charges. The enraged crowd retaliated by throwing stones at the policemen, who opened fire in return with stun guns and small arms. Thankfully the police soon retreated to their station soon hereafter, covered by machine-gun fire; otherwise, the casualty toll would have been worse than Sharpeville. Yet two men were shot dead and 49 people were injured. Seven buildings including two schools were destroyed by fire in a wild night of violence. The killing of peaceful protesters introduced a new dimension to police brutality. Vicious police action followed when striking workers were forcefully taken out of their houses to go and work. Now rendered unenforceable, the pass laws were suspended on Saturday 26 March. This sent a wave of hysterical jubilation among 'Blacks'. The entire 'Black' population of the Peninsula seemed to throw their weight behind the PAC campaign, which included a very effective stay-away that crippled Cape industry significantly. The tide of insurgency led to a mass march scheduled for the 30th of March, 1960. Knife-edge tension was building up throughout the Western Cape. This was also the run-up to one of the biggest funerals that South Africa has ever experienced. On Sunday 27th March 1960, 'Blacks' converged on Langa from places as far afield as Hermanus, Mossel Bay and Worcester. They had come for the mass funeral of those people who had been killed in the preceding days. Two hundred thousand people were reported to have attended. 109 Mass March from Langa Three days later, on 30th March 1960, thirty thousand protesters walked from Langa to the City along De Waal Drive in protest. Philip Kgosana, a young student, joined the marchers belatedly, but immediately took command of the ‘most remarkable march in South African history to date’. Now and then he stopped the marchers to teach them on non-violence. A dissident almost caused a revolt by denouncing nonviolence, calling on the crowd to sack Parliament. Kgosana decided on his own to lead the marchers instead to Caledon Square, the headquarters of the police, because the houses of Parliament were surrounded at this time by a massive build-up of troops. A tragic massacre was thus prevented. In all likelihood such a tragedy was possibly averted for another reason: Kgosana narrated how for two months before the event, people in Nyanga West had been praying every night to God to deliver them from the oppression they experienced because of the pass laws. A Treacherous Response to Peaceful Protest Colonel Ignatius Terblanche, the head of the South African Police, who had been called urgently to the scene, was overwhelmed when he saw the size of the crowd. ‘He fell to his knees in the police station and prayed before embarking on a daring quest for peace, which, without doubt, clashed with the views of the government’. Divine peace must have overpowered him as he went outside to lead a small party of unarmed senior officers. The scene witnessed and described by Tony Heard, a journalist of the Cape Times at the time, and later an editor of that Cape Town morning paper, belongs to sacred history. This included very special words, unheard for an Afrikaner, the son of a bankrupt ostrich farmer, speaking to a 'Black'. Heard reports Terblanche’s first remark and the reaction, after he was introduced to the young student as follows: 110 “Mr Kgosana, I speak to you as one gentleman to another. Please, would you ask the crowd to be quiet?” Kgosana was given the use of a loudhailer and… said in a loud voice in English: “Let us be silent... just like people who are going to a graveyard... Quiet descended abruptly on the scene...’ Kgosana agreed to disperse the crowd after an undertaking by Colonel Terblanche that he would meet Mr F.C. Erasmus, the Minister of Justice, later in the day to discuss their grievances. The young 'Black' student from Pretoria and the trusting thirty thousand were tricked. Philip Kgosana was arrested after initially being promised that he would meet with a government representative. After imprisonment in the Roeland Street jail – along with other political prisoners – Kgosana was sent to Robben Island. The government repression brought forth resilience and a special quality among the oppressed, just like diamonds that have been exposed to extreme extended pressure. At the same time the consciences of 'Whites' were pricked once again about the injustices linked to apartheid. The tragic outcome nevertheless was that the trust of the 'Blacks' was once again betrayed with this repressive move. Conciliatory Church Moves Anglican leaders opposed apartheid when it became government policy in 1948. The Boer-Brit stigma, a traditional animosity as a legacy from the Anglo-Boer war at the end the 19th century, was however clinging to the efforts of (Arch) Bishops Trevor Huddleston, Joost de Blank and 111 Ffrench Breytag. They had hardly any support from other churches. These church leaders were nevertheless household names in the opposition to the apartheid folly in the 1950s and 1960s. Individual charismatic leaders were used in divine prophetic mode to forge unity across the racial divide. Church unity started to emerge in spite of the official apartheid policy. The World Council of Churches (WCC) met delegates of their eight member churches in South Africa at Cottesloe, a suburb of Johannesburg, from 7th December 1960 to discuss the crisis in the country in the wake of the Sharpeville killings and the arrest of ‘Black’ leaders. Church Unity Hijacked Dr H.F. Verwoerd, the Prime Minister, hijacked that move, rendering suspect every move which could have fostered Church unity. In this way the arch enemy succeeded in squashing the emerging unity of believers in South Africa. The brutal clampdown of apartheid enforcers brought ambivalent responses. After the return of the ANC leader Chief Albert Luthuli to his home town Groutville, he was served with a muzzling banning order; thus silenced, he was confined to the village for five years. The Sharpeville massacre of 21st March 1960 could have been God’s permitted corrective to get the Church in South Africa at large back on track, but with diabolic scheming Dr H.F. Verwoerd, the Prime Minister, succeeded in putting a blanket over anything in Afrikaner circles which could foster Church unity. The English-speaking churches and others sympathetic to the unity of believers across the race divide, were badmouthed. The storm caused by these moves fanned the flame of the old Boer-Brit resentment. Once again 'divide and rule' became the name of the game. Because of the government’s harsh repression and the kragdadige (heavyhanded) clampdown on all opposition, the early 1960s were marked by indifference and inertia on the part of the Church. In the second half of that decade, one finds careful moves like the multi-racial Christian Institute (CI), founded by Ds. Beyers Naudé in 1963, in reaction to the Cottesloe debacle. 112 Reverend Theo Kotze, a former Methodist Minister in Sea Point, headed up a CI office in Mowbray, where the Institute of Race Relations was also accommodated. This building near to the station therefore soon became a thorn in the flesh of the government, and was petrol-bombed by government agents. The perpetrators of these actions were usually never apprehended. The occasional public protest meeting organized by Theo Kotze and the Christian Institute were however usually only attended by a brave small crowd. Fear of interrogations by the notorious Spyker van Wyk, who was apparently never called to book for his atrocities in the apartheid era, kept many potential critics quiet. The regime responded by banning clergymen, confiscating passports – among others, from the leaders of the CI – and deporting foreigners like Dr Häselbarth, a Lutheran theologian. When the radical Reverend Dan M Wessels was banned and restricted to Genadendal from 1962-67, there was no protest from church ranks. In the early 1970s the Anglicans were prominent in the church protest against apartheid principle and practice. Father Bernard Wrankmore called forth the anger of Prime Minister Vorster and his government in 1971 when he called for an inquiry into the death of Imam Abdullah Haron who died while in police custody on 27 September, 1969. St Paul’s Church of Bo-Kaap voiced its protest when an unusual memorial service was held in the crypt on 6th October 1969. As a result of their stand on social issues, churchmen such as Rev. Theo Kotze, leader of the Western Cape CI and Dr Alex Boraine, MP and former president of the Methodist Conference, were harassed. Kotze was refused a passport to travel abroad to Germany at the invitation of the German government in Bonn. Dr Boraine was a target of a political campaign by the Minister of Justice, Mr Jimmy Kruger. Rev. Kotze later fled the country, but he and the CI had sowed the seed of prophetic protest against an idolatrous and heretical system of government. The relatively small D.F. Malan Airport of the Mother City did experience occasional protests when small groups of Christians would sing Onward Christian Soldiers every time a deported anti-apartheid fighter – often missionaries and foreign clergymen who had opposed the government – departed. The ogre of government reprisals and a sojourn on Robben 113 Island as a big scare, served as a powerful deterrent of visible protest. Many gifted people left the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s instead. 'Black' Giants of Faith For cultural or linguistic reasons 'Black' evangelists at the Cape remained unknown by and large. We are therefore thankful to people like the Swedish missionary Bengt Sundler and the Afrikaner theologian G.C. Oosthuizen for reporting some of the revivalist material outside of 'White' and 'Coloured' communities. Nothing notable about events at the Cape in the 1960s has been recorded. Over the years the ministries of Independent and Zionist 'Black' churches did however impact Cape townships like Langa, Nyanga, Crossroads and Khayalitsha in the 20th century. Of these personalities the one best known outside the area in South Africa where he ministered predominantly, was Isaiah Shembe (1865 – 1935). He was known for composing numerous Zulu hymns and sacred dances, for creating sacred costumes that combined Zulu and European clothing styles, and for developing a new liturgical calendar that omitted Christmas, Resurrection Commemoration, and Sunday worshipping. Some 'Black' evangelists and ministers from outside the Cape like the Baptist Rev. William Duma (1907 - 1977) and the Dorothea Missionrelated weggooikind (dumped child) Shadrach Maloka (1929-1996) preached also in Cape 'Coloured' churches. When William Duma went to work in Durban, his employer made it possible for him to attend Bible classes. In 1939 he received a call to the Umgeni Road Baptist Church. Here he was to spend the next 36 years of his life as a minister. Before Pastor Duma went to serve at Umgeni Road, he undertook 21 days of prayer and fasting. During this time he encountered God in a new way. He later referred to this as a turning point in his ministry. Umgeni Road was a struggling congregation with only seven members when he took over. He struggled on until 1944 when revival came to the church. During a mission campaign the church was filled to capacity and many people were baptized. From this time on the ministry at Umgeni Road increased greatly. 114 Willian Duma was soon in demand as a preacher and the Wednesday prayer meetings were well attended. He became recognized as a faith healer who gave God the glory for the healings that occurred. He was invited to preach in countries all over southern Africa: in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia. When Duma died in 1977, he left behind a vibrant legacy. He had been the Moderator of the Baptist Convention (for ‘Black' Baptist ministers). His work had been recognized by Christians all over southern Africa. Yet he remained a humble servant of God to whom he attributed the success of his ministry. Wide Impact of an Abandoned Baby Shadrach Maloka was born on 27th December 1929 in the small village of Ficksburg in the Free State. His father rejected him before he was born. Less than three months after his birth, his mother dumped him into a pit toilet. God used his compassionate grandmother, however, to salvage the baby which would surely have died. She, then, gave him a Sotho name 'Mohanoe', which means the rejected one. In his teens Mohanoe ran away from the village where he was a shepherdboy, and came to Johannesburg for a better life. He however became a tsotsi (gangster) in Johannesburg. On his birthday, the 27th December 1947, he and his fellow gangsters went to a Gospel tent, which was pitched by the Dorothea Mission. It had been announced that a movie would be shown. With the intention of disrupting the meeting, they sat right at the front. There they started smoking dagga (cannabis, weed). In that tent campaign the story of the crucifixion of Jesus gripped him. This turned his life around. In a massive switch, Shadrach Maloka became an evangelist with the Dorothea Mission and later a leading pastor in the Evangelical Brethren Church, with various evangelists serving under him. A Spark Towards a Ministry with Clothing Parcels God used Shadrach Maloka powerfully, not only in South Africa and neighbouring countries like Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland and 115 Mozambique, but even in the USA and also in Europe. He shared his testimony overseas also through the mission contacts. In his testimony Evangelist Shadrach Maloka would often refer to the parts of his past from which he had been redeemed: his survival as an abandoned baby, and later involvement in gangster activities. His preaching in our small Panweg church in Zeist, (Holland) became the run-up to a compassionate ministry with clothing parcels that started with serving the families of the struggling families of evangelists that worked under him. Via a YWAM missionary couple who left for Cameroon, a donated car was filled with clothing for believers in rural villages of West Africa. Banana cartons with clothing were sent to the Communist stronghold of Romania's Nikolai Ceauscescu in the late 1980s. This blessed harshly persecuted believers there when they discovered in this practical way that they were not forgotten by Christians in the West. The practical assistance to persecuted believers from the centrally situated town Zeist, sparked a great interest in the Netherlands, undermining the influence of the Romanian Communist dictator significantly. This was the result of the ministry that evolved from the clothing request initiated by Shadrach Maloka. It was quite special in the apartheid era that 'White' Afrikaners would come and listen to Pastor Maloka in Tiervlei (now called Ravensmead). The great evangelist died on 29th August 1996. Ds. Beyers Naudé Challenged One of the special Dutch Reformed ministers, the gifted Ds. Beyers Naudé, was seriously challenged as a young man. In Wellington, the first congregation that he served as a hulpprediker (assistant pastor), he immediately became uneasy when he discerned the inferior training at the Sendinginstituut, where ministers were trained who would serve the 'daughter' churches. (The name was rectified later. It became susterkerke (sister churches) On a personal level, the heritage in Genadendal of the pioneer missionary Georg Schmidt impacted the life of Beyers Naudé when he met his wife, Ilse. She was the daughter of Emil Weder, a Moravian 116 missionary in Genadendal. The name Emil Weder still lives on in the name of the local High School. After Ilse’s death in 2011, aged 98 years, Johan Naudé, the oldest son of the couple, told Die Burger, the prime Afrikaans newspaper, that were it not for his mother's strength, his father would never have achieved what he did in the fight against apartheid. After seeing the degenerate ‘Coloureds’ in the Karoo town of Loxton where he was a pastor subsequently, Beyers Naudé was reminded of the cultured educated people of colour he had encountered for the first time in Genadendal while he was courting his wife. Beyers Naudé was reminded of the cultured educated people in Genadendal. The question came to him ‘why it was not possible to have this in other parts of the country?' There in Genadendal the seed for the multi-racial Christian Institute (CI) was sown into the heart of the former Afrikaner Broederbond leader, whose father had helped to found the secret organization with lofty ideals for the upliftment of Afrikaners. Attempt to Silence Beyers Naudé The Sunday Times published a secret Broederbond plan on 21st April 1963 to oust the ‘new deal’ leaders of the Dutch Reformed Church. People like Beyers Naudé had to be silenced and theological criticism of apartheid outlawed. The Sunday Times revealed that the Afrikaner Broederbond wanted to tighten their stranglehold on church affairs and that they wanted to ‘clip the wings’ of Beyers Naudé. The Broederbond got the 'White' Dutch Reformed Church to change its stance. Rev. Beyers Naudé could not palate the underhand tactics. He now dreamed of establishing a ‘Confessing Church’ in South Africa on the model of what happened in Germany when Nazis threatened to absorb the Church into its ideology. With a few other ministers he started the Christian Institute (CI) along similar lines in 1963 as an ecumenical organization with the aim of fostering reconciliation through interracial dialogue, research and publications. Among other things, the Christian 117 Institute promoted Bible Studies with participants from different races. These actions were perhaps merely a drop in the ocean. The work of Rev. Michael Cassidy, the founder and long-time leader of African Enterprise, added more substance to the Church protest. These organizations united believers across racial barriers, which contributed significantly to stalwart opposition to apartheid. Beyers Naudé was by this time quite influential as the moderator of the new Southern Transvaal Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was, however, effectively ostracised by Afrikanerdom subsequently, until he was more or less coerced to resign from the Aasvoëlkop congregation in Northcliff, Johannesburg. The denomination forced Naudé to choose between his status as minister and directorship of the CI. He then resigned his church post. He also resigned from the Broederbond. As a result, he lost his status as minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. His last sermon to his congregation highlighted that 'We must show greater loyalty to God than to man'. But that also ushered in the isolation of the Dutch Reformed Church. The growing church unity was effectively put on hold. Dr Beyers Naudé and a few other Church leaders, who had been ostracised, valiantly walked the road of loneliness of which Albert Luthuli had spoken. Many Pastors Impacted By the AEB The Africa Evangelical Band (AEB) had evangelism as their main activity. As one of the first Bible Schools for people of colour, it operated in Bell Road, Kenilworth with great effect, sending their graduates as pilgrims throughout the country. Many pastors in the ‘Coloured’ churches of ‘mainline’ denominations where gospel preaching had been neglected, were led to a personal relationship with Jesus through this evangelism and spiritual challenge. Because of Group Areas legislation the Bible School moved to Crawford. The Africa Evengelical Band's main activity was evangelism. 118 When the South African AEB celebrated their golden jubilee in 1994, it would sadly usher in a separation between the 'White' sector at the posh premises Glenvar in Constantia and the one for 'Coloureds' in Crawford. After fruitful missionary service throughout the country, Dennis Atkins served as principal with his wife Denise as matron from 1994 into the new millennium until 2006. They impacted many young people during their tenure. Wesley van Graan, a gifted young man became the director of the 'Coloured' sector. Whereas other churches united when democracy arrived in our country, the AEB decided to give 'independence' to the non-'Whites'. Ds. Piet Bester, the author’s own mentor, was among the anointed ministers from different denominations who served as lecturers, some of them for many years. Results of 'Group Areas' Legislation A report presented in 1940 to the Cape Town City Council, envisaged ‘Slum Clearance Projects’, namely: (a) District Six (b) The Malay Quarter (c) The Docks Area After the passing of legislation by Parliament in 1950 to divide residential areas along racial lines, many ‘Coloured’ communities were destroyed. With regard to the Docks Area, also called Roggebaai, the eviction of ‘Coloured’ inhabitants caused little resistance. As a result of this, the Baptist Church in Jarvis Street thus became the home of the Cape Town Photographic Society in due course. In 1961 large areas of the city were declared ‘White’ residential zones. As a result, many ‘Coloureds’ moved into District Six, where overcrowding worsened. People who did not know anything about Islam, now came to know Muslims. The confusing message was going around that ‘we have the same God’, in contradiction of the face that the Qur'an teaches clearly that Allah does not have a son whereas the Bible speaks at various places of Jesus as the Son of God. 119 On May 7, 1961 Muslims gathered in the Cape Town City Hall to launch the Call of Islam. This umbrella body of different Muslim organisations – founded by Imam Abdullah Haron – set out to oppose the Group Areas Act. In 1965 the Minister of Community Development and 'Coloured' Affairs, P.W. Botha – who would later become Prime Minister – called District Six a ‘blighted area’. Soon there was talk of slum clearance, setting the scene for events to follow. There was talk of slum clearance, setting the scene for events to follow. On 11 February 1966 District Six was formally declared a ‘White’ residential area. In the insecurity that followed, landlords allowed buildings to go unrepaired, causing District Six to become even more of a derelict residential area. Apartheid Dividing the Opposition The divisive nature of apartheid and its former name segregation can be discerned easily. Governments down the years have been abusing the giving of privileges to some people to divide and rule those they were oppressing. What was however especially sad was to notice how church leaders were deceived in the way they responded to representatives of the government. Refusal to speak to the government was made a virtue, so that a rift ultimately arose between the likes of no less than (Arch) bishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak around 1980. Thankfully they buried the gauntlet later, and were reconciled. They notably marched together again on 13 September 1989 and went to meet President de Klerk together in October 1989. This was the prelude to the release of Nelson Mandela a few months later. A Turning Point in Christian Responses In May 1968, during one of the darkest periods of South African history, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) was founded. At the time, the National Party government was severely restricting the rights, associations and movements of the majority of South Africans in every 120 way. Until the establishment of the SACC, South Africa’s churches had generally made little effort to stand together against the injustices of the apartheid regime. The Message to the People of South Africa was a new departure – a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. It stated that apartheid was not merely bad in practice, but that it was also wrong in principle. It taught that apartheid was not merely heretical, but that it was unbiblical and unchristian, a false gospel. At the time it was likened to the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934). It set in motion a process of Church-based opposition to apartheid that prepared the way for declaring its theological justification a heresy and its practice a sin that had to be rejected and resisted. The Message was a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. 121 CHAPTER TWELVE MID-20th CENTURY GOSPEL OUTREACH TO MUSLIMS ___________________________ The Dutch Reformed Church had pioneered the work among the Cape Muslim slaves from 1731 via the retired Ds. Beck. In the early twentieth century, however, it seemed that, in terms of outreach to the Muslims, both the missionaries and churches were clearly only intent on 'empire building'. All reports seem to confirm that the Reformed missionary Eerwaarde (Reverend) A. J. Liebenberg was well received by Muslims, and also networked well with the Anglican Muslim outreach work under Rev. A. W. Blaxall’s leadership in the 1920s. However, Rev. Liebenberg apparently had little support from his own denomination for his endeavour to co-operate with other denominations. Four times Liebenberg was allowed to address the Cape Malay Association. Through the reading room on the corner of Bree and Shortmarket Street in the old Bo-Kaap, Liebenberg had a significant impact on the Muslim community. His Dutch Reformed colleagues were, however, not happy that Liebenberg accepted all sorts of invitations, ‘selfs as dit in ‘n moskee gehou word’ (even if they were held in mosques). His church colleagues suspected that the Muslims were abusing these occasions and that the ‘Coloured’ press was under the control of the Muslims. There may have been some truth in the allegation, but jealousy probably also played a role, as had also been the case with Reverend Vogelgezang in the 19th century. 122 Prayer for Muslims… When Ds. Davie Pypers commenced ministry in 1956 under the auspices of the St Stephen’s congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in BoKaap's Bree Street, he discerned the need for increased prayer for the Muslims of the area. Together with two colleagues Ds. Davie Pypers interceded every Monday for Bo-Kaap. Soon he initiated prayer for Bo-Kaap and the Muslims living there. Together with two other pastoral colleagues, he interceded every Monday for the area that became even more pronouncedly Islamic in the wake of the implementation of Group Areas legislation. …Leading to Outreach The resumption of evangelistic work among the Cape Muslims in the second half of the twentieth century was undertaken by the South African Missionary Society. Ds. Davie Pypers, who became a full-time missionary for this purpose in July 1961, was joined by Pieter Els, a theological student who, along with two other student theological colleagues, had been challenged to reach out to Muslims with the Gospel, while they were studying at Stellenbosch in 1960. The DRC Takes on Responsibility of Muslim Outreach According to the racial group areas, which were implemented and firmly entrenched by the mid-1960s, Cape Muslims were grouped with the 'Coloureds'. Bo-Kaap and the immediate surrounds of the kramat of Macassar were exceptions to the rule. Indian Muslims were linked with Indian Hindus in Rylands Estate / Gateville, Cravenby and Pelican Park. The group of ‘Coloured’ churches in the ring (circuit) of Wynberg, stretching from Retreat to Cape Town at that time, decided to give a bigger responsibility to the churches to witness to the Muslims and Hindus. The tract of Van der Vyver Oombliklik Gered (Instantly Saved) apparently made quite an impact in the ‘Coloured’ community. Van der 123 Vyver and Greyling’s main strategy was the training of church members, empowering them to reach out to their peers in schools, neighbourhoods and factories. Ds. Davie Pypers played a major role in making the Sendingkerk sensitive towards outreach to the Muslims. A notable outcome of the work of Ds. Pypers at the ‘Coloured’ S.A. Gestig congregation in Long Street was when one of his former congregants, Lizzie Cloete, arrived at a conviction in 1964 that the Lord was calling her for the spreading of the Gospel to the Muslims. As a church worker in the congregation of Wynberg, Lizzie became one of the first full-time missionaries to the Cape Muslims from the ‘Coloured’ community, but it was not seen that way by the Church at large. She was just regarded as a church worker, but her consecration on 17 May 1964 was a landmark for the ‘Coloured’ sector of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Sendingkerk synod thereafter stated that they did not only want to send individual missionaries, they wanted to be a missionary church: ‘elke lidmaat – die ganse kerk!... In plaas van sendelinge, moet die kerk in aksie wees’ (every member – the entire church!… Instead of missionaries, the church must be in action). Marriages as a Catalyst for Outreach Ds. Chris Greyling had in the meantime been appointed as the first mission organiser of the Sendingkerk, with a special charge to reach out to the Muslims. The synod of 1966 of the ‘Coloured’ sector took the decision to become a sending (missionary) church. Evangelist Izak van der Vyver, who operated in Philippi, was very sad when one of their church workers, trained as a social worker, married a Muslim in May 1974. He wrote one of the first pamphlets about Muslim Evangelism: Wat Dit Beteken as ‘n Christen Moslem (Slams) Word. (What It Means When A Christian Becomes A Muslim.) He was not the only one in the church who was upset. The church organ published a full issue in August 1974 on Islam, with contributions from Evangelist van der Vyver, Ds. Chris Greyling and Prof. Pieter Els. Apart from the occasional outreach to Muslims, the emphasis was on preventing their church members from marrying Muslims. So many were ignorant of the 124 problems that would follow. The other facet of their work was winning back those who had become disillusioned. A getuienisaksie (witness action) team from the new Lentegeur congregation of the Sendingkerk in Mitchell's Plain, with Isobel Fenton a long-standing faithful member, advised many young girls, who had become pregnant by Muslim men. Their efforts were often crowned with success when the girls in question discovered that the church did not condemn them outright. Likewise, quite a few women of their congregation, who had been divorced from Muslim men, returned to the Christian fold. A Renewed Anglican Mission to Muslims The first known appointment of a person of colour for full-time outreach to Muslims occurred after Rev. (later Bishop) George Schwarz had approached Archbishop Joost de Blank in 1959 with a pastoral problem. One of Schwarz’s parishioners had become pregnant by a Muslim patient at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital. De Blank now told him that Miss Leslie, the church’s only remaining missionary to the Muslims, would be retiring soon. The archbishop challenged Schwarz to get involved with this work. Schwarz’s calling to the Muslim work was confirmed at a ministers’ retreat in 1960, after which he was given a special appointment as full-time priest for the ‘Mission to the Muslims’. In order to be better equipped for this work, he was sent to Canterbury in England, where he was trained for a year at St Augustine's by the renowned Bishop Kenneth Cragg. A stint of nine months in Jerusalem to minister among Arab Christians was intended to make him acquainted with the Middle East setting. Back in Cape Town, Schwarz was linked to St Mark’s parish in Athlone, with the full-time charge of ministering to Muslims in the whole diocese of the Mother City. His work centred around the counselling of marriages in which one of the parties was a Muslim (or other people where a marriage was considered). Soon the archbishop approached Rev. Schwarz to move to the parish of St Philip’s in District Six in a caretaker capacity. Schwarz went to St Philip’s in 1963. Here he also conducted seminars on Islam and Muslim Evangelism for the whole diocese. For seven years Rev. Schwarz laboured 125 in District Six, but increasingly the parochial responsibilities devoured his attention. By his own admission, by 1970 ninety percent of his time was devoted to parish work. In that year Schwarz was called to take charge of the Anglican congregation in Bonteheuwel. To all intents and purposes, this signaled the end of all formal Muslim outreach by the denomination. Missionary and Pastoral Work Among Indians Pieter Els (who later became professor of Old Testament at UWC) soon joined the Muslim outreach effort among Indians with Ds. Davie Pypers in Rylands. There Reverend Edward Mannikam was the first pastor from the Indian community to be given leadership responsibility in a church. In his ministry to the Hindus, Ds. Pypers, had made use of films, exposing the demonic nature of walking through fire with the role players being in a trance. In the Muslim strongholds of those days, such as Sherwood Park, Pypers extensively used a film about the crucifixion of Jesus. In this film Barabbas made the significant statement: ‘He died in my place.’ Pypers often used the movie in conjunction with a series of sermons on the ten ‘I am’ pronouncements of Jesus. This series in Sherwood Park, a small residential area with a significant Muslim component near to Manenberg, had the title ‘Who is this man’. Ds. Davie Pypers was catapulted into prominence when Ahmed Deedat challenged him to a debate on 13 August 1961. More detail of that power encounter is recorded in chapter 13. The later departure of Ds. Davie Pypers from the Cape Peninsula signalled a significant expansion of missionary work among South African Indians. The ministry in Port Elizabeth left a small Reformed church there as legacy, but Pypers's itinerant ministry in Natal especially blazed a deep trail among Hindus and Muslims. At least six young people became missionaries or pastors as a result, namely Dharma Francis, Tiny Kuppen, Mithra Moonsamy, Sonny Pillay, Bhim Singh, Geetha and Michael Sunker, In the mission agency WEC International three of them became part and parcel of the breaking of apartheid barriers in the mission agency in the 1980s. Two of them – Tiny Kuppen and Bhim Singh – later became 126 missionary leaders in Spain and Fiji respectively. The Impact of an Undervalued Spiritual Giant The impact of Ds. Davie Pypers shines through the testimony of Reverend Sonny Pillay who pastored the Living Waters Christian Community in South Australia from December 1992 till the end of January 2020: 'I was converted from Hinduism to Christianity in 1971 under the dynamic outreach of Rev. Tjaart van Nieuwenhuizen, who later left the ministry. For someone who hated Christianity and the Church, to become the first convert in the Indian Reformed Church in that area, was an absolute miracle. The local high school offered sponsorship to twelve students to go on a retreat to the Drakensberg in 1970. The retreat cum camp included over 2 weeks of hiking through the mountains into Lesotho and back via Giants Castle.' Tjaart van Nieuwenhuizen started Club 70 on the return from there, assisted by Shun Govender, a theological student who subsequently also studied in the Netherlands. The twelve youngsters were a mixed group of Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. Two years later Ds. Pypers’ visit to the home of the Pillays led to an encounter with the Holy Spirit and a mini revival in the district. Bhim Singh, Dharma Francis, Tiny Kuppen and many others came to faith as first time converts. Ds. Pypers allowed Sonny Pillay to disciple them. He trusted Sonny explicitly and gave him the liberty to preach, teach and evangelise, with no restrictions placed on any one. At that time this was very unusual. This was obviously the work of the Holy Spirit. Life Challenge and the Dutch Reformed Church The Muslim Evangelism agency Life Challenge and the initiative from the Dutch Reformed Church networked quite well at the Cape, especially while Ds. Chris Greyling was still the Sendingkerk man. Neville Truter became a co-worker from DRC ranks after a tract had touched him. The tract was given to him by the German missionary Gerhard Nehls at the sale of his car in 1976. Neville Truter was thrown into the deep end when he was requested to arrange an appointment for Gerhard Nehls and Walter Gschwandtner with the imam of a mosque in Cravenby near 127 Parow. Later, Truter teamed up with Pieter Els. They joined forces for many years for outreach in the Indian residential area. Born in Molteno in the Eastern Cape, Professor Pieter Els completed a M.A. thesis on a comparative study of Abraham/Ibrahim as described in the Bible and in the Qur'an entitled Abraham in die Qur’an at the University of Stellenbosch in 1968. He also studied at Hartford Seminary Foundation and at Yale Divinity School in Connecticut USA. While Pieter Els was still a theology student at Stellenbosch he went on regular Christian evangelism-outreaches to Muslim homes. At these townships he regularly reached out with evangelical messages. Long after his formal retirement, Pieter Els continued with teaching engagements in Old Testament, retaining a keen interest in both Jewish and Muslim Evangelism. Neville Truter became an affiliate worker of SIM after his retirement from secular work. Already deep into his 80s, Neville Truter pioneered a ministry to Muslim people around the world via the Internet. Jurie Goosen and his wife joined the Life Challenge outreach team after he had just finished his theological studies in 1984 and later became a missionary of the denomination, linked to the Helderberg DRC congregation in Somerset West in 1989. Operating closely with Uli Lehmann and his wife, the two couples pioneered a ministry to foreign students at Stellenbosch University. 128 129 CHAPTER THIRTEEN DIVERSE POWER ENCOUNTERS ___________________________ Achmed Deedat and his two close confidants, Goolam Hoosein Vanker and Taahir Rasool, had established the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) in Durban in 1957. The objective of the organization was to publish books on Islam and assist newly converted Muslims into faith. In 1958, Deedat founded As-Salaam Educational Institute, an Islamic seminary in Braemar, in Natal Province, South Africa, but the project failed to gather steam due to a shortage of manpower and monetary support. At this time, Ds. Davie Pypers was one of the very few ministers of his era who had discerned the need of spiritual warfare. It was far from being common practice yet at the Cape. After Ds. Davie Pypers was called to become the missionary to the Muslims, and was linked to the 'Coloured' S.A. Gestig congregation in Long Street, the post he took up on 1 July 1961, he had hardly started with his new ministry in Long Street, when a challenge came from Mr Ahmed Deedat – at that time still a fairly unknown Indian Muslim imam – to publicly debate the death of Jesus on the Cross. Power Encounter in Green Point This definitely was a power encounter. Two weeks before the campaign, rain and wind were ravaging the area. 130 Pypers felt very inadequate for this challenge and prepared himself for the event, scheduled for Sunday, 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track, with prayer and fasting in a tent on the mountains at Bain’s Kloof Hex River mountain range, which contains the most interior early Muslim shrine of the Western Cape. Davie Pypers prepared himself with prayer and fasting. The Muslims themselves recognized the supernatural aspect of the approaching event because the rain and the wind stopped the moment Pypers’ team unpacked their evangelism material. Because of good publicity in Cape newspapers, 30 000 people of all races jammed into the sports stadium. The venue quivered with excitement like at a rugby match. At the packed Green Point track Deedat asked for a proof that Jesus died on the cross. The young dominee rose to the challenge by immediately stating that Jesus is alive and that He could do there and then the very things he was doing when He walked the earth. Faith healing was widely regarded as sectarian at that time in mainline Church circles, yet Dr David du Plessis reported the event in his autobiography as follows: ‘Taking a deep breath, he (Pypers) spoke loud and clear: “Is there anybody in this audience that, according to medical judgement, is completely incurable? Remember, it must be incurable...” Of course, the stadium was abuzz by now. And then several men came along, carrying Mrs Withuhn, a 'White' Christian lady, with braces all over her body. She was completely paralysed. Then Pypers went ahead, asking whether there were any doctors present who could examine her and vouch for her condition. ‘Several doctors came forward, including her own physician, and they concurred in pronouncing her affliction incurable.’ Pypers simply walked up to her and without any ado prayed for her briefly and proclaimed: “In the name of Jesus, be healed!” Immediately she dropped her crutches and began to move. The Green Point event thus resulted in a victory for the Cross, after the miraculous healing of Mrs Withuhn in the name of the resurrected 131 Lord. Many Muslims were deeply moved. The impact of the miracle was, however, almost nullified by the news that came from another part of the world on that same day. The report of the building of the Berlin Wall resounded throughout the world! A new type of battle was ushered in – the ‘cold war’ between Soviet Communism and Western Capitalism! The cold war became the talk of the day. The cold war between the Western allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its satellite states in opposition became the talk of the day. The enemy of souls abused Communism with its atheistic basis, to hinder the spreading of the victorious message of the Cross, which had been proclaimed at the Green Point Track. Nonetheless, the Cape Town event of August 1961 surely had some importance in the spiritual realm. The Islamic Crescent became clearly linked to Communism – albeit not intended – in opposition to the Cross when the news of the erection of the Berlin Wall resounded around the world. This happened again in reverse in 1989 after the demise of Communism. When Saddam Hussein marched into Kuwait with his army, Islam took over the mantle from the atheist ideology as a threat to world peace. That event became the cause for ten years of praying against the ideology of Islam as a spiritual force. 132 Another Healing Leads to Conversion A terminally ill woman, Fatima Olckers, heard parts of Pypers’ sermon on her bed. She wondered whose voice was repeating a sentence again and again. The breeze brought the words to her ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. She realized that it was Nabi Isa ibn Mariam. She resolved to call on the name of Jesus, since she had called on Allah and Muhammad in vain. She was instantly healed and thereafter she became a believer in Jesus Christ, one of the first converts from Islam in the Western Cape in the early 1960s. Green Point Aftermath The spiritual battle heated up after Ahmed Deedat’s perceived defeat at Green Point. He called for revenge. Deedat stated publicly that his original motivation for these public debates was his own humiliation at the hands of Christians, and he was not going to accept defeat lying down. Ideological Deception Ahmed Deedat started the resurrection of Islam ideologically after the Green Point event, and deceived many a Christian through sly distortion of the Bible, notably through his abuse of the Jonah story to suggest that Jesus was not dead in the grave. He also challenged many a Christian leader, usually with many of his followers in attendance. In due course he became highly regarded internationally as the paramount apologist of Islam. Around 1980 the radical side of Islam came to the fore very strongly. Ayatollah Khomeini set out to achieve world domination for the religion. In the life and teaching of Khomeini the violent side of Muhammad's legacy surfaced clearly. The German theologian Marius Baar wrote a bestseller with the title Das Abendland am Scheideweg (The Occident at the Crossroads), that was published in 1980. Very accurately he set out the choices, pointing to the biblical prophesies of the end times. He had suggested that the demonic use of oil reserves could be a sinister emulation of the Holy 133 Spirit of which oil is the biblical symbol. The oil-rich Gulf States bought one Western company after the other. Islamic world-wide domination became an ominous possibility. Ahmed Deedat was travelling the world at this time, seeking to debate Christian apologists. The thorough theological thrashing at the hands of Josh McDowell, a powerful American former agnostic in June 1981 in Durban did not stop Ahmed Deedat. At college McDowell had prepared a paper that would examine the historical evidence of the Christian faith in order to disprove it, and became a follower of Jesus, after, as he says, he found evidence for Christianity, not against it.4 Even when Deedat clearly came off second best at the debate with Josh McDowell in Durban in 1981, his team 'doctored' the footage in the material that was disseminated by the Islamic Propagation Centre in such a way that made it appear that he had been the victor. The video cassette was going around the world, depicting how he had beaten Josh McDowell. In this case however, an amateur vision of the full debate was also made by Christians, now available at https://youtu.be/-7nxQ5_QlvE. For more than two decades after the encounter with McDowell, Ahmed Deedat remained Islam's prime apologist, only to be stopped in May 1996 after he had refused to withdraw offensive statements in a full-page advertisement in a newspaper. The stroke that stopped him reduced him to a shade of the former Islamist propagator who had ridiculed the Bible so unashamedly. Other Power Encounters at the Cape The Green Point Track event of 13 August 1961 was only one in a series that would influence South African ecclesiastical history significantly. A mere month after the Green Point Track encounter between Pypers and Deedat, another open-air event took place at the Cape, this time at the Goodwood Showgrounds on Sunday 17 September 1961. There the Lord used Dr Oswald Smith from Canada to challenge the crowd to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. I (the author) was one of those who surrendered to the claims of Christ at the evangelistic service that day. The influence of evangelistic campaigns in sports stadiums and big auditoriums had already started to take the English-speaking world by 134 storm, and impacted South Africa as well. Already in the 1950s Michael Cassidy became a follower of Jesus under the preaching of Dr Billy Graham. Mass evangelists like William Branham, Billy Graham and T. L. Osborn drew big crowds all around the world. Cape Town was one of the venues for these religious globetrotters. Expansion of Islam Group Areas legislation was one of the factors that lead to the expansion of Islam. The Schotsche Kloof Flats provided the ideological foundation on which apartheid ideologists like Dr I.D. du Plessis would build the Muslim stronghold of Bo-Kaap. Christians and churches had to move from there more or less forcibly in due course. This saved Islam from extinction at the Cape to all intents and purposes. As 'Coloureds' left residential areas that had been declared 'White' via Group Areas legislation, mosques arose in all the new Cape Flats townships where they were dumped. Islam thus received a significant boost. Merging of Spiritual & Social Ministries Confront Apartheid In 1961 Rev. Theo Kotze became pastor of the Sea Point and Malmesbury Methodist congregations. With his wife Helen and their children, the Kotze family was a formidable team, and they soon became the talk of the town. Theo Kotze, one of the first Christian Institute (CI) members at the Cape, formed an ecumenical Bible Study group and used material from CI that was led nationally by Dr Beyers Naudé. The theme of the CI was (racial) reconciliation. All initiatives were preceded by discussions based on Bible Study and prayer. Dr Beyers Naudé, the national leader, set the prophetic tone in the pursuit of truth and reconciliation, a message which Theo Kotze supported all the way. In the second year of Theo Kotze’s ministry in Sea Point, in September 1963, he organized a prayer vigil for the multi-racial Alan Walker Mission at the Goodwood Showgrounds. Special trains were organised to bring people from as far away as Simon’s Town. 135 Two massive crossed were erected on Signal Hill and Tygerberg. Unlike most contemporary evangelists, Alan Walker emphasised the social implications of the Gospel. During the preparation for the mission, an ex-cabinet minister, angered by Walker’s statements on non-racialism, unleashed a political controversy. Through his involvement with the evangelistic campaign, Kotze was linked to Rev. Walker, of whom the government disapproved emphatically. An elucidation of the fine balance between biblical compassion and social involvement became evident in Kotze’s ‘Straight Talking’ columns in the Sea Point Vision church magazine that he started in March 1964. In 1965, Nelson Mandela and his colleagues had been on Robben Island for almost two years when the Cape Methodist Synod appointed Theo Kotze as Robben Island chaplain. Among his Methodist congregants there were prominent political detainees like Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe and Stanley Mogoba. 136 137 CHAPTER FOURTEEN OUTREACH TO JEWS ___________________________ The Dutch Reformed Church pioneered the ministry to Cape Jews in the 20th century, remaining possibly to this day the only denomination that had formally and consistently set aside missionaries to minister to the Jews into the 21st century. The Mildmay Mission appointed E. Reitmann for work among the Jews. As many as 200 Jews attended events in the Mission Hall in Sea Point in the early years of the century. In 1929 Peter Salzberg, a converted Jew from Poland, had come to the Cape via the Mildmay Mission in London, and joined up with the Hebrew Christian Alliance, the worldwide movement of Messianic Jews. He had not been at the Cape very long before he passed away. His son Peter, who had just started as a missionary doctor in Angola, came in his place, and worked in the Cape until his retirement in 1972(3). Salzberg (junior) led many a Jew to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. The Mission returned to the Cape in 2003 under their new name The Messianic Testimony. The First Heart Transplant World-Wide The world was stunned in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed. Suddenly it was realized that what was regarded as one of the most unlikely biblical prophesies, was actually being fulfilled. Jews started planning to return to Israel as never before. 138 Cape Town also played a special role in a new turning of attention to God’s people when the first heart transplant world-wide was performed on 3 December 1967 on Louis Washkansky, a Jew. The prophecy of Jeremiah that the Almighty wants to substitute the repentant hearts of stone with a heart of flesh, received a new actuality in evangelism. The world-wide acknowledgment by Jews – to regard Jesus as their Messiah – suddenly became more of a possibility. The Six-Day War of the same year had brought massive land gains to the Jews, a fact which had already fanned eschatological flames. This was followed by Jerusalem’s resuming of its role as capital of Israel in 1980. Love for Israel Unites Believers When Israel and South Africa became the pariahs of the world politically, an interesting phenomenon transpired. Across denominational barriers one found that the love for Israel straddled unlikely barriers. Groups of Christians from South Africa were visiting Israel, coming from all sorts of denominations after the 1967 war in Israel. Faans Klopper and his English-speaking wife Elizabeth were included. An Engineering Pastor Stefanus Klopper was born in Diep River in the Southern Suburbs on 3 January, 1925 into an Afrikaans-speaking family. Faans' parents were devout followers of Jesus who brought personal faith in Him into the family as a matter of course. Trained as a structural engineer, Faans got involved in many different interesting projects. Belonging initially to the Apostoliese Geloof Sending (AGS/AFM) of the 1950s, evangelism and preaching was part and parcel of the fare of Faans Klopper. In 1952 he married Elizabeth, a member of their congregation. In due course Faans and his family moved to the Assemblies of God that had started a fellowship in Kenilworth. From this base he was involved in the building of three churches with his engineering skills. For six years he gathered with various believers on Saturday mornings in what was termed a Call to Prayer. This group of believers always waited on the Lord to guide them on what issue(s) they should focus their prayers. 139 Time and again the Father pointed them to pray for the unity of the body of Christ. Faans was called into ministry of the Assemblies of God where he started serving the AoG congregation of Pretoria from 1 January 1979. Interesting Personal Relationships Faans has had very interesting personal relationships to Jews and Israel. As a boy he witnessed Jewish smouse (hawkers) coming to the home of his grandfather, where he would check how many were sleeping on the loft floor in the morning, and then invite them for breakfast after going to Muizenberg beach. Faans grew up with a love for Israel and the Jews. His daughter, Ruth Epstein, also made a lifelong friendship with a Jewish colleague. Faans befriended Basil Jacobs, who had been a Jehovah's Witness when they met. This led to a very special friendship. They visited the Knesset together where they met and interviewed Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister. Faans had been instrumental in helping to build the Harfield Road Assembly of Kenilworth, which was a hub during the Hippie Revival of the early 1970s. Together with the fellowship in Meadowridge the assembly broke through the apartheid barriers of the time in erecting a church in the 'Coloured' township Lotus River. Four other 'Coloured' AoG churches would be established as a result of the Hippie Revival. The International Christian Embassy Elizabeth, the wife of Faans, had a love for Jews. The 1967 war in the Middle East would become the trigger for many a visit to Israel by Faans and his wife Elizabeth, especially after they moved to Pretoria in 1971. The rise of OPEC in 1973 and the closing of African embassies and consulate in Israel, led to that country and South Africa becoming the polecats of the world. In 1976 Faans was appointed as the AoG pastor of the Pretoria congregation. Faans booked a trip to Israel in faith, to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles in 1980. 1979 would become a special year in which Faans Klopper visited Israel 140 four times. He hoped to get a group of other South Africans to go with them. The cherry on the cake was when he was asked to lead the group of South Africans. His congregation co-operated wonderfully, by stating that this would be a mission to which they wanted to contribute some pocket money! In July 1980 Israel passed the Jerusalem Law stating that legally, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. The Arab nations responded with threats of oil embargo's for those nations who did not reject this law and relocate to Tel Aviv. God confirmed to a number of people that they should establish an embassy in Jerusalem, representing Christians who recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish nation. Within days the International Christian Embassy was established. South Africans played a big role in the establishment of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem from its inception in 1980. Faans Klopper served as a chaplain for four and a half years. Malcolm Hedding entered the ministry in the early 1970s as a member of the Assemblies of God of Southern Africa. As a young ordained minister, Hedding confronted apartheid from the pulpit and was forced to flee his homeland. He has been involved with the work of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) since 1981 and was executive director from 2000. Between 1986 and 1989, Malcolm was a pastor of the Jerusalem Christian Assembly. During this period, he also functioned as the Chaplain for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. Malcolm served from 1991 - 2000 as Chairperson of Christian Action for Israel in South Africa. A DRC Minister Touched by Ancient Prophecies Dr Johann Luckhoff, a former Dutch Reformed minister, remembers how at the age of 14 he heard a family friend share about Israel after returning from a visit there. God continued to speak to him about Israel as he witnessed the ancient prophecies being fulfilled as the Jewish people continued returning home to their newly reborn nation. Dr Johann Luckhoff felt called to Jerusalem in the late 1970s and met 141 up with other believers who were also based there. They met for regular prayer meetings, waiting on the Lord... Dr Luckhoff recalls that many Israelis were excited about the opening of the International Christian Embassy, but did not understand what the Christian Embassy’s function would be... He remembers them saying: “You don’t need to do anything, just that you are here with us, that alone is enough!” Diverse Callings into Ministry of Cape Jews The Dutch Reformed Church appointed various workers in their Mission to the Jews in the last quarter of the 20th century. As a high school girl Cecilia Burger was impacted for full-time missionary service when a Straatwerk team visited Montagu. During the second year of her studies in Social Work at the Huguenot College in Wellington a challenge came her way to serve with Simcha Ministries to the Jewish people. Later that same year she sensed a clear nudge from Ezekiel 3:4 … I send you to the people of Israel. In a divinely orchestrated way Cecilia Burger was eventually appointed to reach out to Jewish women, after she was initially turned down due to reservations regarding the funding of the post. Cecilia started in 1975, and assisted significantly in creating awareness within the denomination regarding their responsibility of bringing the Gospel to the Jews. In 1983 Dr Francois Wessels also became their man. Peter Eliastam, a very creative Messianic Jewish believer, reached out to Jews through an exhibition called Homage to the Messiah. Rodney Mechanic, a Jew, came to faith in Jesus as Messiah under Eliastam’s ministry 142 and influence. Later Rodney Mechanic became a minister in the Anglican Church. After coming to the Cape, Rodney started an outreach ministry to Jewish people called Messiah’s People under the auspices of Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ). Doogie St. Clair-Laing took over from Rodney Mechanic when Rodney left for the UK. Edith Sher later joined this ministry. Over the years various Jewish people came to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Services with believers were held in homes until they began regular services. After a few changes of location, the fellowship moved to the Dutch Reformed Church of Three Anchor Bay where they had Friday evening services for a number of years. From the word go people from gentile backgrounds attended the services. The Messianic Jewish component remained in the minority for many years. From the 1980s annual conferences with prominent speakers were held. Christians came from far afield to attend these occasions. For many of them it was very special to discover the Jewish roots of their faith. 143 CHAPTER FIFTEEN A PERSONAL JOURNEY ___________________________ I would like to insert at this point how God intervened in my own life. The most incisive intervention occurred in my teenage years when I accepted the Lord as my personal Saviour on 17 September 1961. At the beginning of 1963 I was spiritually revived under the preaching and teaching of Ds. Piet Bester, the new local Sendingkerk minister of Tiervlei. He became a big influence in my life at that time, notably for missionary and evangelistic outreach. To all intents and purposes, he became my mentor. God's Higher Ways Impacting Me When I was returning to our Tiervlei home in the late afternoon around this time, a major intervention followed after I had learned that I had been accepted to study at Hewat Teachers’ Training College. I was quite surprised when my parents disclosed that they felt that I could proceed straight away to Hewat. Prior to this it had been agreed that I would try to get any secular employment for a year. Encouraged by the ‘Watchword’ from the Moravian textbook for the day, Isaiah 55:8: 'My ways are not your ways ...', my parents decided to send me to college by faith. At the monthly local youth services in the Moravian Church of Tiervlei, 144 I had been inviting not only experienced (lay) preachers from other churches, but also teenagers like myself. Allan Boesak from Somerset West subsequently preached at one of our youth services. In our denomination I did not fit in the mould. Along with two young Sunday School colleagues Paul Engel and Paul Joemat, the boat of tradition was rocked at many a Sunday School conference. A Major Turning Point in my Life Allan Boesak’s dedication to the Lord made a deep impression on me. When he spoke about the stranddienste, the beach gospel services of the Students Christian Association at Harmony Park, he sowed seed into my heart. This seed germinated when my Moravian soul mate Paul Engel joined me at Hewat Training College in 1964. Paul also spoke about the Harmony Park beach outreach. I was soon ready to join the evangelistic outreach after Christmas, but the Christmas of 1964 found me spiritually in tatters. I was on the verge of getting ready for the Harmony Park stranddienste (the evangelistic beaches services), but I was feeling spiritually completely barren. In desperation I called to the Lord to meet me anew. I had nothing to share with anybody unless He would fill me with His Spirit. And that He did. The Harmony Park beach outreach changed my life radically. I was spiritually revived there. Impacted by the Unity of Believers For the other participants at Harmony Park, it might not have been so significant, but the unity of the believers coming from different church backgrounds there left an indelible mark on me. I did not know the divine statement yet that God commands his blessing where unity exists. But I saw the Holy Spirit at work there as I had not experienced before. Furthermore, my close friendship with Jakes – the young pastor who came to join us after a long drive through the night from far-away Umtata in the Transkei – was forged there. Along with David Savage from the Cape Town City Mission, the power of prayer got a new meaning for me there at Harmony Park. 145 Student Contributions to Revival The Christen-Studentevereniging (CSV), the Afrikaner sector of the Student Christian Association (SCA), produced many prominent leaders in Church and Society. At a camp for theological students in Genadendal, Esau Jacobs, a 'tokkelok' (theological student) from the Dutch Reformed Sendingkerk, was deeply moved by the ecumenical work of Beyers Naudé and the Christian Institute. Jacobs (or Jakes as he became widely known), started his pastoral ministry in the Transkei and he had a definite vision to reach out to Muslims. He inspired many young students, including me. At the student evangelistic outreach at Harmony Park from New Year’s Day in 1965, Jakes introduced ‘spiritual warfare.’ There he started to ignite a vision for outreach to Muslims in me, albeit that it was still fairly dim. Seeds Sown At the beach evangelism the following year a friendship with Jattti Bredekamp started. His visit to our home in Tiervlei impacted him when he heard of my extra-mural studies at UWC. He overtake me by a great margin in respect of academic studies. Our friendship resumed later when I could assist him in Holland with research at archives there. After our return to South Africa in 1992, he headed up the historical research at UWC as professor. He later assisted me in that capacity with my own research into the history of Cape Islam. Looking back to the momentous stranddienste, and also to subsequent student camps that I attended, our practicing the South African slavemaster 'way of life instead of demonstrating the biblical model of servant leadership, meant that we possibly missed out on becoming an even bigger influence on society. The 'juniors' were required to do manual work for which the leaders seemed to be too good. Nonetheless, the Harmony Park student outreach contained seed for spiritual renewal. It contributed to the spiritual maturing of leaders such as Rev. Abel Hendricks, who led the 1964/5 camp, along with Rev. Chris Wessels, a young Moravian minister. Allan Boesak, Jattie Bredekamp, Franklin Sonn and David Savage are but a few young men from these 146 Harmony Park outreaches who subsequently became influential members in their respective denominations and in society at large. Seed was sown into my own heart at that occasion, namely when I discovered how powerful it is when Christians operate together in prayer and action. The vision was ignited in my heart during the memorable beach outreach in Harmony Park’s attempt at bringing believers from the different races together – at least occasionally. Fighting Ideologies Hereafter I wanted to fight the prevalent pervasive racist ideology. I yearned to display the unity in Christ corporately and, if possible, also publicly. However, there was no real opportunity to put this into practice. My effort to pray with young Youth for Christ Afrikaner believers in Bellville was turned down. To evangelise with Wayside Sunday School ‘Whites' or just to practise fellowship with believers from the privileged race found no resonance. The closest to this with English-speaking folk happened years later with some meetings of the Christian Institute. Spiritually I however never felt very close to these believers spiritually, as I had experienced in Harmony Park or subsequently with other student believers of the VCS. My Call into the Ministry Reverend Ivan Wessels was one of my teenage heroes. He contracted leukaemia at the beginning of 1968. He passed on after a few weeks in Groote Schuur Hospital. Instead of the planned weekend Sunday School conference, almost the whole Moravian Church establishment gathered the Saturday in Lansdowne for the funeral of one of its most promising sons. At the challenge to the congregation: ‘Who is going to fill the gap caused by our deceased brother’, I discerned God’s voice in my heart. Back home in Tiervlei after the funeral, it was not difficult at all to go to my knees and say ‘Yes, Lord, I’m prepared to be used by you to fill the gap.’ 147 The next day at the shortened Sunday School Conference, I was approached with the question whether I would be interested in a bursary for theological studies in Germany. This was clear confirmation to me of the special call of the previous day. At the beginning of 1969 I left for Germany. Regarding myself a short-term missionary there, I was initially scheduled to be there for a year. During this time I often used my CSV/ VCS experiences in talks, highlighting our motto 'Make Jesus King'! I had just turned 23 when I left South Africa. All around me my peers were getting married. I was determined from the outset, however, not to marry a German girl because that would have prevented me from returning to South Africa due to of the laws of the country at the time. Rationally, I considered that I would be of more use inside South Africa than outside of the beloved country. A Choice Required However, during my stint of study in Germany I got to know my wife-to-be, Rosemarie. In the book What God Joined Together I narrate my special experience in Stuttgart when I came home from the Christian Encounter group that I visited regularly as follows: 'I bubbled over in excitement, immediately wanting to tell my two roommates in Stuttgart about this Rosemarie Göbel from Mühlacker. On my side, this was as close to ‘love at first sight’ as it could get.' Just before my return to South Africa soon thereafter, I invited Rosemarie to attend an event hosted by the Wycliffe Bible Translators, due to take place that very evening. Her reaction was astounding; 'I’ve wanted 148 to become a missionary since my childhood!' To me this was the clear confirmation that I wanted nobody else as my future wife. Two and a half years later, this proposition had become quite concrete. Through the mediation of Rev. Henning Schlimm, the Moravian Seminary director, Rosemarie secured a teaching position at St Martini Lutheran Church in the city as a Kindergarten teacher. I naïvely attempted to get Rosemarie 'reclassified' as a 'Coloured' so that we could marry and live in South Africa in 1971. In a letter of the Minister of the Interior it was stated that the condition for her presence in South Africa was that she should be reclassified as a 'Coloured'. Subsequently she was however refused a work permit. After a work permit cum visa had been refused, she applied for a tourist visa which was also turned down. After Rosemarie’s visa refusals, it was clear that I had to choose between Rosemarie and South Africa. John Ulster, a cousin had put this to me in so many words soon after my return from Europe in 1970. I found that very hard. I wanted both. I had to face the only option left for a possible marriage to her: I had to leave South Africa. After I had reticently chosen the marriage to Rosemarie over living in South Africa, the Moravian Church Board cooperated graciously and almost whole-heartedly at my request to go and work with the Moravian Church in Germany at the end of that year. Perhaps they were also happy to get rid of an uncomfortable trouble-shooter. The Lord still had to humble me! I left for Germany and started serving there as a vikar, an assistant minister, from December 1973. We still deemed it important enough at this time – if at all possible – that Rosemarie should get to know my home country and my relatives. Because I was in Germany, the major obstacle to a visa should have been eliminated. At least, that was how we reasoned. We asked the Moravian Church Board in South Africa whether Rosemarie could come over to do voluntary work for a period of two months at the Elim Home, a facility for physically handicapped children on the Elim mission station where my parents had moved to in retirement. Our activist interaction with the government to get a tourist visa for her, ultimately led to our 'illegal' honeymoon in March 1975 which had further ramifications. Further visits to South Africa in 1978 and 149 1980/81 were to usher in more low-key opposition to two laws: those that prohibited racially mixed marriages and those around so-called Influx Control. Cape Gap Year Variations Gap years had first become common in the 1960s where the young baby boom generation wanted to get away from the severity of war from their parents' generation. At first, the primary purpose of the gap year was for countries to exchange cultural ideals in the hope of preventing future wars. Rosemarie's request to serve at the Elim Tehuis for two months was a catalyst for young Southern German girls to come and do a gap year there. Doris Gegenheimer served at the Elim Tehuis for 15 months as physiotherapist and afterwards at St Joseph's Home on the Cape Flats. During this time she met and later married Freddy Kammies who grew up in the 'Coloured' township Q'Town. Subsequently the couple went to serve as OM missionaries. After we met them in Germany during our home assignment in 1995, Freddy and Doris joined our WEC Evangelism team at the Cape. (After leaving WEC International in 2009, Freddy and Doris Kammies joined YWAM where they later served, inter alia, as European Member Care workers.) Low-Key Personal Actions of Opposition The bungling and red tape of government officials made the run-up to our honeymoon in South Africa in 1975 rather traumatic and ultimately risky. Rosemarie received a visa on condition that she would not enter the country with her future husband. After our 'illegal' honeymoon (we circumvented the condition and flew separately), I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. I confessed that we had defied the condition of Rosemarie's visa, but I also encouraged him to hasten the process of change. This had a clear subjective aim, namely my yearning to return to the country. A further visit to South Africa in 1978 was to usher in more low-key 150 opposition to two sets of laws: those that prohibited racially mixed cross gender marriages and those around so-called Influx Control. The Wall of Communism Under Attack After the Second World War Communism had become a threat to peace globally. The demonic roots of Communism were not generally known. The atheistic stance of the ideology should have made it easy to discern its opposition to the Church, yet Communist infiltration into church bodies was fairly successful, notably into the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the plenary assembly in Uppsala (Sweden) in 1968. The notion of spiritual warfare went into low gear until the late 1980s, in spite of Jim Wilson’s booklet in 1964 called Principles of War. The issue of spiritual warfare only came to the fore strongly in 1975 with Paul Billheimer’s book Destined for the Throne, even though Hodder and Stoughton already had published Michael Harper’s Spiritual Warfare in 1970. Destined for the Throne was possibly the starting gun for a significant increase in spiritual warfare, although at this stage it was still only happening against the backdrop of the Cold War between the Soviet Block and the West. Communism was seen as the prime threat to the Church. Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who had been imprisoned because of his faith in Romania, had already alerted the church in the late sixties in a booklet with the title Tortured for Christ (1968). Persecuted Christians, who succeeded in coming out of Communist countries, aroused the sympathies and interest of believers in the West. Much to the chagrin of Moscow, a Polish pope was elected to the Vatican in 1978. The new Pope’s support to the trade union Solidarity in his home country was to erode much of the Soviet influence in the following years. The Church and the Iron Curtain ‘Brother Andrew’ van der Bijl had discerned matters pertaining to the spiritual warfare of that time quite clearly. Trained as a Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (WEC) missionary, Brother Andrew visited 151 Prague at the time of the Soviet invasion in 1968. His eyes were opened. In obedience to the Lord, he developed a programme of Bible smuggling. He founded Kruistochten (Crusades, that subsequently became known as Open Doors), a ministry on behalf of the persecuted Church. Very few people in the mainline churches discerned what was going on. Isolated voices such as the German Reverend Rolf Scheffbuch, who attended the WCC plenary conference in Nairobi in 1975, issued warnings. However, the course was set. It took only a few more years before 'inter-faith' was the official position of the WCC. Avowed Communists started walking in and out at the WCC offices in Geneva. The movement had become a far cry from the one once led by devout churchmen like Dr Visser 't Hooft. Personally Influenced Just before I left South Africa in January 1969, I had bought Gemartel vir Christus, the Afrikaans translation of Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, in which the author described how he had been persecuted in communist Romania. It made a deep impression on me. In Germany I soon had the opportunity to listen to the testimony of the Romanian pastor himself and hear about the experiences of Christians in the Communist countries. Subsequently, I started receiving the newsletter of the organization founded by Wurmbrand regularly. In later years, praying for the persecuted Christians in Communist countries was quite often on our prayer agenda, later also as a family in Holland. Brother Andrew also wrote a book about the ideological battle for Africa that was published in 1977. He was a regular speaker at a church fellowship that met in the Figi cinema that was situated about a hundred meters from our home in Zeist. From its beginnings that Full Gospel fellowship was closely linked with the work of Open Doors. Later we as a family joined that congregation in Holland, which also became our spiritual home and supporting church over the years. There we listened to sermons of Brother Andrew, that always included anecdotes from persecuted believers. In due course I not only got to know Brother Andrew personally, but we also got involved with the ministry of various 152 organisations that were supporting persecuted believers in Eastern Europe. Moral Rearmament Connection In Caux in 1977 we met Rommel Roberts, an anti-apartheid firebrand from the Cape, and soon after Sam Pono, a young 'Black' MRA leader and three young Cape 'Coloured' learners of Spes Bona High School visited us in Holland. (Franklin Sonn, our Harmony Park camp leader of 1964/1965, was their school principal, who had close links with the Moral Re-armament movement.) I became fairly deeply immersed in MRA within a matter of months. Their activism suited me perfectly. I went overboard however, triggering severe tension in the Church Council of the Moravian congregation of Utrecht that I had had started pastoring. Over-Reaction to Responses After writing an accompanying letter, Rosemarie received a visa to visit South Africa, without any complications, with me and our one-anda-half-year-old son Danny. We were visiting the Cape – having come from Holland as a racially mixed small family, in October 1978. During this visit I over-reacted to the response of the Moravian Church Board chairperson, after I had suggested that I should come and serve in South Africa for three years. My proposal, that was intended to cause another 'crack' in the apartheid edifice, was not well received. The harsh negative response on behalf of the Church Board coincided with the government reaction when we wanted to travel in the same train compartment as a family of three from Cape Town to Johannesburg. It bugged me especially that our request to travel together as a family was making me an 'honorary White' for the duration of that trip. It poured oil on the fire of my troubled soul. My expectation in both cases was actually unreasonable and unrealistic. I was thereafter terribly angered, determined not to put my foot on South African soil again. 153 No Interest in Meeting Professor Heyns Howard Grace, a British Moral Rearmament7 full-time worker, wanted to introduce me to the influential Professor Johan Heyns, who was at the time the Chairperson of the Afrikaner Broederbond. The timing of his kind gesture was the worst one the MRA man could have chosen. I had no interest at all in being introduced to, or in interacting with Professor Johan Heyns, the leader of what was tantamount to the apartheid think tank. I was too angry and did not respond in a Christ-like way. I had only one last carnal wish – to worship with Dr Beyers Naudé, the gigantic rebel against the apartheid status quo. I knew that he was basically under house arrest, only allowed to attend church at that time, on condition that he entered as the last person and left as the first. At the church he was prohibited to interact with any congregant. That was hardly needed since he was regarded as a kafferboetie and treated like a leper by the rank-and-file Afrikaner. Reconciled to South Africa With three other believers linked to Moral Rearmament, Rosemarie and I visited the church that Dr Naudé and his wife were attending. I had intended that visit to be my farewell gesture of solidarity with the politically oppressed of the country. Dr Naudé and his wife Tannie Ilse organised for us to visit them in their home after the church service, thus defying the apartheid-related instructions. 154 After the church service we had also met Ds. Joop Lensink, a Dutch national, who ministered to 'Blacks' in the mining compounds! He and his wife invited us to their home the same evening, where we heard of their courageous compassionate moves in taking care of 'Black' homeless children. Dr Naudé’s complete lack of bitterness impressed me tremendously. Someone must have prayed for me. A miracle happened that Sunday when I was changed from within through the visits to the Naudé and Lensink homes. In His sovereign way, God however also made me more determined than ever to fight the apartheid ideology. After our return to Holland following that six-week visit in 1978, I saw racial reconciliation even more as a personal duty and charge to the country of my birth. As part of this effort, I wrote many letters to the government of the day. I had already started collating and commenting on earlier ones, hoping to publish the result in book form with the title Honger na Geregtigheid (Hunger for Justice). Distressing News from South Africa Initially another visit to South Africa seemed a non-runner but, in August 1980, we received distressing news from South Africa that my only sister Magdalene had contracted leukaemia. She had played such an important part towards the education of her three younger brothers. God used Celeste to sow seed into our hearts so that we started enquiring into the cheapest possibility to go to South Africa. We decided initially that I should go to South Africa alone. The date of my mother’s pending 70th birthday (on 28 December) was however far from convenient. There were also so many other complicating factors militating against such a visit. Thankfully more than one hurdle was cleared so that we could start the process to visit as a family to go and say farewell to my sister, expecting her to pass away in due course. 155 An Unexpected Stint in South Africa A nerve-wrecking few weeks followed before we finally received the visa for Rosemarie and our two boys literally at the last minute and finalize our travelling plans at last. It was a week before Christmas and all seats on the connecting flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town were already booked by this time. We had no option other than to stay over in Johannesburg. My seminary student colleague Martin October and his wife Fanny accommodated us without hesitation, and we were able to lodge with them in the Moravian parsonage in the suburb of Bosmont. It suited me perfectly that Martin October was willing and ready to take me to meet Bishop Tutu and Dr Beyers Naudé just before our return to Holland. From the Bosmont manse I made a few phone calls. Among others I contacted Dr Beyers Naudé. When I heard from him that he had never received the manuscript that I had sent with the delegation of DRC theologians the previous year, I was all the keener to discuss my manuscript with him and Bishop Tutu. We left our winter coats with Martin and Fanny October, intending to collect them on our return to Europe. The conditions under which the visit to the Cape would take place, were nevertheless overwhelming. We were basically intending to visit my dying sister, but we had no idea what would happen on our return to Holland because we had more or less used our last savings for the air fares. On arrival at D.F. Malan Airport – the name of the international airport of Cape Town at that time – we heard that my sister had gone to be with the Lord the previous evening. In a subsequent series of events prior to our scheduled return to Holland, we discerned God’s hand clearly. This happened especially during the evening devotion of 19 January 1981 in Elim. My father was reading the scriptural Macedonian injunction: ‘Kom oor en help ons’, from the Moravian text book. Our mother was furthermore quite ill at that time, and her passing away was actually anticipated. With Daddy’s heart condition, which caused him to go on early retirement, it was a big question whether I would see one or both of them alive again. 156 The Anti-Apartheid Spirit Hardened Me By this time I had become quite a hardened anti-apartheid activist. The only constraint I had was that I waged my opposition from a religious platform, holding firmly to my conviction that the unity of believers was all-important. We were very much encouraged by a multi-racial group from different churches in Stellenbosch that had been started by Professor Nico Smith and a few pastors. This was a sequel to the SACLA event in Pretoria in 1979. Rosemarie was deeply moved when she saw how my brother-in-law Anthony was pining after the death of his beloved wife, my late sister. My darling could not understand why I insisted on going to Johannesburg in the remaining week before our departure for Holland. The anti-apartheid activist spirit had, however, made me uncompassionate. When folk heard that I had no employment in Holland on our return there, they asked me why we did not try to stay longer. According to certain trusted people to whom we turned for advice like our friend, Pastor Clive McBride, I should easily get a post with my reputation as a good Mathematics teacher, not to mention the dearth of qualified colleagues in ‘Coloured’ schools for that subject. When we checked it out, this was confirmed. But, to my shame, I was not prepared to stay longer in Cape Town. I wanted to proceed to Johannesburg. Not even the possibility of my mother passing on soon – and that I would not see any of my parents again – could move me significantly. Divinely Cornered On the afternoon that had been scheduled for our final time together, my special friend Jakes was at hand, and took us to the Strandfontein beach. A strong wind was blowing there. In the evening we were due to take the train to Johannesburg. This time we had received government permission to travel in the same compartment as a family without any ado, although it bugged me that one still had to ask for permission. My manuscript Honger na Geregtigheid had evidently done some intimidating work in government circles. When we arrived in Sherwood Park at the home of the Esau family, the 157 small train tickets were, however, nowhere to be found. I must have lost them at Strandfontein. With the strong wind there, it would have been futile to go back and try to find them. I knew now that God had caught up with me once again. I was like Jonah, trying to run away from the responsibility to my parents and the bereaved family. The Holy Spirit had thankfully softened me up by now. Reluctantly I agreed to stay in Cape Town for another week. My parents were pleasantly surprised when we pitched up in Elim once again. This time we had interesting news for them. We had decided to extend our stay in South Africa, unless I got the Religious Instruction teaching post in Holland for which I had applied. After the extra week in Cape Town, everything was cut and dried. It was confirmed that I did not get the teaching post. We would try to stay in South Africa until the end of June. The elders of the Zeist Moravian Church in Holland graciously agreed to let us leave our possessions in the parsonage for that period. Government approval for the extension of Rosemarie’s visa was another requirement. Richard Arendse, my classmate of high school days and a later teacher colleague, immediately assisted us by allowing us to use their caravan. Thus we could now sleep in the caravan in the backyard of the Esau home. My brother Windsor and his wife Ray from Grabouw generously put the use of one of their two cars at our disposal so that we could visit my sickly and ageing parents in Elim, 200 km away, frequently. Camping For Three Months As the nights became colder in March 1981, it became imperative to move out of the caravan. Our one-and-a-half-year-old Rafael constantly had a cold. However, the politics of the day prevented us from getting accommodation in a ‘White’ residential area for three months. Other temporary accommodation was very difficult to find. Repeatedly Rommel and Celeste Roberts invited us to come and stay with them in Crawford, a 'White' residential area. The couple had been with us in Holland for a few months after they were more or less forced to flee from the country the previous year. They were not only known as political activists but just like us they were a racially mixed 158 couple. To accept their offer would have meant inviting trouble with the government. After all other efforts to get temporary accommodation11 had failed, we had no other excuse available to turn down their generous offer. Very hesitantly, we moved into the three-bedroom cottage with our two small boys to join Rommel and Celeste and Alan and Wally, Rommel’s two brothers. Attempting to Win Over the Afrikaners Around this time I had still been thinking that Honger na Geregtigheid should be published in South Africa in Afrikaans first, as my attempt to win over the Afrikaners. I had to agree with my friend, Hein Postma, that the manuscript was possibly an overdose of medicine to a sick society. He noted that he missed love and compassion in it. I took his loving advice to heart. I decided to tone it down, and planned three smaller booklets, of which the first one would concentrate on issues around the Mixed Marriages Act. Rather subdued, I revamped the manuscript, highlighting the prohibition of racially mixed marriages and our own experiences, calling it Wat God Saamgevoeg Het (What God joined Together).12 I also intended to diminish the possible shock effect for Afrikaners in that way. I hoped of course, secretly, that this could facilitate my return to South Africa. In June 1981 I attempted to get it published with Tafelberg Publishers, without success, however. A Personal Joseph Experience About the time of the multiplying prayer initiatives of 1985, I was personally impacted significantly. In Genesis 50:7ff it is narrated how Joseph went with many high-ranking Egyptian folk, along with his brothers, to bury old father Jacob. Through my own ‘Joseph experience’ the Lord thoroughly dealt with my strong longing to return to South Africa. Erroneously thinking that the biblical Joseph, who had been exiled to Egypt, was never able to return to Israel, I had become prepared to serve the Lord anywhere in the world and become a permanent exile. I was willing never to return to South Africa if that was the confirmed divine guidance. Missionary work in some African country was my well-considered and 159 prayerful compromise and preference. My wife Rosemarie, however, was not at all excited at my idea of going to a country like Egypt. But she agreed – initially hesitantly, but definitely not enthusiastically – that I could continue with new studies in Mathematics, in order to use that as a springboard into one of the Muslim countries that were closed for Christian missionaries. Although I had little concrete proof that my activism had contributed in some way, I did experience some satisfaction when the law in my home country that prohibited people from different races to marry, was finally repealed in 1985. I tested the waters of a return to South Africa in 1986, but the ‘door’ did not open as yet for such a return to my beloved fatherland. I was required to promise that I would not get involved in 'politics' again. The implied connotation of such a promise was clear. I was not prepared to make any compromise regarding my faith conviction as I perceived it. I was not ready at all to compromise in opposing apartheid. 160 161 CHAPTER SIXTEEN A SPIRITUAL WATERSHED ___________________________ After the West had refused to help the African National Congress (ANC) in the battle against the apartheid regime, the ANC turned to the Soviet Union. The military situation on the country’s borders brought certain 'White’ believers of South Africa to form a group called Intercessors for South Africa. This was initiated by Dr. Frances Grim, leader of the Hospital Christian Fellowship,5 which had its national headquarters in the picturesque Capetonian suburb of Pinelands. He was one of very few at the time to discern the growing moral dangers sufficiently: ‘Most people seem to be too busy making money, enjoying themselves...to notice the dangerous downward trend in the country’s morals.’ The Role of the Church in Reconciliation The fear in the 1970s and 1980s of a serious backlash if there were to be a takeover by a 'Black' government was quite pervasive among 'White' communities and very understandable. The sparsely populated Botswana – a country with very few 'Whites' – was the only country in Africa at that time where there had been a fairly smooth transition to democracy. There had been warning voices from individual 'White' South African clergymen because of the country’s oppressive race policy, but they went 162 unheeded. The role of 'Black' spokesmen like Bishop Desmond Tutu was even less appreciated in the 1970s, especially when they referred to the bondage of 'Whites'. Yet, valuable seed was sown towards racial reconciliation by 'Black' clergy who had a good track record and who were not known to be radicals like Desmond Tutu or Allan Boesak. One of them was Bishop Alpheus Zulu, who had been one of the few delegates of colour at the WCCconvened consultation of 7-14 December 1960, in Cottesloe, a suburb of Johannesburg. In his T.B. Davie Memorial Lecture at UCT in 1972, Bishop Zulu hopefully opened the eye of many a 'White’ person when he stated: ‘… Some black people... refuse consciously and deliberately to retaliate… calling a white man a beast.’ He also warned in the same lecture, long before the Soweto uprising: ‘At the same time it would be a grave mistake to presume to think that such attitudes will survive callous white discrimination.’ Warnings by himself and Bishop Tutu were not heeded by the authorities. In fact, although his contribution might have gone a long way in his appointment, not only to the Central Committee of the WCC, but also as one of its six presidents, the government chose to malign the WCC and people like Zulu. The subsequent trend within the WCC to become rather secular, gave dubious respectability to this perception. Resistance of Werkgenot 'Squatters' Thousands of 'Blacks' continued to come into the Western Cape in the 1970s in spite of the government intention to remove Africans finally from the region. About 100 shacks were built secretively at Werkgenot, near to the University of the Western Cape, unknown to almost everyone except the 'squatters' themselves. The Bantu Affairs Administration Board (BAAB) gave the instruction to arrange that Werkgenot be bulldozed on the night of October 25. The raid – fully described in Andrew Silk’s booklet A Shanty Town in South Africa, was executed ‘like a military exercise.’ About 20 shacks were erected near Nyanga township during February 1975. Several of them had been put up by former residents of Werkgenot. The first raid on the new camp, which had been called Crossroads, began 163 at 5 a.m. on May 2. Thirty-four 'squatters' were arrested for pass offenses and for trespassing. During the next two months selected shacks were knocked down and women arrested while their husbands were at work. Finally, two 'Blacks' brought a suit against the Bantu Affairs Administrative Board for destruction of property. The judge ruled in favour of the 'squatters', lecturing the officials to respect the little possessions these people had. The board did not contest the ruling but their officials continued to harass the 'squatters'. Pretoria would of course not allow itself to be challenged by 'Blacks'. In the parliamentary debate Dr van Zyl Slabbert, a former sociology lecturer, valiantly gave an analysis of the situation, defending the hapless folk. The government was undeterred. A new law, the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Amendment Act of 1976, came onto the statute books. No longer would a court order be needed to demolish a shack. Cape Events of June 1976 The Werkgenot 'squatters' were not going to take everything lying down. While Parliament was debating the new law, they constructed new shacks in the bushes just off Modderdam Road, not so far from where they had been evicted. Modderdam Road (now called Robert Sobukwe Road) ran between Bellville Station to the N2, passing the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Bishop Lavis Township. By the end of May 1976 more than a hundred shacks had been put up and the police was now also aware of their presence. The first heavy winter rain fell during the night of June 2, 1976. This did not deter the police from pounding at the doors of the shanties and demanding passes. While policemen with heavy raincoats herded 'Black' women to parked cars, about thirty 'squatter' men, armed with clubs, pick handles and stones, surrounded three policemen who stood apart from the rest. The ensuing battle of about half an hour was followed by a procession along Modderdam Road in a strange combination of hymn singing and the stoning of passing cars. At about 1 a.m. the police sealed off the road. The Cape Times reported the next day that 30 'squatters' had been arrested and two policemen were hospitalized. Rev. Louis Banks reacted on behalf of the Western Province Council of Churches, calling 164 the incident ‘a direct outgrowth of the law.’ A Plea to the Prime Minister Bishop Tutu wrote a pleading letter to the Prime Minister on May 6, 1976 during a three day clergy retreat. This was just weeks before the eruption of violence of 16 June 1976, when protesting high school students were shot. More than anything else, this event brought church leaders back into the centre of racial reconciliation. Writing from a clergy retreat in Johannesburg a month before 16 June 1976, Desmond Tutu, at that time the General Secretary of the SACC, verbalised a prophetic vision, which would distinguish him in the years hereafter as a godly man on the South African political scene. He predicted a nightmarish scenario of violence and bloodshed in South Africa if the basic demands of 'Black' South Africans for a non-racial, open and just democracy were not met by John Vorster, the Prime Minister, and his government. Tutu appealed to the humanity, parental concern and Christianity of Vorster in a highly personal and passionate appeal. This would become characteristic of Desmond Tutu in the years to come. The injustice, oppression, exploitation and inhumanity of apartheid were becoming increasingly intolerable for 'Blacks' to bear. The Run-Up to the 1976 Clash in Soweto Tutu incisively depicted Vorster’s reformist moves of doing away with petty apartheid as superficial. They were not bringing about fundamental change in 'Black' lives in terms of the migrant labour system, inadequate housing, transport and overcrowded classrooms. It is significant that Tutu mentioned educational conditions as only one of many causes of 'Black' frustration. He did not even mention the language issue, which is widely accepted as the immediate spark that ignited the Soweto revolt a month later. On 16 June 1976 the enemy of peace had his reply ready, a major upheaval which reverberated throughout the world. Was this the starting gun of the revolution which had been feared all along, a power encounter ‘too ghastly to contemplate’, as John Vorster, the Prime Minister, had described so aptly? Wide-spread rioting of all sorts by young people 165 all over the PWV area (as Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging was abbreviated in those days), erupted. Social Justice and Anti-Apartheid Activism Alan Michael Lapsley was born on 2 June 1949 in New Zealand. He was ordained to the priesthood in Australia where he joined the Anglican religious order the Society of the Sacred Mission. In 1973 Rev. Lapsley arrived in Durban as an undergraduate student. Soon thereafter, during the height of apartheid repression, he became a chaplain to students at both 'Black' and 'White' universities in Durban. In 1976 he began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained and tortured. In due course Father Michael, as he became known widely, took a stand as national chaplain to Anglican students. In September 1976 Lapsley was expelled from the country. He went to live in Lesotho, where he continued his studies and became a member of the African National Congress and also a chaplain to the organization in exile. During this period, he travelled the world, mobilizing faith communities, in particular, to oppose apartheid and support the liberation struggle. After a police raid in Maseru in 1982 in which 42 people were killed, he moved to Zimbabwe. It was here that in 1990, three months after ANC leader Nelson Mandela's release from prison, he was sent a letter bomb by the apartheid regime. It was hidden inside two religious magazines. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast and was seriously burnt. In 1992 Lapsley returned to South Africa where he developed a programme called the Healing of Memories. The workshops explore the effects of South Africa’s past at an emotional, psychological and spiritual level. At the Institute for Healing of Memories in Claremont they try to support those who have suffered as they struggle to have their stories recognised. In 1993, he became Chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, which assisted the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This work led to the 166 establishment, in 1998, of the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) in Cape Town. The IHOM aims to allow many more South Africans to tell their stories in workshops where they work through their trauma. New Dignity to People Other Than 'White' The protest of the youth served to inject a new dignity into people other than 'White'. The Cape Herald, a tabloid newspaper predominantly read by ‘Coloured’ people in the Cape Peninsula, wrote proudly in the edition dated 7 September 1976: ‘Last week’s two illegal parades through the city had a positive side in that many White South Africans saw for the first time that the Black scholars are not savages but neat, orderly, very serious and very concerned young people’. Those lines turned out to be premature. When schoolchildren from Heideveld tried to march into nearby Guguletu and Nyanga townships, they were forcibly turned back by police at the only road bridge. The Argus reported the same day: ‘Earlier today police opened fire with shotguns and service revolvers into large groups of demonstrating ‘Coloured’ youths… outside the African township of Guguletu.’ The result of the reaction was mayhem: looting and rioting, nothing to be proud about. Even worse – this started an era of ugly boycott politics which damaged relationships between parents and their children. The boycott generation became the teachers at the end of the century, which had never learnt to respect the older generation. In fact, quite often the parental generation was crudely despised, because of the fallacious perception among youth that earlier generations accepted and tolerated the apartheid humiliations without protest. Cape townships still have to recover from the moral damage perpetrated since 1976. Gangsters seem now to rule in some of them. Alarm Among 'Whites' 'Whites' could initially only be spectators, but soon many of them were affected as well. Liberal sympathizers at tertiary institutions found themselves banned or detained and many had their cars damaged. Tensions rose in the run-up to worker stay-aways, including a big one planned for 15 September. Stories circulated that 'Blacks' had been told 167 to ‘kill a White’. Many 'Whites' rushed to buy guns, and took shooting lessons after rumours of arson were spreading like wild-fire. The stay away – observed by about 100 000 'Black' and ‘Coloured’ workers – was largely peaceful, yet foreign embassies were overwhelmed with enquiries about emigration. The urban uprisings of 1976 shook the nation and the international community. In all, 128 Capetonians were reported killed, and about 400 injured. Living in Berlin at this time, we tried to start a ‘peaceful front’ for change in South Africa in Germany, but other South Africans had given up hope that the escalation of violence could still be stopped. The violent struggle was seen as the only option left to fight apartheid repression. However, God was also at work. On that very day of June 16, 1976 a young policeman, Johan Botha was posted in Soweto. Supernaturally God would use him almost 20 years later to bring the nation to its knees in prayer. Divide and Rule Victorious Two groups in the 'Black' townships had diametrically opposite needs and ambitions. The Africans who grew up in the city knew little about the rural areas, yet they were nevertheless pushed by the government to abandon the city for the Ciskei and Transkei. They resisted the call to revolt and strikes. The (not always veiled) threats to employers worked wonders. Some of the Xhosas had passports from the Transkei, the first apartheid homeland to be granted independence in 1976. The fear of losing their jobs meant for these migrants risking their right to be in the Cape. Divide and rule scored an easy victory. As the ‘conscientization’ process by students increased, the rift between the young people and the migrants turned ugly. After having fought the police, the young people no longer hesitated to use force. The students’ main targets were the shebeens, the illegal alcohol outlets. This was adding insult to injury because the students had already burnt down the beer halls. Mr Oscar Mpetha, a trade unionist, was soon seen as a leader of the settled inhabitants of Nyanga, which was close to Crossroads, where many of the former Modderdam inhabitants were now residing. Boldly the group took their case to the police, offering to maintain order 168 inside the camp and to cooperate with the police on serious criminal offences. Astonishingly, their offer was accepted. An informal agreement was made that as long as the camp was peaceful, no more raids would be undertaken. Word spread quickly through the city, with the result that Modderdam spread in all directions. Between June 1976 and December of the same year the shanty town grew from 400 to 10 000 inhabitants. This could happen quietly because the police were kept busy on another front. Students were marching, stoning, demonstrating not so far away, while the camp itself remained ‘peaceful’. In due course the tension grew inside the 'squatter' camp. Those inhabitants who had come from the hostels for singles or from the ‘homelands’ distrusted the students, feeling strongly that the camp should be guarded to prevent them from using Modderdam as a hideout. Mr. Plaatje, an influential member of the committee, called for a compromise which was approved. Guards were appointed and placed on the road and the railway tracks, and residents were warned not to harbour students on the run. Other Races Assist the Modderdam Folk Mr Simon Matthews, the leader, did much to establish a link between 'White' churches and community groups. He knew personally several members of the old Congress of Democrats, which funded the Kliptown ANC event in 1955. In the early months of 1977 the people of Modderdam believed that the 'Whites’ were their strongest allies. Soon they were disillusioned as they learned that financial aid had strings attached. Social work students at the Institute for Social Development (ISD) of the University of the Western Cape came to help in the camp. The ‘Coloured’ students had the same limitations because the university was government-run. Soup kitchens, kindergartens and first-aid clinics were allowed, but any political ‘agitation’ was closely monitored. The dangers came to the fore when the director of the Institute, Wolfgang Thomas, was deported. The Cape Flats Committee for Interim Accommodation (CFCIA) was the most overtly political organization working for the 'squatters'. The sponsored meetings and workshops for 'squatters' from different camps 169 enabled Simon Matthews and Mr Plaatjie, a community leader, to work in the camp full time. CFCIA was funded by churches linked to the Western Province Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. Some within CFCIA believed it impossible to develop the resistance of the 'squatter' and the sympathy of 'Whites' simultaneously, others felt the need to be sufficiently moderate to win financial support and prevent to be banned. Demolition of Modderdam Announced In late January 1977 the government announced its plan for the demolition of Modderdam. ‘Coloureds’ and 'Blacks' would first be separated. The ‘Coloureds’ would then be sent to a new squatting site, Rifle Range. Africans would then be screened and categorised into ‘illegals’ and ‘legals’. Rural women and children, as well as men who had neither contracts nor residence rights, would be given free train tickets to the Transkei and free baggage space for their belongings. The few African men and women who did have full rights to stay in the city would be moved to a new 'squatter' camp on a plot of land called KTC near Nyanga. The Modderdam 'squatter' community entered into negotiations with the government, aided by a 'White' lawyer, Mr Richard Rosenthal6, with Matthews and Plaatjie as their spokespersons. Several meetings followed with Mr Fanie Botha, the Bantu Affairs Commissioner. Rosenthal helped the 'squatters' to discover a technical mistake with the eviction notice, securing for them the temporary extension of their stay. Messrs. Matthews and Plaatjie won new support in the camp. Finally the judge dropped the case. During the weekend following the end of the court case, several new shacks were erected. Of course, the government did not take the defeat without retaliation. A new version of the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act followed. The amendment tabled on April 25 1977 was a remarkable document, bringing, in legal language, an end to all legal protection for 'squatters'. The amended law stated basically that a shanty could be knocked down and 'squatters'’ belongings removed ‘without any prior notice of whatever nature to any persons.’ Blanket permission for abuse was given in this 170 way. Alex Boraine and Dr van Zyl Slabbert fought valiantly in Parliament against the new Bill, but it was a lost cause. With their comfortable majority, the Nationalists wrapped it up with 88 votes to 33. Coming just before the Cape winter, it would just be a matter of when the demolition of Modderdam would take place. The government seemed to have a preference to blunder in this way, although some from their own ranks came with pleas to perform these brutal actions at another time of the year. The unity of the camp became strained in the weeks which followed the passage of the new Bill. The victory of the April court proceedings turned out to be pyrrhic. Plaatjie and Matthews were accused of planning to abscond with camp funds and of working too closely with 'Whites’. The ‘axe’ started to come down in late June with hammers and crowbars. Municipal workers knocked down St John’s Church on June 25. After being challenged, David Roux of the Bellville Municipality retorted: ‘I think it was a dance hall and was used for 'squatter' meetings.’ ‘Coloureds’ were served with eviction notices on July 1. Five days later also the 'Blacks' got the notices of the intention of the government to demolish their shanties. Most of the ‘Coloureds’ left voluntarily to Rifle Range, the legal camp on the other side of Belhar during July. The internal squabbles intensified as the plight of the camp became more hopeless. A BAAB employer brought suspicions into the arguments which were difficult to defend. 'Squatters' were hereafter angry that Plaatjie and Matthews accepted help from 'Whites'. The Modderdam 'Squatter' Camp – A Model of Resistance The government’s intention with Modderdam backfired completely. What was intended to become the model for the country to deal with illegal 'squatters' became instead a lesson in resistance. Andrew Silk summarized in a nutshell the paradox of South African history aptly as it was practiced in that informal settlement: ‘The economy’s huge appetite for black labour is in conflict with white fears of being ‘swamped’, and ruled by 'Blacks'. Modderdam was a microcosm of this classic struggle’. The men and women who fought to keep the camp were hardly known outside Modderdam and were forgotten after they had left. The first 171 raid there on June 2, 1976 was overshadowed by the uprising which began in Soweto. Although Modderdam’s demolition on August 8, 1977 was eclipsed by the death in detention of 'Black' Consciousness leader Steve Biko, who had been tipped to be a future State President, and the banning of the Christian Institute and a host of other organizations in October of that year, yet the demolition brought in the churches in a big way. A tradition had already started to see the month of August as one in which compassion was highlighted. The Sunday before the ‘Coloureds’ left, the 'squatters' had their weekly meeting. The crowd unanimously resolved to resist the government passively by simply refusing to move. They also agreed to undertake a three-day fast, and invited those outside the camp to join them. In a new stand of solidarity with the 'squatters', the leader of the 'White' Women’s Movement endorsed the fast and also urged members of her organization to sleep alone at night, to highlight the legally enforced separation of husbands and wives among 'Blacks'. A ‘Coloured’ woman stood up during the meeting and expressed ‘Coloured' solidarity with the 'Blacks'. This appeared to be rather tokenism, because the ‘Coloureds’ obeyed the eviction orders soon thereafter. Yet, if the government ideologists had hoped that fights would break out between ‘Coloureds’ and Africans, they failed dismally. Laconically, the 'Blacks' resolved that it was better to have a hard committed core of people who were determined to fight to the bitter end. Yet, the Modderdam camp stayed in the newspapers, gaining wide support all along. When the bulldozers arrived on August 8, the press was there, as well as many supporters from the other races. The Start of the Modderdam Demolition The first bulldozer got stuck in the mud, followed by a tractor which was brought to pull it out. This gave time to organize. Edna van Harte, a lecturer of the ISD (Institute for Social Development, based at the University of the Western Cape), played a powerful mediating role, bringing in Dr van der Ross, the rector of the University. An emergency situation was organized including twelve huge containers with steamy vegetable soup donated by the large Pick n Pay supermarket chain. The appeals of the 'White’ sympathizers were unsuccessful, although the 172 actual demolishing was postponed when people obstructed the vehicles after a second tractor succeeded in freeing the bulldozer and the first tractor. The next day, a letter from the benefactor whose generous gift had triggered the founding of the SHELTER Fund six months earlier – framed by a black border – was printed on the front page of the Cape Times. ‘… The misery of the ejected 'squatters' with their homes in ruins, guarding their meagre possessions on the roadside, is indescribable... I have to share in the guilt of the ‘haves’ of contemporary society. I hang my head in shame and plead for forgiveness…’ Scattered skirmishes during the morning - after the police had separated the supporters from the inhabitants – converged into a major confrontation shortly after midday. A tense razor-edge situation developed, which could easily have ended in massive bloodshed. Mr Plaatjie lifted his hand as once the apostle Paul spoke to a riotous crowd, miraculously bringing down the tension. The 'squatters' dispersed quietly. They won the moral confrontation, leaving the field to the police to take Modderdam without bullets. The burning of Modderdam began shortly after the crowd dispersed. Social workers and 'squatters' reported that police had set fire to the shacks but the inhabitants themselves also fanned the flames in their desperation. Church Protest The day’s ‘fighting’ ended with teargas, but there was little panic. That evening a protest meeting was held at St. Xavier’s Church in the 'White' suburb of Claremont. They decided to form a human chain the next morning in front of the bulldozer and force the police to drag them away. An unprecedented wave of support followed when 100 clergymen arrived at 6 a.m. But the bulldozers did not arrive. The bulk of the clergymen left by 9 a.m., with a few staying behind, to warn the others, should the operation begin later in the day. It is obvious that there must have been informers within the protest meeting in the Claremont church. After midday, two bulldozers arrived. Three 'White' men including Rev. David Russell, the Anglican priest who ruffled the conscience of the nation with his protest and fast in St George’s Cathedral on behalf of the 'Blacks' in the ‘Resettlement Areas’, walked into the camp. Since the inception of 173 the Crossroads informal settlement in 1975, that was part of his parish. As soon as the three protesters reached the first truck on 8 August 1977, Rev Russell calmly lay down in front of the vehicle. He was promptly arrested. Asked later why he did it, he said: ‘…instead of writing another letter to those in authority, I had to use my body where communication and words were useless, as an act to uphold and be a witness to God’s law. Just by obeying God’s law and acting according to my conscience, I felt I could communicate to these people’s hearts so that they could be made aware of the evil being done there.’ The community workers found shelter for the women and children in church halls. Their possessions were taken to an empty Pepsi-Cola warehouse. Three church services were held on the following Sunday. At the nearby Unibell informal settlement, ministers from different races joined in the service, including a prayer for Rev. Russell who was still imprisoned. He refused the condition of bail – that he would not enter any 'squatter' camps. The second gathering was at the City Hall in the city centre. In the inter-faith service Dr Allan Boesak received a standing ovation when he said that he would pray every day for the downfall of the Nationalist government. His repetition of that statement would become quite controversial in later years. The third meeting of the day took place at the camp itself. Prayers were offered in a moving ceremony where the congregants held hands, sang hymns and closed the proceedings with Nkosi sikelel ‘iAfrika. The Crisis of Modderdam When, in mid-1977, the State had given the order to demolish the entire settlement of Modderdam en masse, it became clear that a demolition was inevitable. Unless volunteers helped to save these people, thousands would be left destitute and homeless overnight. A team of concerned volunteers faced a Herculean task – that of evacuating 10 000 people before they were forcibly bussed back to the homelands. It was going to require a series of strategies, massive dedication and tremendous effort by all involved. A second evacuation was needed; again, a massive undertaking. It involved the entire 174 volunteer network. People were moved secretly to the last few remaining informal settlements, with Crossroads being the main target. Many township dwellers in the permanent and established townships took in strangers, allowing shacks to be constructed in their backyards. Over a few weeks, Crossroads and other settlements swelled to twice their size. Normally, it would have been possible for 'White’ people to completely ignore what was happening, as police actions had always been confined to townships, out of the public eye. Now their behaviour had been out in the open, in the middle of the city and in the suburbs, where all could witness and no-one could ignore. A Broader Response The final crushing of the Modderdam community demanded a response from the broader community. A massive gathering at the City Hall in Cape Town was organised. The hall was filled to capacity. Top leaders were asked to deliver speeches in solidarity. Rev Dean King from St George’s Cathedral made a dramatic speech which seemed to resound from the heavens. ‘We have got to put the finger on them!’ he said, ‘Theirs are the actions of evil, and we condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms!’ The joining together of so many to voice their resistance to the State had united and encouraged many. It was decided to engage the State directly, to challenge them at a public level for their behaviour. A motor cavalcade demonstration to block Adderley Street and Wale Streets around the houses of parliament was decided upon. It would be done mainly by 'White' people, as they were less likely than 'Blacks' to be beaten and imprisoned. The signal for the cavalcade to begin was the noonday gun. The cavalcade caught the security police by complete surprise and created tremendous confusion. They were not quite sure how to respond to normally lawabiding 'White' citizens moving down Adderley Street, with banners blazing across every car. Noel Robb from the Black Sash had a sticker emblazoned across her car, ‘One South Africa, one nation’. Rosemary de Waal had a mini bus full of people with various stickers emblazoned all over it. One car was driven by nuns from Springfield Convent. One of the 175 nuns, who did not want to be left out, was 84 years old! Alas, the State did in the end act, arresting almost everyone in the cavalcade, including the 84-year old nun. Their arrests took place in the city lunch hour, when office workers were out and about, and eager to know what was going on. In the ensuing chaos, several participants in the cavalcade managed to escape, though some were unsuccessful. The Spirits of the Migrants Resurrected The government may have hoped that the spirit of the migrants would be crushed when Werkgenot was flattened on August 25 – the second time in three years that shacks were demolished there. The 'squatters' put up little resistance. The only person arrested there was a 'White' – Dr Margaret Nash, a member of the Christian Institute. She came to Werkgenot with a large white cross. Holding the cross high, she walked up to her waist into a stagnant pond in front of the shacks. After she had marched to the other side, she was escorted to a police van. Quite surprisingly, opposition from within the National Party surfaced thereafter. That the Kerkbode, the weekly publication of the DRC, expressed regret at the timing of the demolition, was a new element. A direct attack by theological students from Stellenbosch University demonstrated the growing influence of Professor Nico Smith. Superficially, it looked as if the government had won the bout, but the spirit of Modderdam would be resurrected in KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads where the bulk of the 'squatters' landed. Very few went to the Transkei and Ciskei as the apartheid ideologists would have liked to see. The seed of resistance bore fruit in the ‘battle of Nyanga’ where the government was to suffer its first major defeat in 1981. 176 177 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN UPTICK IN SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS ___________________________ A Year of Major Spiritual Confrontation 1977 had turned out to be the year for a major confrontation of spiritual forces. South Africa was ideologically under threat because of the ANC's close links to the Communist-ruled Soviet Union. The Modderdam saga, recounted in the previous chapter had been in the news for months. In the same year the most famous prisoner of Robben Island, Nelson Mandela, started visiting the kramat of Shaykh Mattara, the Islamic shrine. The seed was sown for a link to Islam, a religion with a clear political agenda. After Mandela’s release in 1990, visits to Islamic countries had strings attached. Many a mosque would be built throughout the country after 1994. In February 1977 the Catholic Bishops conference had made a statement expressing their stance on social justice and race relations in the church. Some of the most radical recommendations for the time were made, for example ‘to signify, by the appointment of 'Black' priests to the charge of 'White' parishes, the breaking away by the Church from the prevailing social and political system.’ 178 The news had come through in September 1977 that Steve Biko, a leading Black Consciousness leader and highly touted to be a future president of the country, was dead – possibly killed while in police custody. Furthermore, the Christian Institute and its leader, Dr Beyers Naudé, had been banned on 19 October 1977, along with many other organizations that were perceived to be in opposition to apartheid. Professor Nico Smith from Stellenbosch had played a significant role in initiating Koinonia, a movement that organised inter-racial weekends in different towns and cities. In this project participants would lodge with someone from a different race group. Christians of different races started meeting socially as families, in order to get to know and understand each other. From their ranks the Koinonia Declaration followed in 1977 when three Dutch Reformed Church dominees in the Western Cape significantly reacted against a government ruling, which made agitation against detention without trial unlawful, as well as calling for transparency regarding ‘the handling of matters relating to the security of the state (e.g. the prior series of bannings, detentions and arrests on October 19th, 1977). The prayerful attitude of the three clergymen came through in the first sentences of the Koinonia Declaration: ‘…We also believe that the prayers of just men have great power. We therefore urge all Christians to pray without ceasing for those in authority that…they may not be led astray by unbiblical ideologies…’ Bannings and Arrests of Church People The October 19th, (1977) bannings and arrests of church people had simultaneously called forth a spate of church condemnations of apartheid from around the world, such as the meeting of the Lutheran World Federation in Dar-es-Salaam in 1977, declaring apartheid a sin and any theological justification thereof a heresy. There had also been also sharp criticism from within the Dutch Reformed Church ranks, with the NG Sendingkerk using almost identical terminology the following year at their synod. The judgment was repeated a little more strongly by the Association of Black Reformed Christians in South Africa (ABRECSA) in 1981: ‘apartheid is a sin and any theological justification thereof is a travesty of the gospel, a betrayal of the Reformed tradition and a heresy.’ 179 Dr Allan Boesak’s paper in Hammanskraal on 26 October 1981 at the founding conference of ABRECSA included the statement: ‘I indeed believe that 'Black' Christians should formulate a Reformed Confession for our time and situation in our own words’. This paved the way for Dr Allan Boesak to be asked to deliver a paper at the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) where he was subsequently elected as President of the WARC in Ottawa (Canada) August 1982. He is regarded as the main proponent of the Belhar Confession at the Sendingkerk Synod of October 1982. A Call to Pray for Communists Shortly after Peter Hammond was converted to Christ early in 1977, a missionary from Overseas Missionary Fellowship challenged their congregation, urging them to pray for God to open the doors to Red China. Even as they prayed, Hammond’s heart was filled with unbelief. How could a communist country like China ever be open to the Gospel again? Yet, shortly after Mao Tse Tung died, his Little Red Book became discredited. Since then, many millions came to Christ in China. The vision for a mission with a Capetonian head office to assist persecuted churches, evangelisation in war zones, and service in restricted access areas, grew out of the daily Bible study and prayer meeting, which Peter Hammond, the founder of Frontline Fellowship, led during his time of military service in 1981. He reports about this time: 'For two years we met, almost every night, around the Word of God, spending extended times in prayer... ' When Hammond first started praying for Mozambique in 1981, the country was firmly closed for the Gospel. The Beginnings of Frontline Fellowship It was while praying through Operation World on an all-night prayer chain, that the Lord impressed upon Hammond's heart what Patrick Johnstone had written, that Mozambique was the least evangelised country in the Southern hemisphere. It moved him that there was less than one Bible for every thousand people in that Marxist nation. Something stirred deeply within him. He felt called to take Bibles and the 180 Jesus film into Marxist Mozambique. As Peter Hammond shared this vision with Christian friends and family members, they reacted sceptically. Mozambique was a communist country, a war zone, an enemy of South Africa. As he prepared for his first mission to Mozambique, the Lord confirmed His call through many passages in his daily devotions. Hammond recalls: "The Lord said to me, 'Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:7-8). "Get ready now and cross the River Jordan into the land." (Joshua 1:2) In 1982 Peter Hammond crossed the border from Swaziland into Mozambique on a 250cc motorcycle with a thousand New Testaments in Portuguese and four reels of the Jesus film. International Prayer Against Communism After the exposure of the atrocities in communist countries by people like Richard Wurmbrand and Brother Andrew after his forays into the countries behind the ‘iron curtain’, prayer increased for an end to the atheist ideology. Dutchman Bob van der Pijpekamp and another believer prayed against the occult powers at Lenin's mausoleum in the Kremlin while they were waiting in the queue for one and a half hours in 1980. This was happening just after the prayerful outreach of Christians during the Olympic Games in Moscow. In 1983 Brother Andrew’s Open Doors called Christians worldwide to pray for a period of seven years for the collapse of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 ushered in the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1991. This had been preceded by mass prayer rallies at different churches, such as those in the East German cities of Leipzig and Dresden. 181 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN UNUSUAL VANGUARDS OF REVIVAL ___________________________ For many people it might still be unknown that the three women mentioned in Matthew 1 were outsiders in respect of the Jewish faith. Their stories were rather problematic from a moral point of view. To this day not only some Muslim scholars, who hold on to a rather problematic doctrine that prophets are without sin, find it difficult to accept that King David had some despicable skeletons in his cupboard. Yet, his terrible 'hidden' deeds had to be exposed before he became a man after God's heart. Morally 'upright' people might have difficulty in accepting that the murderer, Moses, was profoundly used by God and that the formerly demon-possessed Mary Magdalene would become the first person to spread the good news of the resurrection of the Master, according to the report in John 20. God has often used unlikely people to break new ground. In this chapter we will be highlighting unlikely divine instruments – from a human point of view – who were used by God at the Cape. God used these people to usher in great movements of transformation and change. The narratives of some of these people did not end gloriously however. 182 From Modest Beginnings to Massive Expansion Through the centuries spiritual renewal was accompanied by charitable involvement with the poor and needy. Pastor Fenner Kadalie, a son of the famous trade unionist Clements Kadalie, became one of the most wellknown sons of the mission. Pastor Fenner Kadalie became the pivot of the massive expansion of the most well-known Cape social agency of compassion. The Cape Town City Mission, with its modest beginnings at the beginning of the 20th century, soon had no less than four congregations in District Six. Working closely with a young Pastor Bruce Duncan, Pastor Fenner Kadalie became a pivot of massive expansion of the Mother City’s most well-known social agency of compassion. When the community was forced out of District Six by the apartheid legislation, Fenner Kadalie and his right hand, Bruce Duncan, gathered the scattered remnants of the District Six fellowships, ministering to their needs in their new homes on the Cape Flats. Fenner Kadalie was a catalyst for the birth of many upliftment projects in and around Cape Town. Under the inspiring leadership of Rev. Bruce Duncan and Fenner Kadalie, the denomination grew rapidly in the 1970s, and became involved in various ministries of compassion. Bruce Duncan, an unsung hero of the ‘struggle’, dared to speak out against the injustice of apartheid, at the same time maintaining communication ‘with anyone from Constantia to Hanover Park and gained credibility with gang lords that few others have achieved’. Susan Benjamin represents one of the many success stories of the City Mission and its role in her life made her one of the featured women in the book, Women Who Changed the Heart of The City. She and her husband had been heavy drinkers when Jesus rescued them through the ministry of the City Mission. When the family was forced to leave District Six, Susan Benjamin asked the City Mission to hold meetings in her home. That became the start of many new congregations across the Western Cape, and her children became stalwarts in the denomination. 183 Meeting places of the Cape Town City Mission developed into fullyfledged churches. A young man with an 'afro' hair style walked into one of these churches while Pastor Barry Isaacs was preaching. The young man, Lorenzo Davids, kept coming back until he eventually committed his life to Christ, and started serving together with Pastor Isaacs as one of the leaders of The Cape Town City Mission in the new millennium. By organising early Saturday morning prayer meetings in the chambers of the metropolitan Civic Centre, Barry Isaacs was to play an important role in spiritual renewal in the new millennium. Lorenzo Davids later became a City Mission pastor at their Burns Road venue in Salt River and in the 21st century the Director of the City of Cape Town's Community Chest from March 2013 to March 2021. Gangsterism: A Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone? Over the decades gangsterism proved a hard nut to crack, notably in the Cape townships. The Mother City has its own special version of gangsters who were changed by the power of the Gospel. Down the years ministry to gangsters and drug addicted people belonged to the most difficult but also the most fruitful sectors. Many of those who became 'saved', all too often afterwards backslid. But quite a few of them became powerful ministers of the Word, still serving in that capacity after many years. Because James Valentine had been a gangster, his conversion in 1957 created quite a stir, and consequently also received a lot of interest. Soon he was a celebrated preacher on the Grand Parade, and he later became a dynamic leader of the Assemblies of God Church. He even became well known internationally. Pastor Eddie Edson is one of the most well-known personalities from the ex-gangster category. He had been involved in Woodstock gangster activities in the 1970s before he was converted under Pastor Andy Lamb’s ministry. Pastor Edson became a leader of the prayer movement at the Cape in the 1990s, and subsequently, a pastor of the Shekinah Tabernacle Full Gospel congregation in Mitchell's Plain, where he initiated monthly pastors and wives' prayer meetings in the mid-1990s till the turn of the century. 184 Influences on Non-Christians Evangelistic outreach gradually increased via Bo-Kaap and District Six, two residential areas predominantly inhabited by people of colour in the first half of the twentieth century. Open-air services were prominent in this drive, with the Salvation Army, the Docks Mission, the Cape Town City Mission and the Baptists of Wale Street and Sheppard Street (District Six) in the forefront. A big impact on non-Christian religions was made through ministry in the Cape commuter trains. Many a Muslim was challenged, even though the daring preaching done there was not always sensitive. Train preachers indirectly affected the city significantly. Many a convert from Islam attributes these challenges as an important catalyst in their decision to follow Jesus. The Salvation Army, along with Pentecostal evangelists like James Valentine and George McGregor, held open-air services on the Grand Parade, attended by good crowds. Because of Valentine’s reputation, many people stopped to hear him and Muslims also attended these occasions, listening often to the lunchtime sermons on the Parade. Even in the traditional ‘Malay Quarter’ (Bo-Kaap) evangelistic outreach was taking place. For example, there was a Wayside Sunday School in Helliger Street run by the Baptists, and one in Chiappini Street. Pastor Gay, a tireless Scottish missionary, laboured in Bo-Kaap and District Six, not without success until his death in the early 1990s. Cape Origin Denominations Many seeds of revival at the Cape germinated in the middle of the 20th century through believers who had no theological training, but who had been inspired by the great commission of Matthew 28, such as former gangsters and the like in this spreading of the gospel, along with evening Bible Schools that played a significant role in this regard. Pastor Andy Lamb was such a dynamic personality who had no formal theological training, yet who preached – in his own words – ‘on almost every street corner of District Six’ and on many trains. As the minister of the Sowers of the Word Church of Lansdowne, Pastor Andy Lamb was very much 185 involved in the prayer drives and meetings of intercessors, which met at his church once a month in 1996, and in the planting of churches. There were many house churches that started in District Six, Woodstock, Salt River and Kensington in the first half of the 20th century which had bidure (literally prayer hours), cottage meetings and open-air services as part of their lifestyle. Many a child from an 'unchurched' background heard the gospel for the first time at a Sunday School in one of the homes. A Factory Worker from Bo-Kaap Divinely Used Margaret Lund was born in 1935 at St Monica's Maternity Clinic in Bo-Kaap, and raised in the Anglican tradition in the 1940s as a child. As a 12-year-old young girl she had three dreams which impacted her profoundly. Growing up as a 'Coloured' teenager, she subsequently went to work in a factory. She married Mervyn Julie from Silvertown, Athlone, in 1955. In 1957 she was divinely challenged anew which prompted her to start attending the Silvertown Baptist Church with a friend. There she was significantly impacted. Two years later her husband also came to the Lord under the ministry of Brother Andrew Valentine from Kensington and Brother Paul Manne, a Hindu-background believer, who was an evangelist in his own right. At retirement age Paul Manne went to Australia to serve there as a missionary, pioneering in an outreach ministry to Muslims. Margaret and Melvyn Julie started moving in Pentecostal circles, meeting believers of Wynberg who started a house church which grew significantly from the small beginning. They moved the services to a garage in Grassy Park which later evolved into a denomination that become known as the Acts Mission Church, with branches as far away as Hawston and Albertinia. Margaret and her husband pioneered as the pastoral couple in the fellowship in Heideveld that later became the Fairhaven Pentecostal Church. Her impact on the rest of her family had a snowball effect. From Margaret's sister Doreen, three children subsequently entered missionary work. The daughter Glenda was to make a profound impact while serving with Youth for Christ and later marry Rodney Warrin, an OM missionary. Denise married Dennis Atkins with whom she later served 186 faithfully as 'pilgrims' of Africa Evangelistic Band, performing profound missionary work in different parts of the country until their retirement as the principal and matron of the denominational Bible school in Crawford in 2006. The son Theo became an OM Western Cape leader after returning from service on the OM ship Doulos and in the OM ministry Friends from Abroad among ex-patriots in the UK. Fishermen Who Became Fishers of Men Richard Clarence and Peter Schouw were two fisherman buddies from Kalk Bay who pioneered the Sharon Assemblies of God denomination. In the atmosphere of aggressive evangelism Pastor Richard Clarence became a big mover on the Cape Flats. Starting with a simple home fellowship in Kalk Bay, he pioneered a few more over the years. Sister Hester Mavis Clarence became a Christian as a result of the ministry of the Bible Institute of South Africa (BI) in Kalk Bay in the 1950s. A few BI students had a vision from God to minister among fishermen wives whilst their husbands were at sea. The female BI students taught these wives to knit, and through this initiative the gospel was shared. Mavis Clarence was among the first to become a follower of Jesus. Two years later, after much perseverance from Sister Clarence, her husband accepted Christ. At a time in our history when it was at the very least 'unconventional' – although legally it would not have been impossible – for a 'Coloured ' to attend the institution, the principal of the Bible Institute of South Africa at the time invited Richard Clarence to come and attend lectures when he was not out at sea. After Richard Clarence, his wife Hester Mavis Clarence and 15 others started the Sharon Church in 1961 as a house fellowship, they were introduced to the Assemblies of God denomination. A group of 17 new believers were added to those who became the foundation members of the Sharon Assemblies ministry. Cottage meetings were held initially in the homes of these believers. The missionary spirit was part and parcel of the calling God placed on the life of Pastor Clarence. The congregants enjoyed the sharing from missionaries who came home on furlough. This was organized by BI and evolved into a passion for missions in Clarence’s heart. In due course this 187 filtered through to the congregation. Missionaries on home assignment were invited to the church. One of these was Shirley Charlton, initially a missionary of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, who later became the WEC International representative in the Western Cape. Ps. Clarence passed this on interest in mission to many in the congregation. As a result, God called quite a few from that fellowship into full time service. Albert Clarence, the eldest son of Ps. Richard Clarence and his wife, went to attend Northwest Bible College, Canada (now known as Vanguard College) in 1976. He was one of the first to do so as someone not coming from a mainline Cape church. A younger son, Simon, also went to Canada. Both of them planted churches there. Ten other young people, including two other children of Pastor and Sister Clarence, went to Bible Schools. All of them were to subsequently serve the Lord in full-time missionary or pastoral service at least for a season. Many other young people attended Bible School without completing the course or who did secular work subsequently. In this regard, the Western Cape Bible College in Athlone has to be lauded. Very few students left this institution without moving into full-time evangelically related ministry or service. The institution closed down in 1986 after a merger with the Cape College of Theology in Killarney. Peter Schouw (fondly called by all ‘Uncle Pietie’), had become a believer as a result of an open-air evangelistic service held in Kalk Bay Main Rd conducted by Pastor Clarence and a group of other believers. One Saturday afternoon the teenager Peter Schouw was standing in the bioscope (cinema) queue to buy a ticket where he was convicted. He stepped out and was led to the Lord. Around 1950 the Steenberg Gospel Mission was operating as a nondenominational fellowship under the leadership of brother Robbie Richards. The majority of the group decided to join the Full Gospel Church of God. As a gifted musician on the piano accordion, Peter Schouw was a massive support and co-pastor when they started off with a congregation in the Community Hall of Cradock Road, Steenberg. The first church was built in Peter Charles Street, Retreat. This was followed by a church building in Hanover Park. 188 Unusual Inroad into Islam A Gospel campaign at the Retreat Sharon Assemblies of God fellowship in May 1982 was to have significant ramifications in the spiritual realm. Just prior to this campaign, Majied Pophlonker, a young Indian background Muslim, was radically saved. When he had married Ann, a nominal Christian, the couple had a verbal agreement that each party could keep the religion of their respective birth and upbringing. Ann's parents had become followers of Jesus not long before that and attended the Gospel Mission Church that was led by Pastor Eric Dreyer. The Lord spoke to Ann's father, instructing him not to interfere when the young Muslim started a romantic relationship with their daughter. Three years into the marriage, the young couple were living with the parents to be around the Ann’s sickly mother, who had a heart ailment. Majied had already started attempting to teach his wife the basics of Islam, hoping that he could ultimately win her over from what he understood to be a lie that would land her in hell. He had been indoctrinated in such firm beliefs to the extent that he also aspired to become a suicide bomber to kill many Jews. After the birth of their first child, things came to a head, notably when he heard his mother-in-law singing Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus to little Feroza. He was terribly angered and agitated. Majied had already insisted quite forcefully that Ann should become a Muslim. Being a nominal Christian, she was open to some compromise, although she was unhappy that their 'deal' prior to their wedding was being undermined in this way. But she had one major 'problem' that she repeated a few times. She could not deny that Jesus was the Son of God. One Friday evening just prior to the Gospel campaign of the Retreat Sharon Assemblies of God a very angry Majied had his hand already around Ann's throat to strangle her when she again refused to deny Jesus as the Son of God. However, an unseen force stopped the intended murder. This did not deter Majied from proceeding to threaten his wife with divorce if she would not become a Muslim. He was all set to take their baby daughter to India, never to return to South Africa! 189 Jesus Appeared to Majied in a Vision God intervened divinely at this time when Jesus appeared to Majied in a vision around midnight, while he could still see his own body lying there on the bed. An indescribable love radiated from this man that he immediately took to be Jesus. In the very special epiphany, he 'saw' people in white robes coming to Jesus when the Master waved to them. Majied asked Jesus in the vision who these people were. He replied: “These are my faithful servants, people who have accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour, who have been washed in His blood and whose names are recorded in the Lamb's book of life.” Then, as they walked over the beautiful green grass towards a cave, he heard shrieks and desperate cries of damnation coming, emanating also from church people and Muslims. Majied exclaimed in alarm: “Lord, if you are the Son of God, why don't you save them?” He witnessed the overwhelming love of the Master, as tears rolled down His cheeks, and the sorrowful reply followed: “For them it is too late. They had their chance to get saved while they were on the earth!” “What about me?” was Majied's immediate response. “I give you two weeks to decide what you want to do.” Thereupon Majied’s soul re-entered his body which felt ice-cold. He immediately woke up his wife to tell her about the vision, but forbade her to tell anyone about it. Ann testifies that his body was indeed ice cold. She thought that he had been outside. A 'Heavy Weight' Almost Crushed Him Without knowing about the vision of Majied Pophlonker, the Lord put on the heart of Pastor Eric Dreyer of the Retreat Gospel Mission Church to have a cottage meeting at the home of Ann's parents on a Sunday morning about 10 days later. When the people started coming there on that day, Majied left the house, and went to the mosque further up the road. He still did not want to have anything to do with Christianity. But fairly soon he returned and suggested to his wife that they should attend the meeting out of respect. She needed no second invitation, but he sat at the back near to the door 190 to be able to escape quickly. During an altar call at the home service soon afterwards, Majied raised his hand instinctively. When he attempted to take the few steps forward – actually, it was only about one meter to get to the front – a very heavy weight seemed about to crush him. “Why don't the people help me?” he thought as they continued happily singing, not noticing his soul wrenching agony. Repeatedly he heard the folk singing 'there is room at the Cross. Millions have come, but there is still place for one'. Nobody seemed to noticed his battle with the sin that was nailing him like a heavy burden figuratively to the place where he stood. In utter desperation he cried to God to save him. At that moment the 'burden' fell off. He felt as light as a feather and knew that he was saved! Majied had heard about a Gospel campaign at the nearby Sharon Assemblies of God. He was now not only eager to attend but he also encouraged Ann, his wife, to also commit her life to the Lord. The same Sunday evening, 9 May 1982, he attended, although with only his fatherin-law. Ann went along the next two nights of the campaign. On the fourth evening Ann Pophlonker eventually became a follower of our Lord. Majied had not been a Christian very long, when he discovered the treasure of his new faith, and went out of his way to learn more, proceeding to attend many evening and correspondence classes at the Bible Institute of South Africa. An Impact on Cape Islam In 1982 there were still very few followers of Jesus at the Cape who had been raised as Muslims. Even the conversion of fairly prominent females like Nabs Wessels, the wife of Rev Chris Wessels and Rita Isaacs, the spouse of Ps Barry Isaacs, remained fairly unknown. Although many Muslims responded positively at altar calls by evangelists, notably those of Reinhard Bonnke at evangelistic campaigns, the converts from Islam were not discipled. In due course, the conversion story of Majied became well known 191 in Christian circles. He would grippingly and dramatically share his testimony in many churches. Majied was also quite active in evangelism, notably as a preacher on the commuter trains to and from his work. After two years of minimal contact with his family, Ann suggested that he should go and visit them again. There his dream car, a substantial sum of money and a big house was dangled like the proverbial carrot by his affluent family. He would get all of that if he would return to Islam! God gave him special grace: Not even the real death threat of a pistol to his head could lure him! How special it is that his younger brother, who took the gun from the older one that night, would say to a Muslim relative on his deathbed in February 2022 that he was going to Jesus! This was relayed to Majied. The seed of the Gospel campaign in the Cape Flats suburb of Retreat was to germinate in a special way ten years later. At the beginning of 1992, Majied was one of the first Muslim background believers whom we came to know. From mid-1992 I started inviting Majied Pophlonker to share his testimony in many a church and recommending him because of his very special story. Once I interviewed him on CCFM radio. His testimony was the decisive nudge of my writing Op Soek na Waarheid, a booklet with true stories of Cape Muslims who had become followers of Jesus. The booklet was published in 1995. Its translation and the subsequent Search for Truth 2 from 2004 had a low-key, yet significant effect among Muslims. We heard subsequently that those stories would be mocked in mosques because I did not divulge the identity of the believers. Maliciously it was asserted that we had made up the stories. We had to protect the identity of the believers at a time when it was quite perilous to use their real names. About twenty years later, when I considered reprinting the booklet, but this time with the names of the MBBs, one of them who had become quite prominent, was not yet ready to agree to such a publication. From Death Row Catapulted into Evangelism The story of Neville Petersen belongs to this category of unusual vanguards for revival. He was bundled into a police van as a teenager 192 with school friends who had beaten up a man who subsequently died. Neville had no opportunity to explain that he was innocent, and that he played no part in the killing of the man. In the big Pollsmoor Prison Neville joined the '26' prison gang syndicate. After two years he became the leader of the gang syndicate, receiving the nick name geweld (violence). A flimsy incident led to the beheading of an inmate. Neville and three other 'generals' performed it. All three of them received the death sentence. At the beginning of the last week of his three months on death row, Neville borrowed the Bible of the prison chaplain. He made a 'deal' with God as a result: “Lord, if you take me out of this place, I will go out to proclaim you just like Peter and Paul, who had been in prison.” He had a supernatural visitation in his death cell, seeing a marvellous light from which a voice spoke to him: “You will not be hanged, but you will go and proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ lives!” He was acquitted of the murder later the same morning. At the prison in Barberton where he was subsequently taken, the colonel was very surprised to see him. There Neville opened his mouth again. “Meneer (Sir), I am bringing to you a different message. Only God can save someone from death row.” The prison authorities locked him up in a single cell, concluding that he was mad. Soon after however, he started preaching right there in the prison. Many inmates decided to follow Jesus in response to his preaching there. What followed was quite special. Still clothed in the well-known orange prison garb, Neville Petersen preached from prison to prison throughout the country. He was finally discharged in 1984. At his parental township home in Heideveld, Neville surprised all and sundry from the outset at his homecoming. Refusing lucrative perks, including a lot of money and a brand-new car if he became a drug dealer, he chose to evangelise at that occasion instead. The township audience was not impressed by the performance of the former gangster as an evangelist. He heard someone verbalizing what many of them had seen repeated all too often: “Just give him a few months and then we will see him running around again with two pistols, involved in gang warfare and drug peddling!” That prophecy of doom was not fulfilled. Instead, he continued to preach to his former 193 gangster friends and many other people: “Listen, I misled you in doing the wrong things!” Down the years, he continued evangelising, leading many a gangster to the Lord who are now also serving God. Church Response to Gang-Related Activities A question, in the light of how powerfully God can use a person to His glory from a severely disadvantaged background, was (and still is): How long will churches sit idly by, enduring the senseless killings and crime and make little to no effort at rescuing these ‘treasures in darkness’? Fortunately there are some exceptions to the apathy. The prayerful Pastor Alfred West was a brave 'White' evangelist who had been turned down for military service, because of a heart ailment around 1949. He always wanted to do foreign missionary work. He was divinely redirected and started to minister as a Wayside Sunday School teacher in the Cape township-like suburbs of Kensington and Windermere in 1955, where in due course he fell in love with Jessica, one of the local young girls. The prayerful Pastor West had to wait for twenty-five years to marry his ‘Coloured’ sweetheart Jessica, because of the country’s racial laws. In this way he was of course a quiet rebel against the status quo. When Jessica and her family moved to Bonteheuwel, the mission-minded young man started a prayer-centred fellowship in the nearby Bishop Lavis Township that sent forth missionaries to different parts of the world. Long before church planting movements became fashionable, Pastor Alfred West became involved in this way. Having led Godfrey Martin, an impressive young teacher, to the Lord, Pastor West thereafter mentored the young man to become the pastor of a home fellowship in Stellenbosch. He was mightily used by God to stem the tide of gangsterism, notably in Bonteheuwel in the 1980s. In his open-air campaigns he confronted the shebeen owners (illegal alcohol peddlers, operating from their homes) and dagga (cannabis) smokers. A special spin-off of his work was a missionary prayer fellowship, to which various missionaries came from time to time. This resulted in quite a few from Pastor West’s group being trained in Muslim Evangelism and becoming involved in regular weekly outreach. One of his protégées was Percy Jeptha, a former gangster, who 194 later became a pastor. Peter Barnes, a young man from the fellowship, went on to plant mission-minded churches in the Transkei that developed a vision to send missionaries also to other African countries also. 195 CHAPTER NINETEEN THE GOSPEL EXPRESSED IN SOCIAL ACTIONS ___________________________ In a previous chapter we saw how the Assemblies of God was very much of a harbinger denomination of non-racialism in the country. In 1953 Jim Mullan preached in Mowbray for three months and established a Cape Town Assembly, where he placed John Bond as the first pastor. John Bond took over the church located at Harfield Road in Kenilworth from Paul Lange in 1967 by which time that church had grown to over 300 members. On reaching Harfield Road, Bond found a group of dedicated elders who believed that it was God's will to start 10 new assemblies, using Harfield Road as a base. Indeed, in the decade following, 10 'White' and 5 'Coloured' congregations were started in the Western Cape and 12 churches were built. People flocked in, giving the church a 700 percent growth rate for several years. In later years, under John Bond and Paul Watney's ministry, the church experienced the mighty spiritual renewal that became known as 'the Hippie Revival'. John Bond felt led to plant a church in Fish Hoek. By the turn of the millennium, the Fish Hoek assembly had grown to some 500 people. Diverse Power Encounters Under the ministry of Ds. Pietie Victor’s Straatwerk, various covert power 196 encounters followed in the 1970s. Drug addicts were among those who were set free through the power of the Gospel. Many satanists and people under occult bondage discovered that there is indeed power in the blood of Jesus – especially when believers stand together in prayer. Drug addicts were set free through the power of the Gospel. In 1983 Rose McKenna, a 50-year-old ‘White’ woman from Zimbabwe, took three steps in one week that would forever change her life. She was baptised by full immersion and left for South Africa. In passing through Johannesburg she was confronted with the Gospel, which sent her on a search for truth. Her eagerness to get to know more about Jesus however led to one frustration with church people after the other. McKenna’s search included a Cape Bible School where she was regarded as too old and unsuitable for training. The Holy Spirit became her teacher as she now dived into the Word. At the Cape, McKenna found employment at the big insurance company Old Mutual in Pinelands. Soon her heart was drawn compassionately to the 'Black' children she had seen roaming the streets. Special Ministry of Rose McKenna In due course Rose McKenna was to become a special divine instrument. When she heard of ministry and training in the township Hanover Park, she was told that the facility was meant only for ‘Coloureds’. Bruce Duncan, the house father there, suggested that she should take her story to the newspapers, which she did. Thankfully, the press had considerable influence in those days. Irving Steyn, a journalist of The Weekend Argus, had admirably brought the plight of the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ boys to the attention of the broader public. Workers linked to the Salvation Army assisted in the daily needs of clothing, food and exercise. Khayamandi in Langa For eighteen months Rose cared for a few of these boys, unable to find a children’s home for them. The children were rounded up and put into the cells of the Wynberg Magistrates Court, destined ultimately to be brought to Pollsmoor Prison. Rose was directed to a certain magistrate, 197 who kindly phoned a friend for advice. A series of phone calls ended in Pretoria, where someone was contacted in Cape Town, to help Rose in whatever way she needed assistance. The outcome was that a dilapidated migrants’ hostel in Langa was donated as a home for the children. Besta Recta, a building firm, undertook to renovate completely the doorless, windowless and roofless building. Eventually, Captain Farrington Notshati of the Salvation Army was seconded to the home, which he named Khayamandi. This became the first children’s home for 'Black' street kids in the Cape and operated there for many years to the glory of God. A Special Project in Khayelitsha Khayelitsha, the 'Black' New Home, became one of the townships where there would be some covert interaction with folk from other races, but this hotly opposed, due to the divide and rule tactics of the regime. The Cape Town City Mission was among the first to pioneer there from 1984 when that fellowship was still in a growing informal situation. At this time, Pastor Fenner Kadalie succeeded in finding, empowering and mentoring a 'go getter' who would plant a flourishing church in Khayelitsha, while living on the City Mission camp site in Strandfontein – the gifted Pastor Melvin Maxewana, whom he had led to the Lord. Rose McKenna set up a gardening project in Khayelitsha under the auspices of Food Gardens Unlimited and Captain Notshati joined her. God intervened in Rose’s life yet again. In 1986 she was told about a competition being run by the Standard Bank. Prize money of R50 000 was offered for a seed project. While contemplating the fact that the gardening had really only commenced in Khayelitsha’s Site B, and that the group of helpers was so small, a voice boomed from nowhere, saying WALK! She perceived this to be a divine challenge to take steps in faith. A group of five workers in this project included Professor Frank Robb, a UCT academic in Microbiology who sensed a divine command to humble himself under the mighty hand of God. Rose duly put together a professional project proposal, which she submitted. They won the competition. With the prize money, the group bought and developed an acre of ground. 198 Food from this acre helped to feed the informal community during traumatic times. Food from this acre helped to feed the informal community during the traumatic times when the Witdoeke, migrants with white head bands, were terrorizing the area. Scores of people would flee into their property, hiding in the long grass. In the volatile situation they counted no less than sixty burnt-out cars in Zola Budd Drive in one weekend. (In rare irony this road was named after Zola Budd, a ‘White’ barefoot-running teenage prodigy, who had broken a long-distance world record.) The group received special permission from the regional leadership of the left-wing Pan African Congress (PAC) and other groups opposed to the government of the day, to distribute a donation of mushroom soup from Old Mutual. That weekend only army tanks came into the area, where not even the police would dare to come. The Long Walk of Rose McKenna After being engaged in Khayelitsha for eight years, the long walk of Rose McKenna took her to Israel. That led to a new life-changing epoch. Back in Cape Town she would stand outside Parliament with an Israeli flag every Friday at noon from 1999. In later years, after she had left for Australia to be with her children, the seed sown by Rose McKenna would germinate deeply into the new millennium. Pierre de Jager took over from her at Parliament with the Israeli flag, later joined by other believers occasionally. This was done at a time when actions like these were regarded by many as politically incorrect. On Friday 25 August 2022 Liz (Robertson) Campbell initiated an interview with Pierre de Jager and a few other Christians outside parliament for a radio programme of Lauren Jacobs of Radio Pulpit that advocated for a change of our government's biased negative stand against Israel. A report of the proceedings was published on Gateway News on 9 September 2022, and posted on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zSdN84lZQBE) 199 CHAPTER TWENTY IMPACT OF THE HIPPIE REVIVAL AND JESUS PEOPLE ___________________________ The Jesus Movement Impacting the Cape In a radical rejection of their parents’ way of life, the hippies of the late 1960s repudiated the affluent lifestyle in which making money is the object of life and work. Not all was negative of that generation, though. The Jesus Movement was the major Christian element within the hippie subculture. Members were called Jesus People or Jesus Freaks. The movement came to Cape Town from Johannesburg in the early 1970s. Brian O’Donnell and Dave Valentine soon became the prime movers here. O’Donnell owned the Hippie Market of the city as well as a night club called The Factory. When he was spiritually revived, Brian O’Donnell decided to conduct an outreach at the night club on Monday nights and later also at Green Point Stadium. The church hall of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church soon became a beehive of Jesus People activity. The Hippie Revival Paved a Way The Holy Spirit moved mightily among the young hippie people at the Cape, breaking through the racial barriers. Within the ‘Coloured’ sector of the AoG denomination, pastors like James Valentine and Eddie Roman worked closely alongside their ‘White’ colleagues. This was a significant contribution to the breaking down of the barriers of the apartheid era at grass roots level. 200 In the township-like suburbs of Kensington and Factreton a special networking and cross-fertilisation of young people from different denominations took place. It crossed even the barriers of religion with the Hindu-background Daya Moodley. Dennis Atkins, Trevor Pearce, Allan Smith, the Dennis siblings, Danny Pearson, his cousin Magdalene Pearson and Andrew Valentine, along with a few others, made special contributions in of church and society spheres subsequently. Hippie Revival Spills into District Six The ‘Hippie Revival’ spilled over to the young people of District Six. Under the leadership of Clive and Ursula Jacobs at the Sheppard Street Baptist Church, a bubbling youth ministry developed. The use of the bigger church hall at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church demonstrated the non-denominational flavour of the movement. From this movement many young people went to night Bible Schools and colleges. The Pat Kelly night Bible schools started at the Y.W.C.A. premises in Darling Street by the City Mission pastor in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie and his wife Joan, the dynamic leader of the late 20th century, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently. A Cape Methodist Becomes a Pentecostal Theo Bowers grew up in Simon's Town in a Methodist family when a friend invited him to attend an evangelistic event as a teenager. When Theo's family moved to the new residential area Square Hill (a part of the suburb Retreat) in his late teens in the early 1960s, he soon teamed up with David Savage, who was a few years older but who also loved the Lord. (David is my buddy from the Harmony Park beach evangelism of 1964.) Together Theo and David engaged in many an evangelistic effort. Theo got to love praying and preaching. Regarding preaching, he would also do this unconventionally in the non-'White' section of the firstclass department of the suburban train on his way to employment as a carpenter in the building industry. There had been a long-standing tradition of preaching in commuter trains in the third-class carriages. On the Grand Parade in the city centre Theo Bowers drew substantial 201 crowds as a Communist evangelical preacher with unconventional clothing. While at high school, he had been introduced to the activities of the Coloured People's Congress. Influenced by the practical implementation of sharing whatever the members had and did, Theo Bowers subsequently became a member of the Pan African Congress and a committed Communist. This influence became mingled with his understanding of Jesus as a liberator. He was soon preaching his own locally-bred version of Liberation Theology wherever he went. Throughout his life Theo had a fervent practice of prayer, often for hours on end. Soon Theo got a longing to attend a Bible school. He enrolled at Chaldo Bible School in Wittebome near Wynberg, while he was still a Methodist youth leader. Theodore Bowers started his ministry at Steenberg Full Gospel Church of God in 1969. Theo Bowers in the Hippy Revival Because of his alternative anti-apartheid communist lifestyle of the late 1960s, Theo came in contact with young people from all shades and colours. Revival vibes were moving strongly in the southern suburbs in the late 1970s. At an evangelistic campaign in the Capri 700 cinema with Theo Bowers as the preacher, folk were drawn to the meetings supernaturally, coming from as far away as Woodstock and from the northern suburbs. Drug dens went out of business when addicts were set free. Theo soon was introducing many a young hippy to Brian O'Donnell at the Hippie Market on Green Market Square. Some of them found the way with him to the Harfield Road Assemblies of God in Kenilworth. After a preacher there voiced opposition to their outward appearance quite strongly, Theo Bowers took them to Constantia where a new assembly had started. Hippie Origins of the Vineyard Church When a hippie from California attended a pastors' meeting at the Assemblies of God Church in Constantia in 1979, he spoke highly of his pastor, John Wimber, who had dared to let God be God, taking his hands off and allowing the Holy Spirit to freely do what He does best. John 202 and Carol Wimber were then invited to South Africa in 1980 and again in 1981. This is when John invited Alexander Venter to go to California (early 1982) to work with him. The idea was that he would be exposed to that model of Church life and ministry, would learn and then come back with him and a large team to plant a Vineyard Church in Johannesburg. This became This was the pristine beginning of the Vineyard Movement in South Africa, the first international church plant of the movement. Meanwhile Dave Owen and Costa Mitchell started a core group in South Africa and prepared for the invasion. A team of 72 volunteer believers came from various Vineyard fellowships in California. They did street evangelism and held big meetings accompanied by many conversions, healings and power-encounters. After two weeks they baptised 65 new believers and started a number of small groups. Together with the rather large core groups, they were left with a sizeable baby! A Unique Contribution Towards Church Unity Theo Bowers and Esme, his wife, had a tremendous impact on the communities of Steenberg and Retreat. In due course the Pastor and his members planted several churches in Macassar, Mitchell's Plain and other areas of the Cape Flats. One of these was the Shekinah Tabernacle congregation of Beacon Valley, where Pastor Eddie Edson soon served in a fast-growing church. Theo and Esme Bowers displayed a unique commitment for a visible expression of the unity of the Body of Christ, helping to break down barriers of race and denomination. Theo’s passion for prayer and for the unity of the Church found resonance in a loose weekly prayer group with like-minded colleagues at the Rondebosch Dutch Reformed Church where Dr Ernst van der Walt was the pivot in the 1990s. As an executive member of The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA) and representing other national forums, Esme travelled to many countries after she had also come into the leadership structure of the world-wide Evangelical Alliance. 203 Young Pioneers In the course of the Hippy Revival of the 1970s many young people were impacted. Some of them went for training in youth ministries. One of the young people from the Sharon Assemblies was Carol Petersen. She was the first female from the denomination to go to Bible school. Immediately after graduating, she pioneered in service with Youth for Christ. Around 1980 she and three other 'Coloureds' were the first ones of colour to do so. They were fully accepted in the group travelling around the country, also going to Soweto and into 'Coloured' schools. Operating as a racially integrated music team, the New Song served in tandem with the one hour long drama group The Witness in the proclamation of the Gospel message. In the photo of the 1986 New Song group below, almost half of them were non-'White'. Youth Ministries played a significant role in the transformation of the country in subsequent years. After Carol Petersen’s marriage to Stewart Sampson, another youngster from Sharon Assemblies, the family pioneered as Operation Mobilization (OM) missionaries in Austria, when South African missionaries were not welcome in many countries because of apartheid. Serving in WEC International, June Domingo (in France) Joseph and Eileen Philander (Brazil), and later Stewart and Carol Sampson, were missionaries from the mission-minded Sharon Assemblies who served overseas. Sidwell Snyers was another young believer from that area, from Steenberg. He served with Youth for Christ in the 1980s. With odds stacked against him in a home situation with an abusive father, he and his siblings came through high school with flying colours mainly because of a prayerful mother who had a good friend that supported them over many years. In the early 1990s Sidwell became a WEC missionary, serving with WEC International in the Birmingham area in the UK. The Hippy Revival vibes radiated from the Cape throughout the country. In Grahamstown the ‘Charismatic Renewal’ as it was called, moved into 204 the Anglican Church where Bishop Bill Burnett was impacted in 1972 in the private chapel of his episcopal residence. This profound charismatic experience was to dominate the rest of his ministry, even after his retirement. The Hippy Revival intersected with the seminary in District Six. Our Interaction with the Jesus People Meanwhile, our student colleague Fritz Faro had been in close interaction with the Jesus People, a group of young men and women who came out of the hippy movement. We appreciated that they were radical, even though we had problems with their a-political stance, for example that people from the different races were sitting separately in their church services. Spiritually, their radicalism did rub off. It reminded me of the days with the SCA people of which I had become estranged, possibly because of the liberal phase through which I was going. Of course, we could not leave the a-political stance of the Jesus People unchallenged. In a discussion with someone from their ranks, we invited and challenged them to come and make a public demonstration of our unity in Christ. The week prior to this I had had to wait at one of our meetings till all 'Whites' were served at the coffee bar before being served. Political activism was quite central in our thinking at seminary. People from different races were coming there, causing quite a stir in government circles. A 'Coloured' teacher to whom I was giving private German lessons one afternoon per week, conceded to me that he had been approached by the 'Special Branch' – for good money – to spy on activities at our seminary. Preparations went well for a youth rally with the theme ‘Youth Power’ in the Old Drill Hall in October 1973. That building complex was recently renovated and changed to house the City’s Central Library. Dr Beyers Naudé, the leader of the Christian Institute, was our high-profile keynote speaker. Dr Naudé lodged with the family of Henning Schlimm, our seminary director. There he heard about the background of my apartheid-related departure for Germany. 205 CHAPTER TWENT Y-ONE 1976 PROVOKES CATALYST S OF CHANGE ___________________________ Trouble was brooding in Soweto. Learners were protesting against what they perceived as the enforced imposition of Afrikaans. The catastrophe in the ‘Black’ township of Soweto on the 16th of June 1976, became world news The catastrophe in the ‘Black’ township of Soweto, near to Johannesburg, on the 16th of June 1976, became world news. Secondary school learners, protesting against the enforcement of Afrikaans as the language medium in certain subjects, were treated brutally and some of the learners were killed. Reactions to 16 June 1976 The South African Council of Churches (SACC) appealed to all churches to give guidance and support to a shocked and bereaved society and to those who by virtue of the vote bore the responsibility for fuelling the oppressive structures. The 206 SACC called on the churches to observe Sunday 20th June 1976 as a day of prayer, using II Chronicles 7:14. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 was the basis for speaking out against apartheid. Archbishop Bill Burnett used 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Bible verse that would play such a crucial role in the transformation process in the new millennium, as the basis for speaking out against apartheid. In an open letter to Mr B.J. Vorster, the Prime Minister, in September 1976, he wrote: Unless 'White' Christians in particular admit the wrongs they have done to ‘Black’ people and take action to redress them, there can be no possibility of healing in our Land. We can safely surmise that many people were agonizing in prayer for an end to the killings and violence. Some of the increased prayer awareness became known only later, such as businessmen and other believers who interceded in the mornings and during lunchtime at Syfrets in Wale Street in the Mother City. A Vanguard for Change The Christian Institute (CI), led by Dr Beyers Naudé, was always one step ahead of the SACC and the churches in their resistance to apartheid. It was often the case that what the CI practised, the SACC, followed by its member churches, would also do. The CI understood that the initiative for change in South Africa lay firmly in the hands of ‘Blacks’. This in itself represented a fundamental shift from an earlier position the organisation had held. (I had suggested in 1970 as a CI member that we should risk arrest. My Moravian buddy Paul Joemat and I were hoping that ‘White’ young Christians, who also had the same vision, would join us and that they would be willing to get actively engaged, and oppose the ungodly apartheid policies, and risk arrest. The official CI position at that time was not to engage in unlawful activities.) 207 In a statement immediately following the Soweto uprising, the CI said: 'the Government is no longer in a position to determine the course of political events, not only in Soweto, but also in South Africa as a whole; nor is it capable of guiding in any way the nature, direction or pace of change.' ‘Blacks’ to Elect Their Own Leaders? The CI proposed that ‘Blacks’ be given the freedom to elect truly recognized leaders from their midst, including those in prison, and those who were in exile. These leaders would then ‘participate in a national convention with a view to dismantling in the shortest possible period the unjust political and social structures of our land and to present to our country a political policy of liberation based on freedom and justice for all.’ They saw any action that fell short of this demand as ‘a dangerous stumbling block to the achievement of fundamental peaceful change.’ The CI called upon their ‘White’ ministers and members to publicly retract their support from the policies of the Government unequivocally. Recognising that there could be no peace until all people were totally liberated, the CI also asked ‘Whites’ to make personal and collective representations to their members of parliament, pressing for a conference of ‘Black’ and ‘White’ leaders. The CI pressed for a conference of 'Black' and 'White' leaders. The radical stance of the CI ushered in its own demise. The organisation was banned on 19 October 1977, along with a number of other organisations which opposed apartheid. Dr Beyers Naudé was slapped with a sort of house arrest. He was only allowed to attend church on Sunday morning, but not permitted to interact with other people there. The house arrest was initially given for five years and later extended to seven years. The constraint was lifted on 26 September 1984. 208 The Koinonia Declaration Dr Nico Smith, Professor of Theology in Stellenbosch, played a significant role in starting Koinonia, a movement that organised interracial weekends in different towns and cities. Participants would always lodge with someone from a different ethnic group. Thus Christians of different races started meeting socially, as families, in order to get to know and understand each other. The Koinonia Declaration followed in 1977. Three Dutch Reformed Church leaders in the Western Cape reacted against a government ruling which made unlawful any opposition to detention without trial. They also called for transparency regarding the handling of matters relating to the security of the state (e.g. the prior series of bannings, detentions and arrests on October 19, 1977). The prayerful attitude of these clergymen was revealed in the first sentences of the Koinonia Declaration: ‘…We also believe that the prayers of just men have great power. We therefore call Christians to pray without ceasing for those in authority that…they may not be led astray by unbiblical ideologies…’ 209 CHAPTER TWENT Y-TWO GOLD FROM A FURNACE ___________________________ It is debatable whether to consider Hitler’s demonic activities with regard to Jews as something that God could have used to bring the Jews back to the land of Israel. Hitler’s actions to expand his Reich (empire) caused World War II. These actions were clearly evil. Few Christians are aware however that the prayers of a Welsh intercessor, Rees Howell, played a big role in turning World War II around in favour of the British Allies. Howell recorded a few other instances of divine intervention during the war in answer to prayer. Is Apartheid Demonic? In earlier days it might have been quite sensational to describe apartheid as heretical or diabolic. Those terms turn pale however in the light of the brutality that was used to enforce it. Today we have little difficulty in dubbing apartheid as basically demonic, knowing that satan masquerades as an angel of light. In a sense we could be thankful that someone like the enlightened and brilliant businessman Anton Rupert did not become State President instead of John Vorster as successor of the assassinated Hendrik Verwoerd, otherwise the diabolical nature of apartheid might not have been exposed so soon. Also, might not Rupert’s notion of partnership with 'Blacks' have caused a big rift in Afrikaner circles, and a subsequent catalyst for change? The wickedness of apartheid towards 'Blacks' had been clearly exposed 210 by the tragedy of Sharpeville in 1960 and its aftermath, but somehow the anti-apartheid voices were muzzled when charismatic political leaders were imprisoned, and the message of the inhumanity of ‘influx control' via the Pass Laws as the proverbial Achilles heel of apartheid went into hibernation. Thereafter it was the Church that emerged as the authentic mouthpiece of the oppressed, notably via the Christian Institute with its Afrikaner leaders Rev Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze, but this was still very much on the fringe of a society where racial discrimination was the order of the day. The Message to the People of South Africa was a new departure – a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. The election of the Moravian pastor Rev. August Habelgaarn, who fittingly hailed from Genadendal, as chairperson at the first 'Black'-majority SACC national conference in 1972, was a clear signal because its General Secretary, John Rees, stated at that occasion that henceforth the organisation would deliberately seek to reflect the 'Black'-majority situation of its constituency in both its staffing and executive bodies. Local Gold In the mid-1970s the first real stirrings against apartheid in South Africa started via the trade unions and students at the rise of the Black Consciousness movement. The truth of 1 Peter 1:7 would evolve at the Cape during the harsh brutalities towards 'Blacks' in 'squatter camps' that later got the fancy name of 'informal settlements: Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. Strong personalities started to operate behind the scenes. Another biblical truth, that of Psalm 133:3, that God bestows his blessing especially where there is harmony, was arguably illustrated best when concerned citizens from all sectors of Cape society joined hands in support of homeless victims of 'influx control'. Rich and poor, many of them church people, but also Jewish and Muslim adherents, took the plight of the destitute folk to heart. The leadership role behind the scenes of a Quaker was significant. What a blessing that 211 Rommel Roberts recorded much of happened at the 'Black' spots of the Cape Flats between 1975 and 1982!8 Rommel had joined the Quakers, a group that is often maligned as a sect, in 1975. Quakers believe that there is something of God in everybody and that every human being is of unique worth. They value all people equally, and oppose anything that may harm or threaten them. On the other extreme of the theological spectrum, certain groups regarded the 'total depravity of man' as a firm doctrine. Rommel Roberts had undergone theological training to become a Catholic priest before he met Celeste Santos, an ex-Dominican nun, in Hanover Park, a township near Cape Town. Rommel and Celeste enjoyed training as community workers under Reverend Des Adendorff. The two became a couple in due course and teamed up in service at informal settlement camps with the Xhosa lady Aunt Sue, as Susan Conjwa was known by all at Hanover Park, who did the same training. A very likeable and cheerful person, she was always prepared to listen to, and very interested in, the people she met. A General in the Making Like so many others, Aunt Sue had come to Cape Town as a young girl from a village in Transkei, the so-called Xhosa homeland. For many years she had worked for various 'White' employers as a domestic worker. She had cared for a 'White' family and their children, and it was only when she was around 60 years old when she was released from this work that she wasw able to embark on a new career – caring for her entire community. Aunt Sue had much knowledge of oppressed people and their history and she knew many key persons from all political persuasions in every township. She had the innate ability to sense mood changes in the community, at a time when moods were volatile. Understanding them is vital to meaningful leadership. Her community development training with Rev. Adendorff was a great asset in that, with her leadership, the team serving the 'Black' informal settlement camps was able to undertake a range of activities that went beyond pure protest. In her life, Aunt Sue had moved from being a domestic worker to a community organiser and 212 leader who could command tremendous respect. Her roles in the Modderdam saga of 1977 related in Chapter 16, the New Crossroads saga of 1982 related in Chapter 24, and the Emafundleni situation described in Chapter 25 are largely unknown yet she helped change the course of our history in a dramatic way, while remaining completely humble and unassuming. She was never recognised by the ANC, nor ever given any award. Rommel Roberts thought her contribution to be 'so great that even the Nobel Peace Prize would have been inadequate.' In due course she became one of the generals in the battle against the Pass Laws where great leaders such as Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela had done spadework in earlier years. Susan Conjwa, alias Aunt Sue, was one of the residents of the Modderdam informal settlement near Bellville, comprising roughly 10 000 people on a stretch of land along Modderdam Road, at the edges of Cape Town’s northern suburbs. By way of a recap, the residents of Modderdam were considered illegal by the State, which insisted that all 'Black' people actually belonged in the so-called homelands – underdeveloped rural areas far from sources of work. Anyone who wanted to work in a ‘white’ city had to have a work permit, and in order to get a work permit, proof of employment had to be shown. It was an impossible requirement. Thousands were in desperate need of work and flooded the cities weekly, establishing shelters wherever they could. The government never accepted that they were there permanently, and continually cracked down on them, starting with the community of Modderdam. During the tail-end of the crisis of Modderdam in 1977, thousands of families had their shacks destroyed, despite a lengthy legal battle. Shack communities sprang up everywhere as people flocked to the cities to find work, and Crossroads was one of them. When it appeared that the government was determined to destroy the Crossroads community as well, a huge protest movement was set in motion, headed by Bishop Tutu, together with many leaders from Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities. 213 Growth of Crossroads The intervention by business proved crucial, as it ushered in formal negotiations with government to reconsider its stance on Crossroads. With the resettlement of the ex-Modderdam residents, Crossroads had swollen to more than 250 000 people. The outcries against its removal were fierce and relentless, with pressure mounting against the government from sources all over the world. Eventually, after a prolonged campaign in which Aunt Sue together with many others played a vital role, a deal was struck; Crossroads residents who qualified according to certain criteria would be granted a reprieve from the hated Pass Laws, and a new community of brick houses, known as ‘New Crossroads’, would be built. Those dark days and the massive arrest of so many people had a sobering effect on the government. Crossroads provided the impetus for a stepped-up anti-apartheid campaign, with Bishop Tutu dramatically calling for sanctions to be implemented world-wide. Sanctions gathered strength when the business community, under the leadership of mining magnate Sir Harry Oppenheimer, stepped in and condemned the government’s actions, which were, of course, bad for business. The acceptance by government of Crossroads residents was a radical departure from national policy. This was a major victory for the team around Aunty Sue. East African Gold Festo Kivengere (1919–1988) was an Anglican leader sometimes referred to in the 1970s as 'The Billy Graham of Africa'. He was invited by Michael Cassidy to join African Enterprise in 1969 and to build up a team of AE evangelists in East Africa. He played a huge role in a Christian revival in south western Uganda, but had to flee in 1973 to neighbouring Rwanda in fear for his life after speaking out against Idi Amin's tyrannical behaviour. Idi Amin was persecuting Christians in an attempt to stop the revival in Uganda. Kivengere was among several bishops summoned to Amin's quarters when angry mobs, who had possibly been brought there by the tyrannical president, called for their deaths. Eventually, all were permitted to leave but one, the archbishop, Janani Luwum. The next 214 day the Ugandan government announced that Luwum had died in a car accident. Four days later, despite government threats, 45 000 Ugandans gathered in the Anglican cathedral in Kampala for a memorial service honouring their fallen leader. Bishop Kivengere did not attend the service, urged to flee by friends who said, "One dead bishop is enough." Festo Kivengere and his wife that night drove as far as their vehicle could take them and with the help of local church people in the hills they walked until the next morning into safety across the border into Rwanda. He later authored the book I Love Idi Amin to emphasize the qualities of forgiveness for those who wrong you and love for those who persecute you. Kivengere stated, "On the cross, Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do.' As evil as Idi Amin is, how can I do less toward him?" He came to the Cape a few years later, where he was to have a huge impact as part of the team of Africa Enterprise. Bishop Festo Kivengere returned to Uganda after Amin's downfall to continue an active ministry until his death by leukemia in 1988. 215 CHAPTER TWENT Y-THREE TRAILBL AZERS FOR RACIAL RECONCILIATION ___________________________ Bill Burnett: A Free State Rooinek Born in the Orange Free State, schooled at Bishops in Rondebosch, bilingual in English and Afrikaans, and having served in Durban for many years, God prepared this man of God for a big role in our nation. He was to become a true great, a special ambassador not only of the country but also for the Kingdom. Bill Burnett could easily communicate with Afrikaners, and was ideally suited to be the secretary at the groundbreaking Cottesloe event organised by the WCC in December 1960. The contribution of bishops Burnett and Zulu at that occasion went a long way towards their being sent as South African delegates to their global event appointment in New Delhi the following year. There both of them were elected to the Central Committee of the WCC. Bill Burnett blazed a trail for racial reconciliation wherever he went. He became the first general secretary of the South African Council of Churches when it was formed in 1967. At a time when it was not only the government of the day that held to the firm conviction that politics had no place in the church, the General Secretary of the newly formed SACC immediately put his stamp on it. The revamped umbrella body spoke out against apartheid via The Message to the People of South Africa at the inauguration of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968. This response marked Burnett’s strong commitment to church unity and 216 united Christian witness in public affairs. The Message to the People of South Africa in 1968 was a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. It taught that apartheid was not merely heretical, but that it was unbiblical and unchristian, a false gospel. It is taken for granted that Bishop Burnett would have played a significant role in the drafting of the document. That same year, 1968, was the final straw to break the camel's back of his involvement with the WCC. He had already been disturbed by trends in the global movement prior to this. At the plenary event in Uppsala (Sweden) it was stated without opposition that the world sets the agenda for councils of churches. 'I bowed out of the WCC because I knew that for Christians, it was the Lord who sets the agenda.' During a visit to the USA, Burnett heard that the bishop of the backwater diocese of Bloemfontein had been elected to the prestigious one of Grahamstown. It was there where he would have his special Holy Spirit experience on 13 March 1972. At this occasion he had actually committed himself during a four-day silent retreat to 'more vigorous political involvement.' The power of the Holy Spirit began to manifest itself soon in the Grahamstown diocese in different ways. People's lives began to be changed. Some were healed of addictions and many were hungry for the Word of God. Thirty to forty people 'from a wide variety of churches now crowded into the living room at Bishopsbourne on a weekly basis.' With regard to mutual respect between the races, Bill Burnett introduced a programme in the Grahamstown diocese to demonstrate mutual care and concern. The Human Relations and Reconciliation Programme was ultimately accepted by the entire Church of the Province. Each parish was asked to set up a challenge group whose members had to 'find' one another in terms of relationships between the races. The Episcopate of Bill Burnett as Archbishop of Cape Town from 1974 was to impact the Anglican Church profoundly, and ultimately the country. Within a matter of months Bishopscourt was completely transformed into a buzzing multi-racial community. In the posh upmarket residential area where I once was 'privileged' to attend a Christian Institute meeting at the exclusive villa of the Robb family with 217 a butler serving us with drinks, people of all racial and denominational backgrounds went in and out. One of the catalysts to this end was the request of the Diocesan Secretary to come to their small prayer and Bible Study meeting in their home. Bill Burnett's unusual suggestion to bring them to Bishopscourt would result in a weekly multi-racial meeting of 150 people crowding into the drawing-room, including a few Roman Catholics. Burnett noted in 1979 that 'Where the dynamic of the Holy Spirit was appropriated by Christians of different cultures or classes or races... (they were) transformed into a warm relationship by the warmth of God.' Bill Burnett as a Transformer After moving into Bishopscourt, the new man on the block soon revamped the place. The old stables were turned into accommodation, where not only staff but also young people who would be prepared for ministry would reside. This was throwing the gauntlet to the government because this was non-racial living, tantamount to blatant defiance of the Group Areas Act. Or was it just a litmus test to see how the government would react? Prime Minister Vorster surprised all and sundry in 1975 with some brave moves, suggesting that the country would soon have a different standing from an international viewpoint. 'Multinational' sports was no more than a sop for the right-wing of his party, but this did allow the Anglican Church a gap which they used to open their private schools for people of colour. As a proponent of the Charismatic Renewal, it was only natural that prominent international speakers would grace the pulpit of St George's Cathedral. Among those from overseas there was Bishop Colin Urquhart from the UK. Rev. Clive McBride narrated a sanctified moment in a packed-out sanctuary: Bishop Colin Urquhart requested the congregation to close their eyes then said: 'Now turn to your neighbour and look to that person with the eyes of Jesus!' McBride recalls what happened to him, sitting next to a racist 'White' Baptist Afrikaner, one of his oppressors from the 218 perspective of his natural background: 'I raised my arms suddenly in a warm embrace, while he did the same. We held each other tightly for a while. When I opened my eyes, I saw that this was happening throughout the cathedral.' God definitely used events like these to prepare the historic highpoint of St George's Cathedral on 13 September 1989, with Archbishop Tutu, Dr Allan Boesak and other clergymen, many of whom represented other denominations and faiths. In the spiritual realm this turned the tide in the country from the precipice of a civil war of unprecedented proportions. Prayer in the Process of Change Archbishop Burnett was soon to set the Anglican Church at the Cape ablaze in one sense, although traditionalists were of course not happy at all with what was happening there. Prayer became very much part of the process of change in the Republic of South Africa, and this was demonstrated by prayer and fasting in St George’s Cathedral. Towards the end of 1974 and for several months thereafter, a large number of ‘Black’ student leaders had been arrested and detained without trial by the security police. Some were held in solitary confinement for long periods. During that time a prayer vigil was held at St George’s Cathedral, where various people committed themselves to prayer. This they did in 24-hour sessions for each student by name. A large number of ‘Black’ student leaders were arrested and detained without trial. The personal reflection of Professor Francis Wilson for 13 February 1975 included notes on Nyameko Barney Pityana: ‘For such a man as he to be incarcerated is a judgement not upon Barney but upon the society which has acted so violently against him’. Later Barney Pityana became a top academic and the registrar of the University of South Africa (UNISA). All students were finally released without being charged of any crime. 219 A Reconciler at Work The reconciling character of Archbishop Burnett was highlighted when Philip Russell was named Archbishop by the Episcopal Synod of the Church of the Province in 1980 after the Diocese of Cape Town was unable to decide between Desmond Tutu and Michael Nuttall, the then Bishop of Pretoria. Desmond Tutu would in one sense prove his critics right, being 'too political'. In another sense, however, he would become a divine instrument to challenge the apartheid regime more than any of his predecessors was able to do. Changes happened also on the theological front. Bill Burnett reached out to evangelicals who were suspicious of Anglo Catholics. An exception was St John's in Wynberg was a quiet evangelical Anglican parish. When there had been a split among South African Anglicans in the 19th century in the wake of the controversy that saw Bishop John Colenso deposed, St John's of Wynberg refused to take sides. The church has a special clause which protects them from Anglo Catholic doctrines or practices. In the Anglican Church at large there were dramatic changes due to the work of the Holy Spirit. Under Archbishop Burnett's leadership the number of ordinands went to at an all-time high. From 1979 to 1981 there were 53 students at St Paul’s seminary in Grahamstown. This was despite the fact that two other Anglican-related theological colleges – St Peter’s, Natal and St Bede's in Mthatha – were fully operational at the time. The tenure of Archbishop Bill Burnett from 1974 impacted the Anglican Church and the country profoundly in other ways, notably via the gap year practice. The multi-racial community of Bishopscourt included young men, called the Nomads, who spent a year of their lives there. A number of them offered themselves as ordinands later so that Bishopscourt became at this time 'a pathway to the priesthood'. In one year the diocese produced no less than 40 ordinands during Bill Burnett's episcopate. Archbishop Burnett took the baton as a charismatic reconciler over from 'Mr Pentecost' David du Plessis. There were some divine moments occurring in Durban at the Congress on Mission and Evangelism in 1973 when David du Plessis and Bishop Burnett were the first two speakers. 220 This was profoundly fitting at the most representative church gathering the country had seen. David du Plessis had taken the charismatic movement into the Vatican, and Burnett, impacted by The Pentecostal Movement in the Church, a book written by a Roman Catholic priest, Bishop Burnett shared his testimony. This was happening at a time when speaking in tongues was regarded by many a mainline church goer as demonically inspired. In his autobiography Bill Burnett preambles his narrative of his own experience with the account of a vision that the Pentecostal pastor Nicholas Benghu had. Benghu constantly affirmed loudly: 'We have a great God!' He noted in the same context: 'I reflect how encouraging it is that the two great Christian brothers with whom I have known and worked the most intimately, Alpaheus Zulu and Nicholas Benghu, were both nurtured in the soil of Africa as indeed I have been too.' The first international conference of charismatic Anglicans was held ahead of the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican Lambeth Bishops' Conference. The one of 1978 climaxed in an extended eucharist in Canterbury Cathedral with Bill Burnett leading the bishops in a liturgical dance at the altar. Charismatic Bishops were concerned that the international bishops gathering at Canterbury were not led by the Spirit and not making wise and godly decisions, but Bill Burnett led what was called the pre-Lambeth charismatic conference. Massive Impact of a Conference A special contribution of Bill Burnett towards reconciliation was the visible expression of the unity of the Body of Christ via the Cape Renewal Conference in 1981. To this end, Martin Weatherstone, his administrator and personal assistant, played a big role. He had joined the Bishopscourt community in July 1977. The run-up to this conference had a clear divine touch. Three Dutch Reformed Ministers came to see Bill Burnett who was deeply moved by this visit. As they left, they reassured him that there would be no problems concerning the involvement of other races. Martin Weatherstone, the great administrator at Bishopscourt, was to become a pivotal cog in many an inter-denominational event, notably in the preparation of the one with Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke in Valhalla Park (with the massive tent) in 1984. 221 As a special international spin-off, Martin Weatherstone went to Australia to develop the ministry of the Anglican Mission to the Jews in Australia and New Zealand. A Big Challenge for Africa Enterprise A big challenge for the young agency Africa Enterprise (AE), started by Michael Cassidy in 1962, came in 1970 during Mission ’70 in Johannesburg. There the need for drawing the body of Christ together had been brought home to AE ‘quite forcibly’. Cassidy and John Rees, who became the new General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) as the successor of Bishop Bill Burnett. Together they organized the South African Congress on Mission and Evangelism in Durban (13-22 March, 1973). The SA government went all out to protect the South African ‘way of life’. All overseas speakers including Dr Billy Graham, Leighton Ford and Michael Green were initially barred from entering South Africa. Dr Graham had indicated that he was not prepared to speak to racially segregated audiences. The Congress leaders turned to God in prayer. Michael Cassidy was given the verse: “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment” (Isaiah 54:17). Together with Professor David Bosch and John Tooke he petitioned John Vorster, the Prime Minister, and finally written permission was given for non-racial accommodation in a Durban hotel and all overseas speakers were allowed entry into SA. This was a major deviation from the official government stance. Significantly, the Durban Congress, attended by 630 delegates and observers from 31 different denominations. brought together the socalled evangelicals and the so-called ecumenicals, a huge breakthrough at that time. The Holy Spirit moved powerfully via the Congress on Mission and Evangelism. For the first time in this country, the racial barriers came down significantly at that congress. Dr Billy Graham's insistence on the absence of any racial segregation among the audience played no small role. The Congress was much more than only an ‘…experience of tremendous learning and mutual discovery for different sectors of the Body of Christ.’ 222 It was pivotal in the spiritual realm as the body of Christ in South Africa operated together for the first time across racial and denominational barriers in significant numbers. Ripple Effects of the Durban Event That congress was an important forerunner of the cataclysmic meeting in Lausanne (Switzerland) the following year which was organized by ‘evangelicals’. There the evangelical-ecumenical rift was addressed, as well as the unbiblical divide between evangelism and compassionate outreach. The congress of 1973 was also a catalyst to the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) in Nairobi in 1976, and a harbinger of the related South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) in Pretoria in 1979. Whereas earlier congresses elsewhere apparently hardly seemed to touch the Cape, the Durban event did so powerfully. One of the leaders, Professor Nico Smith, was based at Stellenbosch University with its renowned theological faculty. From there he started bringing believers from different races into each other’s houses via a movement called Koinonia, a Greek word meaning ‘fellowship’. Impact On Alpha Courses Alpha was started in 1977 by the Reverend Charles Marnham in London as a course for church members regarding the basics of beliefs commonly held by many believers in Christ. Thereafter it began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith. Nicky Gumbel, an English Anglican priest and author, took the Alpha Course to a new level from the Holy Trinity Brompton Church of England congregation in London, expanding rapidly among churches of many denominations world-wide. When the Alpha programmes started off initially in 1993, they had the standard evangelical teaching, but the influence of Archbishop Burnett and John Wimber changed the content in its core. The infilling with the Holy Spirit at a weekend away became the element for which Alpha became known around the world. Archbishop Burnett, together with John Wimber, impacted the Alpha 223 courses of Rev. Nicky Gumbel of Holy Trinity Church in Brompton (now known world-wide as HTB) significantly, notably after his retirement in 1981. (John Collins served at HTB from 1980 to 1989, joined by Nicky Gumbel as his assistant in 1986. His successor, Sandy Millar, also welcomed John Wimber's ministry, such that HTB became a base during Wimber's conference visits, and a big channel for Wimber’s influence into the Anglican churches.) The church later became even more well known as a key centre of the next wave of charismatic phenomena. Burnett’s Impact On Anglican Youth Allan Smith and Trevor Pearce who both grew up in Kensington were among the young people who, after being impacted by the Holy Spirit, considered entering full-time ministry. Trevor was one of the first generation of South Africans to join the ministry of Operation Mobilization. Allan Smith joined the Nomads, an evangelistic group of young people, that toured the country, sharing the gospel especially with young people. Allan Smith applied for theological training after quite a bit of reticence, due to a rather low view of Anglican ministers. After a rigorous screening process as part of his application, Alan was asked to spend a year in residence with Archbishop Burnett. At the end of this period Trevor joined Alan and a few other to live in the radical community at Bishopscourt of Archbishop Bill Burnett. The multi-racial group had to perform a variety of maintenance and other chores. Allan Smith had the privilege of chauffeuring the Archbishop around so that he was also blessed to listen to many of his speeches. Bishop Alpheus Zulu Valuable seed was sown towards racial reconciliation by ‘Black’ clergy who had a good track record at this time. One of them was Bishop Alpheus Zulu, who possibly opened the eye of many a ‘White’ person when he stated: ‘…Some Black people... refuse consciously and deliberately to retaliate…’ He also warned however: ‘At the same time it would be a grave mistake to presume to think that such attitudes will survive callous White discrimination.’ 224 225 CHAPTER TWENT Y-FOUR A TURNING POINT ___________________________ At the Pan-African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) in Nairobi (1976) tensions between 'Black' and 'White' South African delegates spilled over into the wider conference. Professor David Bosch from Unisa was divinely used when he addressed the conference. Hearts began to melt as he spoke self-critically: ‘We have failed to create the new community in Africa… which should be an alternative to all other communities on earth. Have we really understood what Jesus came to do on earth? … Reconciliation is no cheap matter. Reconciliation presupposes confrontation… Reconciliation presupposes an operation, as cut into the very bone without anaesthetic. The abscess of hate and mistrust and fear, between Black and White, between nation and nation, between rich and poor, has to be slashed open.' A significant subsequent national Church initiative was the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) of 1979. However, it would probably be safe to say that other factors like the 40 years of apartheid oppression, combined with the prophetic actions of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and SACC between 1948 and 1988, also helped to raise the consciousness of the poor and the oppressed. The situation was radicalised towards massive inevitable conflict. 226 The SACC taught that apartheid was not merely heretical, it was a false gospel. The speech of Professor Bosch at PACLA in Nairobi turned out to be very strategic, paving the way for the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) in Pretoria in 1979. Here the seed for the new South Africa was sown. SACLA’s Impact on South Africa SACLA influenced the whole country deeply in a positive way. The conference was clearly part of God’s plan to transform the apartheid stronghold and capital of South Africa. The German-born Reinhardt Bonnke was divinely touched. One of those who attended gave the following testimony 30 years later: 'SACLA helped another generation of young South African Christians to resist apartheid, and to resist the propaganda that they were bombarded with in school, in society, and sometimes in even in church. I believe that many were given new hope and new encouragement to resist.' Seed For the New South Africa A group of delegates from Stellenbosch decided to continue the SACLA fellowship locally. A least one Afrikaner theological student was delivered from a racist posture towards 'Blacks' in 1980 after a meeting at Stellenbosch University with eleven hundred students. Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda was one of the speakers. The student 226 was moved by the double feature sermons by Cassidy and Kivengere. The latter speaker pulled no punches on the theme of race relations, bringing the student to concede that he had been full of racial prejudice. He testified: “I feel I have today been liberated from racism. Thank you, thank you, Bishop Kivengere!”. SACLA influenced the whole country deeply in a positive way. 227 The SACLA delegates went back to their home churches with a renewed vision for a changed South Africa. Pastor Ed Roebert initiated a regional gathering of like-minded pastors with the purpose of fellowship and mutual encouragement. Soon he met regularly with Reinhardt Bonnke, Ray McCaulay, Fred Roberts, Tim Salmon and Nicky van der Westhuizen. In due course many new charismatic churches were established as a result. Men with unusually anointed ministries operated in different congregations, starting what would become mega churches. Reinhardt Bonnke was quite controversial in the Church at that time, but he subsequently took the Gospel to many African countries and further afield and had a significant impact on millions. In this regard he was possibly second only to the great Dr Billy Graham. Reinhard Bonnke impacted millions in many African countries. At this juncture I would like to highlight the ministry of another 'Black' giant of faith. As he worked closely with Reinhardt Bonnke, Richard Nigidi's impact also became continental. The highlight of Richard Nigidi's ministry exemplified his stature in faith was when God used him to bring a 12 year old boy back to life. The refusal of permission by local ministers of religion to Evangelist Richard Nigidi for a tent gospel campaign in Ngwelezane was to become the catapult to fame. While the arguments concerning tent meetings were raging, God touched an unbelieving induna (headman) from the nearby Matshane village. He asked Pastor Richard Nigidi to come to his village and hold tent meetings there. This resolved the whole conflict. David Bliss Brings Blessings Under the auspices of Africa Enterprise (AE) David Bliss came to South Africa in 1967 from the USA as a student. The relatively young missions and evangelistic agency AE led by Michael Cassidy, had a profound effect on David Bliss. He decided to postpone his return to Princeton University for a year. After his marriage to Deborah (Debby) in 1972, the couple came to South Africa as AE workers on the Witwatersrand University campus 228 in Johannesburg in 1979, the year that the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) took place in Pretoria, an event that moved them deeply. The Holy Spirit confronted them on the issue of unreached people groups and the possibility of recruiting South Africans as missionaries. The next year the couple participated in a students’ conference in Edinburgh. The 1980 event brought the use of nonWesterners as missionaries into focus. For Dave and Debby Bliss this was a natural follow-up of SACLA in Pretoria. 229 CHAPTER TWENT Y-FIVE PERSONAL INTERVENTIONS ___________________________ A few months into 1979 I was reading in the Dutch newspaper Trouw that a church delegation from the influential (‘White’) Dutch Reformed Church was in Holland to attend a synod. The delegation included Professors Johan Heyns, Willie Jonker and Dr O'Brien Geldenhuys. I took the initiative to go and meet them in Lunteren where the synod took place. I saw this as a chance to make amends for my stubbornness and headstrong refusal to meet Professor Heyns on our visit to Johannesburg the previous year. However, the only possibility that Prof. Heyns, the leader of the delegation, could offer me was to meet them at Schiphol Airport just before their return to South Africa. Attempting to Assist Dr Beyers Naudé At that meeting I made the DRC church leaders very uncomfortable. Almost at the outset of our airport rendezvous I referred to Dr Beyers Naudé, stating quite bluntly that I thought it would be great if they could attempt to get his ban lifted. I had, furthermore, taken with me the draft manuscript of Honger na Geregtigheid in a big open envelope. Taking for granted that Dr Naudé’s mail was being fiddled with, because of the well-publicized tampering with post by the Special Branch of the police – which I had experienced myself – I naïvely requested one of them to take the envelope containing the draft manuscript of Honger na Geregtigheid along with them and 230 hand it over personally. I hoped that theologians of that calibre would play a role in repentance of and rectifying of apartheid practices, but my action was not completely wise, as I would discover later. I challenged them also with regard to membership of the Broederbond, a secret society. Prof. Willie Jonker, whom I still knew from my District Six seminary days, took me aside to explain to me that he was not a member of the Broederbond. It was years later, that Prof. Willie Jonker expressed regret at the Rustenburg Church Consultation in 1990 on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church. I was elated to read later that some of the Dutch Reformed church leaders had responded positively, however without initial success, to get the ban of Dr Beyers Naudé lifted. The ban of Dr Beyers Naudé was only lifted in September 1984. Aftermath of the Schiphol Interaction After the airport interaction I corresponded with Professor Heyns, encouraging him to include theologians of colour like Dr Allan Boesak in the plans of the denomination to revamp Ras, Volk en Nasie en Volkereverhouding in die Lig van die Skrif.9 The amicable relationship between Prof. Johan Heyns and the 'Coloured' academics at UWC and the Sendingkerk pastors is reflected by the fact that Prof. Johan Heyns recommended Allan Boesak in the late 1960s for postgraduate studies to the Stellenbosch University, the racially segregated tertiary institution for the training of 'White' students only. However, the Faculty of Theology turned Boesak’s application down. It must have been quite a disappointment for Heyns that the talented Boesak was not accepted. If he had been accepted, it would have been revolutionary for that era, which could even have ushered in a new season in apartheid politics. The relationship between Heyns and the ‘Coloured’ academics and the Sendingkerk pastors changed completely after it became known that Prof. Heyns was a prominent Broederbond member. As Prof. Daan Cloete, who also received his doctorate in the Netherlands, shared what many other of that era might have felt: 'We felt ourselves deceived!' 231 Those Church leaders whom I spoke to at the Dutch airport, were nevertheless subsequently quite influential in bringing about significant change in the stance of the Dutch Reformed Church regarding apartheid. In 1982 Heyns publicly rejected the notion that apartheid was the will of God. He caused a furore at that year’s General Synod by openly supporting mixed-race marriages. Prof Heyns caused a furore at the General Synod by openly supporting mixed-race marriages. I suspect that one of the biggest roles in the contribution towards change could have been the booklet A Different Gospel of Rev. Douglas Bax, albeit that it quite surprisingly remained fairly unknown. No less than the well-known author Alan Paton commented on A Different Gospel in his review in the periodical Reality, stating that Rev. Bax 'has certainly played his part in urging 'White' South Africa to repent and turn.' Because of his stance on conscientious objection to military service at SACC conferences, Rev. Douglas Bax had become the enfant terrible of many 'White' South Africans. At the end of A Different Gospel Douglas Bax reiterated the challenge of Prime Minister Vorster, only with more urgency: 'South Africa stands on the edge of a political disaster "too ghastly to contemplate". It is a false theology and a false ideology, as well as the greed and the fears of both Afrikaans-speaking and English-speaking Whites, that have dragged her people there. The urgent question is: Is it too late for us to repent and turn back from the abyss?' It has been reported that the South African Christian Leadership Assembly which he also attended, impacted Heyns greatly. Whatever the influences, the public stance of Prof. Heyns changed completely thereafter. This would cost him rejection by the Church. He was not chosen in any post on the moderature for which he was nominated at that synod. For a year he stayed out of favour with the church hierarchy, but re-emerged in 1986 to become moderator – the highest position in the church. He immediately tried to persuade the church that there was no biblical foundation for apartheid. 232 My Own Bubble Blown God humbled me prior to this. I was still very much of an antiapartheid activist in exile, one who longed to return to his beloved South Africa and fight to achieve change. I had given a copy of Honger na Geregtigheid to Hein Postma, the principal of the local Moravian primary school in Zeist. He and his wife Wieneke had become very good friends of Rosemarie and me. With Hein's loving advice my bubble was blown. In his view, Honger na Geregtigheid was too critical, and was not loving enough. He compared it to an overdose of medication to a sick patient. Hein, furthermore, noted that he missed forgiveness, love and compassion in the manuscript. Honger na Geregtigheid was too critical, an overdose of medication to a sick patient! Love Drives Out Fear I engaged in some correspondence with Prof. Heyns and other DRC theologians. Via a document with the title Liefde Dryf die Vrees Uit (Love Drives Out Fear), 10 I argued among other things that politics based on fear is a cul-de-sac. Rather arrogantly I highlighted that the traffic sign 233 for a cul-de-sac is basically a deformed cross. The love personified by Jesus' death on the Cross of Calvary should be our guideline, to drive out fear (1 John 4:18). Ahead of a meeting of the Prime Minister with church leaders on 9 August 1980, I also sent a letter to Bishop Tutu on 22 July 1980 with this document sharing my conviction that the Church in South Africa should also express its collective guilt with regard to racism. Mixed Marriages Act to be Scrapped? I was following the developments in the country closely, when one of the dramatic developments occurred: Mr P.W. Botha, the Prime Minister, stated publicly that he was ready to scrap the Prohibition of (racially) Mixed Marriages Act. He challenged the churches to come with a united viewpoint, which he probably knew would have been almost impossible. In the second half of 1980 Rommel Roberts and Celeste Santos, a ‘mixed marriage’ couple from South Africa, suddenly popped up at our home in Broederplein, Zeist. Rommel had been released from prison just before their departure because of his role in the bus and student boycotts of that year, and the couple feared a new arrest. Therefore, the couple was very happy for the opportunity to get away from the police hunt. They had broken all the normalities of the South African 'way of life' by marrying in South Africa. Couples who did this would, as a rule, exchange marriage vows in some neighbouring country and thereafter go and live abroad. Probably more than anybody else in South Africa to that date they had courageously challenged the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. When Rommel Roberts and his wife Celeste arrived in Zeist, she was pregnant. A serious complication in the pregnancy not only extended their stay with us, but she also came close to losing her life because of it. In what amounted to a miracle, her life was saved. Because of her illness and hospitalisation, Celeste stayed with us much longer than they had intended. Our own trip to South Africa as a family over the next few months to visit my fatally ill sister, as described in Chapter 15 was still ‘illegal’, yet it proved to have some positive outcomes. 234 A Catalyst to the Scrapping of Apartheid Laws The presence of Rosemarie and me at the Cape in 1981, where we lived for three months ‘illegally’ in a ‘White’ residential area, became in a quiet way a catalyst to the ultimate scrapping of the racially mixed marriages prohibition and the influx control legislation. We shared a house with Rommel Roberts and his wife Celeste Santos, thus defying the prohibition of racially mixed marriages and residential legal prescripts in that regard. From their home on Haywood Road in Crawford we advocated for 'Black' women who were regarded to be living at the Cape 'illegally' with their husbands. We networked closely with our friend Rev. Douglas Bax and other Cape Church leaders. We returned to Germany and Holland in June 1981, unaware of the effect which our short involvement in Crossroads and Nyanga would continue to have. That we could bring our friend Douglas Bax and Ds. Jan de Waal into the battle of Nyanga proved to be pivotal. Only many years later I was blessed to read how the homeless people of Nyanga and Crossroads had scored one moral success after the other, encouraging many ‘Blacks’ to resist the oppressive race policies. This culminated in their victory during the ‘Battle of Nyanga’ and their subsequent sojourn in St George’s Cathedral. Later I was so much blessed to read what happened after our return to Europe. The following pages fill that gap. 235 CHAPTER TWENT Y-SIX MORE CLASHES AROUND APARTHEID ___________________________ Dr Allan Boesak Propelled into Prominence The WCC consultation at Cottesloe (1960) and the Message to the People of South Africa (1968) had made apartheid a worldwide topic internationally. The United Nations General Assembly (UN) adopted a resolution on apartheid as a crime against humanity in 1962, whilst the WCC adopted its focus on racism at an assembly in Uppsala, 1968. The WCC launched its Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) in 1969. This prepared the way in the 1970s and 1980s for the young, wellarticulated, educated Allan Boesak to be propelled onto the national and international scene as an apartheid activist. Soon after Boesak’s arrival back in SA from the Netherlands in 1976 with his doctorate title Farewell to Innocence, he started travelling the world as one of the most visible faces in the fight against 'White' minority rule. The South African problem of structural racism and the theological justification of apartheid' shifted to the centre of Church discussions. Allan Boesak rose to prominence during the 1980s as an outspoken critic and opponent of the National Party’s policies and played a pivotal role in the struggle against apartheid. 236 Sinister Forces of Opposition In spite of the significant impact that SACLA had on both influential individuals and the nation at large, the post-SACLA era was no plain sailing. More sinister forces of opposition were also at work both on and off the Stellenbosch campus. The resentment towards English-speakers was still rife in Afrikaner circles and the mission to Stellenbosch was not only hitting at the heart of the apartheid philosophy with its 'Black' and 'White' speaker performing as equals, but for Afrikaners it would have been a bitter pill being brought to them by a rooinek, as the Englishspeakers were dubbed. The head of the student Christian group had received an anonymous phone call just before the mission warning that ‘Cassidy is a terrible man and has left his wife and is living with another woman’. Besmirching the characters of Christians who opposed apartheid was a well-known ploy of the government Bureau of State Security (BOSS). The New Crossroads When the State announced in 1980 that it would be building ‘New Crossroads’ and allowing certain 'Blacks' who qualified for own homes, some saw this as a positive step towards dismantling apartheid. A special dispensation allowing some 'Blacks' to own homes – was this a breakthrough? Aunt Sue saw right through this concession and expressed herself in no uncertain terms: 237 ‘These Boere (Afrikaners) are trying to divide us through this concession. See what havoc it is now creating in our community! People are divided, leaders are vying for position and privilege. Many people are not going to qualify under this special dispensation – what is going to happen to them? They will simply be hunted down again like animals! Tens of thousands will not qualify. People are dying in the so-called homelands due to lack of work and food. Women and children are suffering the most, with the men all leaving them to seek work in cities and being housed in these single men’s hostels. They take other women and families break up. When are we going to put a stop to this evil? The most vulnerable in our communities will continue to suffer as we have been doing all these years. We are tired of running and hiding like animals!' The State co-opted so-called leaders, like Johnson Ngxobongwana, a friend of the regime. 'Black'-on-'Black' violence was the result. Privileges were given to a few, creating division, chaos and bloodshed. The Crossroads 'deal' was no deal at all. It was a short-term compromise for the privileged few. Brute enforcement of influx legislation in the late 1970s and early 1980s ultimately led to the first major defeat of the apartheid legislators. A Major Attack on the Pass Laws Another significant challenge regarding the Pass Laws occurred soon after we had moved into a home in Haywood Road, Crawford with Celeste, Rommel and his two younger brothers in April 1981. One night in June 1981, during the early hours, police conducted a raid on the Langa men’s hostels. These hostels, built by the State, were supposed to house only those men who had employment and a pass. They were double-storied buildings with shared ablution facilities and small rooms, each intended to house two men sharing. Unofficially, the hostels housed many more than just the lucky few who had passes. Wives and children had, in many cases, joined their menfolk, attempting to cling to some semblance of family life. Rooms would house up to eight or ten people, as more and more desperate family members were absorbed, most being there to seek work. The ever-swelling population of the hostels gradually spilled over into little shacks made of 238 tin, plastic and cardboard all around the immediate vicinity. Somehow, family and community life survived and even thrived in these conditions. On the night of the raid, police descended in their numbers, shouting, setting their dogs upon people, pulling women and children from their beds and shoving them into vans. Many people, in their terror, jumped from windows to escape. Some fractured bones in the process. All were imprisoned for the night and taken to court the next morning to be tried for possessing no pass. The motives behind the apparent generosity of the government in giving Rommel and Celeste a phone so promptly after they had moved into their home in Haywood Road, much to their pleasant surprise, soon became evident. Phone tapping! Later that fateful morning they received a call from Aunt Sue. “Please come as quickly as you can – it is happening! The struggle has begun! People are assembling at the Langa pass law courts after the raid last night. Our leadership is needed… please come immediately!” Rommel headed straight for the infamous Langa courts. Organisations like the Black Sash became well known for their legal and financial support in these matters – usually legal rather than financial, as it was a bottomless pit. Officials would also cleverly make a fortune on their own – it had become well known that what you really needed in many instances was simply a R10 or R20 note in your passbook, with which to bribe the arresting officer. No doubt this form of motivation resulted in massive levels of efficiency and huge numbers of arrests. All people who opposed injustice hated the Pass Laws. On that fateful morning in Langa, Aunt Sue and Nomangesi Mbobosi (née Mzamo) addressed a restless, murmuring crowd. Most of them had been prosecuted and fined and their shacks had been demolished. No one had a place to return to. Immediately, a hurried series of meetings with churches and leaders of the informal settlements was held. A suitable place had to be found for these people to set up new shacks – and without the government’s knowledge. The State was not interested; there was no agency whose job it was to sort out homeless 'Black' people. It was up to church and 239 community to find a solution, and in one day! Not only a place to live was required, but also transportation for hundreds of people and their meagre belongings. Finally, a piece of land was identified, and the surrounding informal settlements were informed that a couple of hundred new people would be setting up shacks adjoining theirs. Stellenbosch Missiology Students in Crossroads Some of the Stellenbosch Missiology students of Professor Nico Smith were very concerned that their denomination, the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), seemed to be unmoved by what was happening in the 'Black' informal settlement Crossroads. Prof. Smith became quite controversial when he heeded the request of his (‘White’) theological students in 1981, to take some of them to Crossroads. This courageous move shook the Afrikaner establishment throughout the country. After being called to book in the aftermath of the Crossroads visit, Professor Smith agreed to refrain from making a statement to the secular press. He nevertheless published a statement in what became a front-page report of the Kerkbode, the Dutch Reformed Church weekly. Professor Smith criticized the government for their handling of the Nyanga ‘squatters’. Prof. Smith Criticized the Government and His Church In his statement Professor Smith criticized the government for their handling of the Nyanga ‘squatters’ and confronted the Church for its non-involvement in the situation. He and his students challenged the Dutch Reformed Church regarding the ‘painful policy’ of resettlement and migratory labour. All this ultimately led to Professor Smith’s ‘flight’ to a post as Dutch Reformed Church pastor in the ‘Black’ township of Mamelodi near Pretoria in 1982. From the township of Mamelodi Dr Nico Smith had a great national impact with the Koinonia movement. Professor Smith and his wife, a medical doctor, eventually received rare permission from the South African government to live in Mamelodi in 1985, making them the only 'Whites' allowed to live in the area. Resented 240 by Afrikaners as a kafferdominee, Dr Smith not only served as minister but also as a community organizer and civic planner. From there he and the Koinonia movement had an even bigger national impact, even ultimately emulated overseas. Through his former students, the influence of Professor Smith later spread across the country, even to far-away places. From the township of Mamelodi Dr Smith and the Koinonia movement had a great national impact. Africa Enterprise in a Holistic Approach Michael Cassidy and his organisation Africa Enterprise (AE), that had been so closely involved with PACLA and SACLA, did it again in the mid-1980s through evangelism, reconciliation and action (ERA). This was a holistic approach to bring together evangelism, reconciliation and action. The start of this new campaign took place in 1981 in the violent Cape suburb of Elsies River. Michael Cassidy was staying at the home of Rev. Njongonkulu Ndugane for the Elsies River Mission that deepened even more the burden for the 'Black' townships in his heart. (Rev. Ndugane became the successor to Archbishop Desmond Tutu after the latter’s retirement.) Ndugane described lucidly to Michael Cassidy how the misery impacted him: 'Human brokenness, personal fragmentation, marital heartbreak, incredible social dislocation and community disruption due to Group Areas legislation all stared us in the face with eyes of fire.’ From May 1984 AE organized meetings with businessmen. At what was called the ‘Top Level Encounter’ in Cape Town, Graham Power, an up-and-coming young businessman was impacted. The event had farreaching spiritual consequences in some of the professions and industries of the Mother City. In 2000 God chose Graham Power as His instrument to give decisive input for the spiritual transformation of Cape Town. He was the prime catalyst for the prayer event at Newlands the following year. 241 Churches Clearer in Opposition to Apartheid The plight and determination of the women of KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads played a role in another sense. Churches began to take a clearer stand in opposition to apartheid laws. Rev. Rob Robertson and our friend Rev. Douglas Bax played a crucial role in the political stand of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa (PCSA).13 Eventually, newspaper posters lined the Johannesburg streets with massive black headlines: CHURCH TO DEFY MARRIAGE LAW. A few Presbyterian ministers married racially mixed couples. A few Presbyterian ministers married a number of racially mixed couples. The marriages were registered and kept in the central office of the PCSA. When other Churches also supported the Assembly’s decision on the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, this sparked a political debate that eventually led in 1985 to the abolition of this keystone of apartheid legislation. 242 243 CHAPTER TWENT Y-SEVEN HOMELESS 'BL ACKS' CHALLENGE THE STATE ___________________________ Africans are amazingly accommodating, warm and welcoming during times of hardship – able to absorb almost anything. For the most part, the local community accepts any situation and welcomes newcomers. Emafundleni Informal Settlement is Born Somehow, a new community came into being – Emafundleni informal settlement. The community derived its name from Nomangesi Mzamo (clan name Emafundleni), a key figure in the resettlement process. It comprised about two hectares of land but housed approximately 300 families and relatives – between 4 000 and 5 000 people. There was no electricity and no water. People begged for water from homeowners in neighbouring townships and used nearby open bush land for ablutions. Hard times bring out the best and the worst in humanity, however, and the small leadership team encountered many frustrations. The community continued to be added to in the coming weeks, as those who had been bussed back to Ciskei and Transkei returned, funded by 244 the churches, thanks to the efforts of Aunt Sue, Nomangesi Mzamo and Celeste Santos. Church leaders and their supporters had turned up in their numbers to protect them, and when the police arrived to re-arrest them, they got the shock of their lives: They could do nothing, as the entire group of returnees was swallowed and surrounded by church members who escorted the whole group which then disappeared into the large Crossroads camp. It was this event that led to a further compromise, as will be explained later. Aunt Sue’s home, being just across the road from Emafundleni, became a central meeting place for this community, and not only for Emafundleni, but for anyone who was desperate, poor and in need of help. Aunt Sue lived in an outbuilding of a small church and had started a brick-making project in her tree-lined yard, called Sisekho. People came there for all sorts of reasons, some just to beg for water from the taps, others for advice, for help tracing a missing person, or for comfort and consolation during times of stress. Her home and Sisekho became a secret venue for ANC operatives. Emafundleni was followed by the consolidation of several other 'squatter' camps, which became known collectively as Nyanga Bush. In due course Nyanga Bush became the scene of many struggles and the base for a groundswell organisation called the Nyanga Bush Front. Displaced people from all over the city descended on Nyanga Bush, which grew ever larger and more congested, until eventually it spilled over to yet another new camp – the ‘No Name Camp’ as the Cape Times dubbed it. Singing and Kindness Melt Hearts As people started settling in and Nyanga Bush grew, so too did an atmosphere of seeming normality. However, such digging of roots and establishing lives by ‘illegals’ was an affront to the State. Without warning one day, the army and police surrounded No Name Camp, dug a trench around the entire perimeter and refused to allow people in or out. In the events that followed, Aunt Sue’s role was crucial. No Name Camp was declared a no-go zone, and a complete stand-off between the armed forces and the 2 000 or so residents of the camp ensued. An urgent 245 meeting at Aunt Sue’s place followed to discuss the situation. A big concern was the immediate needs of the residents for food and water. Volunteers were needed to defy the security forces and take necessities into the camp. A further meeting was arranged at the Catholic Church in Gugulethu, where Rev. Des Curran was the priest in charge. A decision was taken to move into No Name Camp in convoy, with whatever food and provisions was available, using Aunt Sue’s place as a staging area. A number of fortuitous events occurred, including the arrival of US congressmen and women in the city. A delegation of them met Aunt Sue, and visited No Name Camp. Among the group was an Afro-American congresswoman. Nomangesi and Aunt Sue had in the meantime organised a group in the adjacent community to start a series of hymns, so as not to provoke the army and police. The American congresswoman broke down in tears when she witnessed the scene of such simplicity and dignity in the presence of the simmering violence of the police. Meanwhile volunteers, mostly church ministers, remained in a convoy of vehicles in a long queue, waiting to be allowed to move onto site. One of them, a normally conservative 'White' woman prepared to do basic support work, found herself absolutely breaking down in frustration. ‘I felt moved by my Christian convictions and did not question the action that I finally took – I felt called to it’, she later said. This kind of action strengthened the resolve of the camp dwellers, who had gathered close together. Singing went on throughout the night. The spirit was one of serenity and peace, and at all times strict respect for the army and police. This dignified, gentle spirit was of course the work of Aunt Sue and Nomangesi, and it had the most profound effect on members of the security forces. As the hours wore on, and wave after wave of beautiful Xhosa hymns penetrated the air, many of the police and army were deeply affected. Some broke ranks and went home. ‘When we saw those women, their religious singing and kindness towards us, we could not help but think of our own families and parents, as some of those women could so easily have been our mothers. We came here believing we were facing terrorists, not fellow Christians, singing religious songs and displaying such a spirit of peace. Faced with this, we just couldn’t 246 continue.’ This was the gist of what a young policeman said afterwards. The publicity generated by the photographs that reverberated across the globe the following day certainly played their part. The blockade was lifted and free movement in and out of the camp returned – up to a point. But the law had still not changed. No Name Campers Stand United Such a state of uncertainty could not last. From a 'Black' policeman the team got wind of the State’s plan to act decisively within the next few weeks. Everyone without a pass in No Name Camp – almost everyone who lived there – was to be arrested and taken to the Langa Pass Law Court. The leaders met at Aunt Sue’s place, planned and prepared all day. Late that evening all the people of the camp were called together, to put the whole position to them for decision making. The idea was to refuse to pay the fines, to insist on legal defences – which the team would arrange – and to be willing, en masse, to be imprisoned or deported, as the State saw fit. The Black Sash was on high alert to arrange for lawyers to be on hand at the court, to assist those who required legal assistance. The crowd gathered on one of the coldest nights in June – mid winter. To the ever-swelling crowd, Aunt Sue outlined the details of the impending event. She had taken on a position of clear leadership: ‘I greet you this evening, my people... Tonight we have to make a decision. This struggle has to be fought by those of us who suffer. The government depends on us paying our fines tomorrow. Those very fines are paying for the tools of our oppression. Tonight we must say no! Tonight we must say that we are prepared to go to jail with our children. We must refuse to pay those fines. We must fill those prisons until they can no longer find the space to place us all.’ ‘We have plans to make it difficult for the State to process us like animals at the Langa Court. We have prepared papers of names and telephone numbers in the event of your all being deported to various homeland destinations. This will happen. Please do not be afraid. Simply go to the nearest church and give them the numbers on your paper. We will do everything we can to see that you get back to Cape Town. We will move 247 heaven and earth until these evil laws have been removed, and our people are free as full citizens of this country.’ ‘Do we have your support? Do you agree to remove the tools of our oppression by refusing to pay the fines? Tonight is your chance!’ The entire group erupted in the affirmative. People queued up to receive their information and in turn gave their details for the lists to be compiled. Songs were sung. Somehow soup was made and fires were lit all over the place. A community had come out in support. Willie de Klerk of the Sunday Times, a close friend of the team, was contacted. He was smuggled into one of the shacks so that he could take pictures of the event. The scene was set. Cape Town Assumes Freedom Status At 2 a.m. the first rumblings of prison trucks pulled up in a long line along the road separating Nyanga from Nyanga Bush location. Ratels and buffels (armoured carriers) accompanied these vehicles, together with police vans. People were lined up and led to prison vehicles one by one, without a break in the singing. The pictures that appeared in the Sunday Times showed silhouettes of police by the light of vehicles and torches, with people moving in subdued lines to the waiting trucks. People retained their dignity throughout this event. Vans took them to various prisons and later to the Langa Courts. The process continued right through the night and into the next morning. By 10 a.m., word came back to the policemen at the camp to stop arresting people; prisons and courts could not cope with the numbers. Women with children and babies were clogging up the prisons, and the courts were a scene of chaos – made worse by the fact that instead of processing victims at a rate of one every two minutes, it had slowed down to three people per day, as everyone had legal representation. The team's strategy was certainly working. After two days, police began releasing victims. Once this began, the news spread like wildfire. The whole of Cape Town assumed freedom status; people came out from under whatever bush they had been hiding, and flocked to join No Name Camp, which quickly swelled to ten times its 248 former size. There was a tremendous feeling of achievement; it felt as if the chains of bondage had been weakened, the grip of fear loosened. A New Kid on the Block Mr M.C. Botha, former Minister of Bantu Administration and Development, was replaced by a new verligte (enlightened) man, Mr Bezuidenhout, who preached a philosophy of toenadering (appeasement). The fundamentals of apartheid policy were however still firmly in place beneath the reconciliatory tone. Aunt Sue arranged a meeting with Mr Bezuidenhout when New Crossroads was well into construction, but there remained the issue of the burgeoning informal settlements that the State refused to recognise, and which the team felt to be constantly under threat. The bottom line with Mr Bezuidenhout soon became clear: ‘There is no way that everyone can be granted legal status, the State will never accept this idea. We have to find a way of compromise’, he said. Taking note of his willingness to go a certain distance, the team said they would be grateful if no further forced removals or arrests of so called ‘illegals’ would take place. Mr Bezuidenhout promised to have a word with Dr Koornhof, the Minister of Co-operation and Development – the ‘new look’ term for the old Bantu Affairs. He did, however, agree that the State could make more land available to house the overflow from Nyanga Bush and Crossroads – land currently owned by the army. That would be something substantial. More negotiations with Mr Bezuidenhout followed in the weeks thereafter and a deal was accepted whereby 103 families would be accommodated at Emafundleni in the Nyanga Bush site. This, however, was to prove just the sharp end of a huge wedge that was to follow. After the successful emergence of Emafundleni, somehow news spread throughout the city that the way to jobs and housing would be in Nyanga Bush. In no time at all, thousands set up homes alongside the new camp, seen as somehow protected because Emafundleni had been established by special concession of Bezuidenhout. A new round of informal settlements meant a continuation of the long- term struggle for legitimacy. Nyanga Bush had now emerged as the new focal point. 249 Signs of Hope and Normality Signs of hope and normality were beginning to appear in various places around the informal settlements. Schools and pre-schools were started. Dr Ivan Toms opened a formal clinic in Crossroads. Aunt Sue opened a small centre for advocacy, run from her home, and another in Crossroads, which was used by various NGOs assisting 'Blacks' in various ways. People were now coming into these informal settlements without fear. Aunt Sue and Nomangesi also led the way in unique communitysupporting initiatives against women abuse. With the full support of local leaders – unique enough in itself, given they were all males – they began a campaign to deal very practically with an issue on the ground, namely men who beat women. Abusers would be tied to a post in front of their house for a full 24 hours if found guilty; an action which had an immediate effect. Wife-beating dropped to almost zero. Petty crime, too, became rare. In fact, it became well known that these informal settlements like Crossroads were extremely safe places to be, despite the general impression amongst some that informal settlements were hotbeds of crime. The opposite was true. There was a stronger sense of caring, common values and true community spirit in some of these settlements than one could ever hope to find in another suburb. With its little pre-schools, shack churches and several signs of personal creativity (including a little double-story shack hotel) the inhabitants of No Name Camp were finding ways to make life bearable and human in the midst of inhuman conditions. The camp was very close to Aunt Sue’s house, and people continued to come to her every day for all sorts of assistance – water, telephone calls, tracing of relatives, various communication needs, paperwork, etc. Aunt Sue turned away noone; she was a mother and a listening ear, as well as practical source of information and advice, to anyone who needed her. In later years, this included foreigners from other parts of Africa. Removals and Returns to the City Events had been dramatic and shook the security forces a little, but 'deportations' to the Eastern Cape went ahead – far fewer in number than 250 would normally have been the case, but enough to cause a headache. The buses went as far as Komga in most cases, and dumped people on the road right at the border of Transkei – a 15 to 18 hour drive from Cape Town. In other cases, buses went as far as Mthatha, the capital of Transkei, now simply a region in South Africa, but in those days considered a separate country by the apartheid government. At this stage the second element of the plan sprang into action. Churches that had previously been warned were alerted. A church hall in Mthatha was made available. As people began pouring back into the Eastern Cape homelands, the government-appointed Transkeian leaders of the time castigated the South African government, asking why they were sending so many people back, when there was no work for them, and insisting that they should be returned to Cape Town. The church hall in Mthatha became the next point of protest. Rommel Roberts drove there with Aunt Sue to assess the situation. This state of affairs dragged on for more than a month, before people were mysteriously given funds and told to disappear. This they did. They took the first transport back to Cape Town and the whole process started all over again. The State deployed army roadblocks to stop the buses, and police arrested would-be returnees as they sat on the buses. Resources became stretched, funds ran low, and it proved almost impossible to pay for any more return trips to Cape Town. Aunt Sue explained to people the predicament. They were determined, however, and resolved to walk. They started getting off buses before the roadblocks, taking big detours around them on foot, and being collected by buses further down. When in some cases this did not work, many walked all the way back to Cape Town. It was this level of determination that the team was able to describe during the final negotiations with Dr Piet Koornhof: ‘Dr Koornhof, if imprisonment, harassment and a thousand kilometres do not deter people, to the point that they are prepared to walk all the way back to Cape Town, there is no army on earth that will prevent these people from being where they have every right to be. Families are being devastated over this. They are coming here in search of opportunities rather than face desolation and starvation in the homelands. You have to change the law!’ 251 Protest by Fasting It was time to bring matters to a conclusion. Aunt Sue arranged for a meeting of key township leaders and No Name Camp community members. The discussion hinged around what possible action could still be undertaken in the light of the complete lack of real progress. As the team reviewed possible strategies, two women related an interesting story about what had happened to them when they were trying to return to Cape Town by bus. They had been arrested on their bus and cast into prison in Queenstown, with no idea of how long they would be forced to remain there. They had decided to protest the only way they knew – by fasting. After several days, the police had become extremely worried and brought them before a magistrate, who listened to their tale, and released them. Their fasting had brought matters to a head, and they had found justice of a sort. This story moved and motivated a number of people in the hall, and a strategy began to emerge: that of embarking on a public fast at St George’s Cathedral in central Cape Town. The idea was presented to the Dean of the cathedral, Dean King, who was very supportive, particularly as it coincided with the usual time of church fasting and prayer before the Resurrection week-end. The fast started with a Sunday evening prayer service, attended by over 500 people. Some of the church wardens felt that this was not right and that the folk should vacate the church. Dean King tried to persuade the group to leave. ‘Dean, we have no other solution’, said Aunt Sue. ‘As you know, we have tried so many things – what other solution is there? What else can we do?’ In a tone of resignation King conceded that the group could meet the warden committee. However, the wardens were adamant. Aunt Sue asked, ‘Do you own the church? Who does it belong to?’ ‘Of course we do not own the church, it falls under the Archbishop’, snorted a big warden with a nose like an elephant. Rommel Roberts chipped in, ‘Yes, but ultimately, dear warden, who does this church belong to? Outside you have a huge board asking for donations to complete a vital section of this building in dedication to God, so I take it that ultimately this church belongs to God. Present here this evening are 252 God’s people in dire need. If the people in need cannot turn to the church of God then who must they turn to?’ ‘Oh, don’t be simplistic, there are all sorts of obligations and responsibilities which have to be taken care of, and a fast here makes this very difficult! So let’s be reasonable about this’, responded one of the wardens in an exasperated tone. The group was however no walk over: ‘Our plight is real and we have no-one now to turn to for support, other than the church. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we have no choice. We wish to start our fast this evening after prayers and are calling on you for support. If you wish to chase us from here, please, turn to these people and you tell them. Be aware however, that should you do so, we will hold you accountable and place you alongside this evil State.’ ‘Yes, we will pray and fast outside the steps of this Cathedral, and include you as part of the oppression that we face!’, Aunt Sue added. The fast created yet another dilemma for the State. The church and the fast that was taking place within it became a focal point. There were various responses from the public; mostly supportive, but some extremely negative. During some of the church services some members of the congregation walked out. The fast dragged on with no solution in sight. After twenty days, the church officials became very concerned, as they had thought that it would all be over within a week, two at most. They had booked out the entire church for a special performance of the Messiah by the Philharmonic Orchestra. Seats had already been completely sold out. How were they to deal with this problem? The Meeting At this point Dominee (Reverend) Laflas Moolman, the leader of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Western Cape, agreed to intervene. An emergency meeting was arranged with Dr Piet Koornhof. Ds. Moolman put the matter on the table after a short prayer. Dr Piet Koornhof shared with the delegation that he was also deeply hurt by the suffering of the poor, unfortunate people, but that he could not change the law. 253 Reverend Moolman retorted after some further interaction in Afrikaans, in which Ds. Jan de Waal had also participated: ‘Mr Minister, you have a very heavy burden on your shoulders, one that I would not like to carry. I respect your position and the conflict that it must create. Being born again places a real conflict between one’s faith and one’s actions if we feel we are forced to do things that go against our faith... We are forced, if we say we are Christians, to do something about this suffering... Introduce legislation to change it. It is no longer feasible. It has caused too much suffering and will continue to be a sore in our eyes and the world. As a Christian, I am calling on you to make your choice.’ On the 24th day of fasting, the news finally came: Dr Koornhof suspended the Pass Laws with immediate effect. The news was conveyed to the gathering in the church. The main feeling was one of relief, and a longing to be home with loved ones again. History had been made – the cornerstone of apartheid had finally crumbled. A special session of prayer and thanksgiving was held to end the fast and to herald a new beginning. And all in the nick of time, as far as the wardens of St George’s were concerned! The concert could continue as planned, with only one day to spare. Handel’s Messiah seemed very appropriate. Rommel Roberts summarised: '...almost ten years ago to the day, a small handful of us had come together to commit ourselves to peaceful and relentless actions to bring about the end of the Pass Laws. People had told us it was impossible.' ‘The women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956, and see what happened then. We tried it in 1960, and look what happened. No, you are embarking on a campaign that cannot win, the State will crush you like ants... And yet here we were, in 1982, and it had happened... It confirmed, in my mind, that where two or three are gathered together with a single purpose, deep faith, and serious dedication – prepared to go even as far as death – anything is possible.' 254 The Birth of Khayelitsha Following the events of the Cathedral fast of 1982 there was a spirit of excitement laced with many uncertainties. At a special meeting with Mr Bezuidenhout, various maps were examined of an area owned by the army that was going to be allocated for a whole new resettlement exercise. Two sites, site C and site B, had been identified as the first areas for resettlement. There was great excitement and amazement that this was all actually happening – the fruits of a long and hard struggle was now being slowly realised. Aunt Sue’s feelings, shared by all the leaders, was that the offer of army land for housing was to be accepted, even though the issue of people’s legal status was still a problem. They knew that changing the laws in parliament would take some time, but people had a need for home and a community. The new community would be called Khayelitsha – ‘our home’ – a name proposed by the residents themselves that even the State accepted. The move to Khayelitsha could now begin. Aunt Sue seemed to sense that this could be the parting of the ways for some. A radical section within the human rights group clearly had their own agenda. As feared, they split away, using their money and influence to try and find support among some of the leaders who supported their position but from a very different perspective. Aunt Sue addressed this group: ‘I hear what is being said, and I am sympathetic with the feeling that we are compromising by accepting this land. What I find difficult is that we as 'Blacks' do not have a problem, but the 'White' friends in our midst seem to want us to continue living the way we are. They do not share our hardships on a daily basis. When we have the opportunity to improve our living conditions, we must take it – if it is offered to all. We will still continue our struggle.’ ‘We do not care if the land is Khayelitsha or Paarl or wherever, what we care about is that at last we are recognised, and can build homes that we actually own. We are entitled to the whole of South Africa. This move is the direct result of our struggle and we must not reject it out of hand. We have consulted our people prior before coming to this meeting and their position 255 is very clear. You as 'White' people have been very supportive. We cannot begin to express how we feel about all the assistance and solidarity you have demonstrated practically. It is however our own destiny that is at stake here, and we as Africans must be the architects of it, with your continued support. We beg this of you.’ The Seeds of Corruption Born The dissenting leaders with whom this group now aligned themselves, acted not from political principles, but from the desire to hold onto positions and the financial gain that they were enjoying. They were making a great deal of money by taking in ‘applications’ from new persons wishing to join the already overcrowded settlement of Nyanga Bush. The seeds of corruption were being born and the very supporters were helping to facilitate this through their irresponsible actions. Leaders would demand payments for all sorts of reasons, such as handling negotiations, sorting out legal status, etc. Aunt Sue did her best to prevent the tensions that were escalating, and held many meetings with local leaders. Unfortunately, at this stage too many leaders were now acting in self-interest. Poor Aunt Sue had feelings almost of despair at times. People still were not free. 'After so many sacrifices, are petty power struggles going to derail us and keep us from achieving our goal?' Notwithstanding, out of all of this, the new Khayelitsha was born. An agreement had been reached with Mr Bezuidenhout, in which those leaders who had agreed to move formed part of the planning committee. For once, families could now choose who they wanted to live next door to. The move was huge in scale, and even those who chose to continue to live at Nyanga Bush eventually joined the exodus to Khayelitsha. Aunt Sue’s prophecy had come true. Army land was now community property, to house the many thousands who earlier had no hope of ever having a permanent home. Moreover, the actions of Aunt Sue and her team, including Celeste Santos and her friend, Nomangezi Mbobosi, in resisting the intimidation and harassment of the regime, ultimately led to the formal scrapping of influx control laws in 1985. 256 257 CHAPTER TWENT Y-EIGHT NEW IMPETUS FOR MUSLIM EVANGELISM ___________________________ When the official name of the Anglican ‘Mission to the Muslims’ was changed after a visit by Bishop Kenneth Cragg to the Mother City, he suggested a less aggressive tag. It became the Board of Muslim Relationships. The result was not positive for outreach work to Muslims from the Anglican Church. It petered out to become almost nonexistent in the late 1980s. The official position of the denomination was thereafter ‘inter-faith’, which boiled down to the absence of any Gospel presentation to Muslims. When Gerhard and Hannelore Nehls saw Bo-Kaap at the beginning of 1975 on an orientation trip, it clicked immediately. They sensed a calling to minister to the Muslims of the Mother City. Soon the focus of their ministry as Bible Band missionaries changed. Pioneering Work Among Cape Muslims The German missionary couple Gerhard and Hannelore Nehls had to stop their work in Johannesburg with the Bible Band due to health reasons. When they saw Bo-Kaap, it immediately called forth a resonance in their hearts. Soon the focus of their ministry changed, although they were formally still missionaries of the Bible Band. That surely was an answer to the faithful intercessors in England who had prayed for 258 decades for the 'Cape Malays' among whom at that point in time very little was done in terms of loving outreach. In due course a new mission enterprise, Life Challenge, was started. At that stage the couple knew little about Islam because very few books were available. Cape Town started to be a blessing for the Islamic world as Gerhard learnt about the religion mainly from two Capetonian Muslims, Ischak Abrahams and Muhammad Noor Moses who were his teachers as he started on the new adventure. The German couple laboured hard for many years without seeing much in terms of fruit or local recognition. Nehls started with regular outreach to Muslims in the suburb of Salt River in 1980, later calling his work Life Challenge. Support from the Cape churches was almost non-existent at the time. In fact, the churches remained rather indifferent to Muslim outreach in general. Even denominations that were very much involved in evangelism, like the Docks Mission and the City Mission, had little vision for the Muslims on their doorstep. Suburbs like Woodstock and Salt River had become increasingly Islamic, due in part to this indifference. Churches remained indifferent to Muslim Outreach. Prostitution, drug abuse and the sale of houses to Muslims who had been tenants, were however, the major factors. This pushed many Christians out of these residential areas during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Life Challenge and the initiative from the Dutch Reformed Church, started by Ds. Davie Pypers, networked quite well, especially while Ds. Chris Greyling was still the Sendingkerk man as successor of Ds. Pypers. Neville Truter became a follower of Jesus and later a co-worker from Dutch Reformed Church ranks after he was touched by a tract that was given to him by Gerhard Nehls when he sold his car to the German missionary in 1976. A major contribution by Gerhard Nehls was that he linked up with Alain and Nicole Ravelo-Hoërson, who came from Madagascar and the island Reunion respectively as Bible School students. John Gilchrist (Jesus 259 to the Muslims) and Fred Nel (Eternal Outreach) joined forces with Nehls, Alain and Nicole in 1982 under the umbrella of CCM (Christian Concern for Muslims). They later held annual conferences for all coworkers, in addition to a leadership consultation once a year. Significantly, one of the founder members was Gloria Cube, a Xhosaspeaking female, started with Muslim outreach in Bo-Kaap as preparation for missionary work with Africa Evangelical Fellowship. A Xhosa-speaking female started an outreach in Bo-Kaap as preparation for missionary work. More Missionaries Get on Board Gerhard Nehls became God’s instrument for the recruitment of a string of German and Swiss missionaries. These Christian workers made little impact on Cape Islam, but they kept the consciences alive of those churches that did not jump on the inter-faith bandwagon with regard to their missionary duty to the Cape Muslims. Alain and Nicole Ravelo-Hoërson joined Youth for Christ in 1984, but later became independent missionaries on behalf of TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission). The board of Youth For Christ agreed that a Muslim Outreach Department should be started. Alain Ravelo-Hoërson headed it. It had the support of the youth leaders of Athlone churches, and many dynamic Christian leaders like Peter Tarantal, Freddy Kammies, Selwyn Page and Wesley van Graan deepened their missionary vision in that ministry. Alain’s office in Kewtown played a big part in rallying together the churches in the area. That ministry got the commendation of the local police station when it caused a significant drop of the crime rate in the area. Indifference of Local Churches Long before spiritual mapping was recognised as a tool for evangelism, Gerhard Nehls used a demographic survey from the University of Stellenbosch in the late 1970s. 260 In this survey the areas of Salt River and Bo-Kaap were seen to have become major Muslim areas with Muslim comprising more than 95% of the population. Nehls argued that he and Uli Lehmann, who had been his only missionary assistant at the Cape at the time, would never be able to reach the 180 000 Muslims which there were at the Cape at the time. They should try to involve the churches. Salt River had the advantage of having different small fellowships of Christians. But the churches as a rule were uninterested or indifferent. The pastors gave the impression that they considered their own church work a matter of prime priority. Outreach to Muslims did not fit into this picture. Superficially it does not seem as if even a dent in the Muslim strongholds of Bo-Kaap and Salt River had been made by the end of the 20th century. The door-to-door method had proved to be less effective, as was the later strategy to get individual churches interested in Muslim outreach. The net result was ‘evangelism corpses’ all over the Cape Peninsula – Christian co-workers who became disillusioned after the lack of success. During the period of faithful sowing and ploughing the seemingly infertile soil, many of these workers have to be regarded as honourably wounded. In spite of years of toiling in the Muslim strongholds of the Cape Town City Bowl, those residential areas seemed to have become even more Islamic. The team outreach coming predominantly from the St. James Church in Kenilworth under the leadership of John Higson for the work among the drug addicts of Salt River, ground to a halt after a few years, although that church had vibrant prayer groups at the time. In the 1980s only few Christians expected the local Muslims to be so resistant to the Gospel. Also, worldwide there was a general dearth of awareness with regard to the need of spiritual warfare. On top of it, the issue itself got a bad name through the one-sided interpretation when it was publicised, notably by the late John Wimber. Some believers regarded power encounters, using signs and wonders, as the only possibility of dealing with strongholds at this time. The notion that it can also be done by persistent, persevering prayer (Luke 18:1) somehow got lost. Furthermore, in some circles it was regarded as 261 the monopoly of the Charismatics and was thus simply not pursued by Christians from the mainline churches. The ensuing inability to apply the principles of spiritual warfare thus also contributed to an unsatisfactory situation from a missionary point of view. Missionaries and co-workers became depressed, because they had insufficient prayer covering. Growth of an International Component The international component of the missionary work at the Cape continued to expand over the years, keeping the momentum alive for another two decades. Orlando Suarez from Mozambique, who came to study at the Baptist Bible College, ended up as a SIM co-worker linked to the Westridge Baptist Church in Mitchell's Plain. From Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Taiwan and the USA, labourers joined the full-time staff for loving low-key outreach to Cape Muslims in the 1990s. The author returned to his home country in January 1992 and soon hereafter he was called to this ministry with his wife – after initially feeling drawn to work amongst street children. A new element of workers from the so-called third world became even more pronounced when Orlando Suarez from Mozambique became one of the first to return as a missionary to his own country, after he had been impacted and equipped at the Cape. In the 1990s, missionaries from different countries joined the Muslim outreach at the Cape. 262 263 CHAPTER TWENT Y-NINE PR AYER WAVES FROM THE CAPE ___________________________ Dr Francis Grim was a committed Christian and prayer warrior, and the worldwide leader of the Hospital Christian Fellowship for many years from the Cape suburb of Pinelands. Following shortly after the move of Burnett to Bishopscourt and the instatement of regular prayer at the Cape Town cathedral, Dr Grim initiated a National Day of Prayer, called for 7 January 1976. Few people of colour knew about the National Day of Prayer. Those who did, did not regard this as something that they should join. The organisers possibly had no vision to draw in people from other racial backgrounds. Yet, this move may have stemmed the tide of Communist-inspired violent revolution, to which the June 16 upheavals of Soweto in 1976 could easily have led. Dr Grim gave a challenging title to a booklet that was published by his organisation: Pray or Perish. This was one of the first national days of prayer to be called. A National Day of Prayer was called. A Prayer Campaign in Resistance to Removals The second phase of resistance with regard to the removal of ‘Coloureds’ from District Six was started by a prayer campaign. The vehicle to carry the campaign was the District Six Ministers’ Fraternal, an energetic group of clergymen from a few local churches. Rev. Basil van Rensburg, who had come to District Six with advertising skills in September 1978, launched a fund-raising initiative, along with the new prayer campaign. The aim was to start in a small way, with Holy Cross Roman Catholic 264 Church as a nucleus, and gradually build a forceful campaign of prayer and action until official thinking on District Six would change. The parish priest of St. Philip’s Anglican Church expressed some of this commitment when he invited other congregations to join in prayer: ‘May we all by the Power of His Holy Spirit seek nothing else but a miracle from the Lord.’ Lay people were well represented in the ‘Friends of District Six’ movement. Support came not only from the abovementioned churches but also from other circles, notably from Muslims and Jews. Many ‘Whites’ en masse hereafter refused to buy property in District Six. The consciences were awakened, and these people did not want to be identified with the perpetrators of the stark injustice. This created some embarrassment to the government, but the suggestion that District Six should become an open residential area would not bring them off course, not even for the time being. Whites refused to buy property in District Six. District Six never became a real ‘White’ suburb. This was surely an answer to prayer. In fact, God turned the injustice perpetrated in this regard around, stirring the conscience of ‘White’ South Africa like few other apartheid measures had done. By the mid-1980s it had become a wasteland because of the undermining of the implementation of the Group Areas legislation by a group that called themselves the Friends of District Six, a spin-off of the District Six Ministers’ Fraternal. That a part of the old District Six, along with Walmer Estate, was later formally declared ‘Coloured’ residential areas, was predominantly due to these prayers and efforts, albeit that some people alleged that it was a sop by the government to keep the protesters happy. The campaign was not only successful in getting 'Whites' to refrain from buying property in the ‘stained’ residential area, but it also helped to prevent Bo-Kaap from suffering the same fate of being declared an area ‘for Whites only’. A Spiritual Earthquake in Pretoria In Pretoria Gerda Leithgöb, an Afrikaner believer, had offered confession 265 with her prayer team at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, starting in 1978. Their prayers and confession surely helped to effect a change in the spiritual complexion of the country’s capital. The prayer ministry for the city of Pretoria and for the country at large was the prelude to the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) event in the national capital the following year. That conference was the equivalent of a spiritual earthquake. Professor David Bosch, a giant rebel against apartheid, was its leader. Without expressing it in so many words, the booklet South Africa: The Miracle of Little Waves by Dr Charles Robertson suggests that little waves of revival from the Cape might have started in the tumultuous year of 1985. At that time racial separation was still the major dividing factor in the country and racial tension was escalating towards a climax. Any scenario of upheaval calls for intense prayer. After giving some examples of ‘little waves’, and of individuals who rebelled against the status quo of racial separation, Dr Robertson summarized: ‘The changes ... were rooted in concerted prayer for revival and prayer for change in the nation.' Changes were rooted in concerted prayer for revival. Some moves that had started at the Cape well before 1985 sent ripples around the world. Considering that God commands his blessing where there is harmony and unity (compare Psalm 133), one should not be surprised that the enemy of souls would always attempt to highjack the unity of believers in South Africa. Government interference has been one of the demonic tools down the years. This happened in 1985 but also before this. A Cape Example with Worldwide Impact When World Literature Crusade launched their Change the World School of Prayer14, a South African prayer manual was published in Cape Town in 1981. World Literature Crusade’s strategic publication prepared the way for the Open Doors campaign of seven years of prayer for the demise of the atheist Soviet Union. The group in California (USA) 266 documented some of their experiences, praying systematically over 40 000 continuous hours. The Change the World School of Prayer invited believers to pray strategically, promoting intercession for one hundred un-evangelized Chinese and Arab-Muslim nations. The Change the World School of Prayer invited believers to pray strategically. Rev. George Buckley, a New Zealander, who was Vice President of World Literature Crusade, ministered powerfully at the Cape. The first Change the World School of Prayer event in Cape Town was attended by 1130 people over two weekends. The school of prayer envisioned a million Christians in South Africa praying for revival and world evangelism by the end of 1986. At one of the events in Windhoek, Ds. Bennie Mostert, a Dutch Reformed minister, was divinely touched. He became a powerful force for the prayer waves that started from the Cape in 1981. These waves sent powerful signals throughout the continent in the decades thereafter. A National Prayer Awakening Starts at UWC Dr Charles Robertson, lecturer at UWC at that time, became part of the Cape prayer movement in 1983. After his father’s death in 1979, and the failure of the business that he had started, he was thrust into a quagmire of spiritual turmoil. The combination of these experiences brought him to his knees. He came into living faith in Jesus as his Lord. Dr Robertson was approached to help fund the hiring of a bus to take participants to a prayer service at the historical Sendingsgestig Museum in the Mother City’s Long Street, which coincided with a Frontiers Missions Conference at UWC. The Sendingsgestig Museum itself became the venue for Concerts of Prayer. That event reverberated throughout the country, igniting a prayer movement. Concerts of Prayer ignited a prayer movement. 267 In 1983 a prayer awakening started in a few congregations all around South Africa. One of these was a small group of intercessors, led by Gerda Leithgöb in Pretoria, that helped set them on a path previously unexplored in this country. The main thrust of that group initially started with a confession initiative at the Voortrekker Monument in 1978. Simultaneously, Bennie Mostert started a newsletter to mobilize prayer in Namibia. Mostert dubbed his newsletter for Namibia Prayer Action Elijah. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the Korean Evangelical Fellowship co-hosted the first World Prayer Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, in June 1984. This historic assembly is widely recognized as the birth of the modern prayer movement. New types of prayer such as intercession for nations and continents, concerts of prayer, national and international prayer networks were encouraged there. A desire to fill the world with prayer was expressed. A focus on the unfinished task of world evangelization evolved. Prayer Seeds Blessing the Nations David Bliss, an Operation Mobilisation (OM) missionary, had relocated to Pietermaritzburg with his family when American Dave Bryant came to South Africa in 1983. The Concerts of Prayer initiative with David Bryant helped to bring people together on a city-wide level. Thousands of intercessors were mobilized in this way. David Bliss organized a bus load of people from Natal to attend the prayer and revival conference in 1983 at the University of the Western Cape that impacted many young people powerfully. The visit to the historical Sendingsgestig Museum in the city with Dave Bryant as speaker – along with his visit to Wellington – paved the way for David Bliss and his family to move to the Boland town, which was so deeply influenced by the renowned Dr Andrew Murray. David Bliss was immensely touched by the original vision of Dr Helperus van Lier, to see slaves trained to become missionaries. At a Concert of Prayer in Wellington, the hearts of David and his wife Debby had been prepared already, when Bryant proposed a Consultation on Prayer and 268 World Missions in the town. Valuable seed was sown into the soil of their hearts to bless the nations. Subsequently, David Bliss became the organizer of Bless the Nations conferences. A Little Booklet Motivates Christians to Pray It is appropriate that the revived prayer movement started at the Cape where Andrew Murray had written his School des Gebeds in 1885. The Change the World School of Prayer appears to have inspired the initiators of a prayer booklet, published by Hospital Christian Fellowship, later renamed Healthcare Christian Fellowship, HCF. In the early 1990s the Dutch section of the Hospital Christian Fellowship in Voorthuizen, led by South Africa’s Dr Francis Grim, its worldwide leader, nudged Christians towards a month of prayer for selected Muslim countries. HCF published a 31-day prayer guide. In it, they referred to specific needs.15 In turn, this appears to have been the model for the 30- day Muslim Prayer Focus that was used worldwide during Ramadan in the years after 1993. Cape Prayer Endeavours of the Early 1990s Arthur J Rowland, a committed believer who had a close friendship with Dr Andrew Murray when he started teaching as a young man at the Boys’ High School in Wellington in 1912, had a deep interest and involvement in prayer, evangelism and missions as had his son Noel. He started a Cape Town Keswick. Both kept their interest, based at the Cape Town Baptist Church till ripe old age: the father died in 1973 at the age of 102 and Noel Rowland just short of the century mark. Reverend Roger Voke kept the fire of the Keswick Movement alive at the Cape. In the late 1980s the Concerts of Prayer – inspired by David Bryant – drew good crowds in the Sendingsgestig Museum, a fitting commemoration of the inter-denominational work that had started there in 1899. The Concerts of Prayer later moved to the Presbyterian Church in Mowbray. Much of the prayer endeavours of the early 1990s were connected to missionary work. David Bliss from Operation Mobilisation (OM) 269 had already put the Cape on the map again with his Bless the Nations conferences. Love Southern Africa events started in Wellington, taking over from the Western Cape Missions Commission. Pastor Bruce van Eeden coordinated Great Commission conferences and Pastor Paul Manne organized an annual missionary event. Bishop Frank Retief and his St James Church in Kenilworth were carrying the evangelical banner for the mainline churches in the early 1990s at the Cape. The Good Hope Christian Centre became increasingly known when it moved from the Three Arts Theatre in Plumstead to Ottery. The originally 'White' mega churches attracted people of colour while the country was in transition towards the new democracy. Some Takeouts from Prayer Initiatives 1. Confession as a Revival Instrument At the end of 1977, Rosemarie and I attended the annual Moral Rearmament (MRA) conference in Caux, Switzerland. There, the apology for the actions of his government by an Afrikaner, a South African ‘White’ believer, made a deep impression on me. I started to perceive confession as something special that could assist in changing the social and political landscape of South Africa. Confession later became a significant part of the spiritual shifting in the nation. I perceived confession as something special which could help change the social and political landscape. As seen throughout this history, confession is an important element of prayer and a vital component towards revival. The rebirth of the Jewish nation after the exile was prepared by the intercessory prayers of Nehemiah (1:6-9), Ezra (9:6-13) and Daniel (9:9-19). All three of them concentrated on the spiritual condition of the nation and confession of sins. In revivals through the ages, prayer has always been at the core. Prayer brought about a consciousness of sin, which invariably led to confession and restitution. 270 Andrew Murray wrote: ‘an essential element in a true missionary revival will be a broken heart and a contrite spirit in view of past neglect and sin’. When God decides to send a revival among His people, He usually prepares a person to become the spark through which to work. Erlo Stegen was the spark for a revival among the Zulus that began in late 1966. It was when he confessed his racial pride that the Holy Spirit broke through. He discerned that he was lacking neighbourly love towards the Zulus. The revival began in the town of Maphumulo. Because of the growth, the congregation moved one mile Northwest to its current location in 1970. It is now called the Kwasizabantu Mission. The revival at the non-denominational mission station reached out to people of all racial and cultural groups, bringing a message of repentance and hope, as well as providing spiritual guidance, educational support and counselling. In the more than 52 years since KwaSizabantu was established, the mission has started many poverty alleviation ministries and a number of job creation ministries and outreach projects. All of these community-based initiatives have grown out of the evangelism ministry. The KwaSizabantu ministry originated in South Africa, but spread to include centres in several countries, most notably in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Russia, Romania, Australia and the United States. A daughter fellowship was started on the farm Môreson near Malmesbury in the Cape. There many a drug addict saw his or her life transformed, many of them previously linked to gangsterism. 2. Confession Coupled with Extraordinary Prayer During the autumn of 1966, Stegen had a congregation of 40 people in the town of Maphumulo. Due to their despondency over the powerlessness in their ministry, Rev. Stegen and his team turned to the study of the Acts of the Apostles, seeking God intensely in prayer. An old cow shed was cleared out, and it was there that this small group began spending time, seeking God at 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day. All other activities were totally forgotten, even Christmas. The times of prayer were focused on individual confession of sin, which at times became quite intense. Conviction led to confession as well as restitution and 271 reconciliation. Their desire for God was so great that they often would forget to eat or sleep. The ignition for revival was similar to the one Worcester via that unlikely young vessel about 100 years prior: A few weeks before a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a young Zulu woman, who had only been converted three months previously, with tears streaming down her face said: ''O Pastor, please stop. May I pray?' Stegen stopped the service and gave her permission. The young lady continued: “O Lord Jesus, we have heard what the early church was like. Couldn’t you come down and be in our midst as you came down two thousand years ago? Couldn’t our church be the same as the one in Jerusalem?” Erlo Stegen was completely overwhelmed by that prayer. He said afterwards to his brother: “You know, a strange thing happened today. The meeting was suddenly interrupted, not by terrorists, but by a prayer. If that prayer was inspired by the Holy Spirit – and I don’t doubt that it was – then I believe that the risen Lord, the living God, will again be in our midst and the Church of Christ will experience what the first Christians experienced in Jerusalem.” A week and a half later God visited them mightily! 3. Prayer and Fasting Docks Mission, as mentioned, had the habit of regular prayer and fasting. Docks Mission members made a national impact through ministry to prisoners on Robben Island. It was there that Pastor Walter Ackerman witnessed to and challenged Nelson Mandela. For many years Pastor Ackerman served the Docks Mission Church in Lentegeur, Mitchell's Plain, located not very far from the venue of the ‘It’s Time’ event of March 24, 2018. That church was one of the first places in the Cape that President Nelson Mandela visited after his inauguration in 1994. After his release in 1990, Mandela often referred to the Christian teaching that he received over the years as an important contribution to forgiveness and refraining from revenge. It was prayer coupled with concerted fasting at St George’s Cathedral as recounted in Chapter 27 that brought about the suspension of the Pass Laws in 1982. 272 4. Prayer that Carries Over into Actions The original Moravian Prayer Group that lasted for nearly 100 years lead to the greatest number of missionary endeavours to date. Andrew Muray’s focus on prayer led to a revival that reached the entire Cape and further afield. KwaSizabantu Mission was the result of prayer. Integration of a congregation with resumption of DRC Mission Impact: Another Cape congregation that caused a stir in missions is the Rondebosch Dutch Reformed Church. In the apartheid era that congregation was one of the few 'White' Dutch Reformed churches in the country where people of colour could enter without the real fear that they would be prevented entry (or worse, evicted, as actually happened in isolated cases). When Dr Ernst van der Walt came to pastor that congregation in 1982, the church was supporting a few ‘children’ from the congregation who were involved in missions. The denomination as such was initially only supporting missionaries linked to the Dutch Reformed synod. This was to change drastically when David Bliss, the OM missionary based at the Andrew Murray Centre in Wellington, visited the church. After his visit, the Prayer Concert concept got off the ground at the church with an early morning prayer meeting every Sunday at the old age home linked to the congregation. The believers would start praying for their ‘Jerusalem’, for the activities and concerns of their church, and then move on to pray for matters and people further away until they would finally pray for various missionaries in different parts of the world. When the minister’s son Ernst went to the William Carey School in Pasadena in the USA, it meant an intensification of the church’s involvement in missions. This was even more so when Ernst van der Walt (jr.) became the personal assistant of George Verwer, the international leader of OM. The Cape led the country in local Church involvement with foreign missions. Until the 1970s it was, however, only a church here and a fellowship there that was sending out missionaries. It is probably not surprising that a congregation from the Docks Mission, with its strong emphasis on prayer, spearheaded the foreign missionary endeavour. Peter Tarantal later even became a national leader of Operation Mobilisation and Theo Dennis was appointed as the Western Cape 273 regional co-ordinator of the mission agency. Theo’s sister married Dennis Atkins, who was the principal of the Bethel Bible School until his retirement in 2006. Freddy Kammies, who grew up in the nearby notorious township of Kewtown, came to the Lord at this church and he was discipled through the ministry of the Gleemoor congregation. He and his German wife Doris later left the shores of the Mother City as OM missionaries. After their return to South Africa in 1997, the couple pioneered the WEC ministry amongst sexually broken people. They joined YWAM in 2009 in a similar capacity. Also, significantly, numerous political changes in South Africa, as seen from the accounts in this book, were clearly the result of the prayers and fasting of God’s people that allowed, at first smaller changes, then more significant changes, and finally led up to a major turning point in South African history. 5. Female Leadership While Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher had been serving as Prime Ministers in Israel and the UK already in the 1970s, the Church globally seemed to have been influenced much too strongly by the current obviously culturally biased interpretations of the teaching of Paul, the apostle, whose teaching of his day and age was directed more at goddess worship than at women in general. Females in Church leadership are still rare after more than two decades into the 20th century. For decades, Pastor Yonghi Cho was admired as a major mega church pastor. He started his church in 1958 with a handful of people meeting in a small tent. Cho’s church grew from five to 50; then from 50 to 3 000. After embracing a ‘cell church’ strategy, the church grew to 8 000 members – quite a feat in 1968 when few Christian leaders could imagine a church that size. The Yoido church grew to 400 000 by 1984 and then expanded to 700 000 by 1992. It was then that Cho made the decision to plant satellite churches in other parts of Seoul instead of expanding the main campus. He became a global spokesman on church growth. Prayer certainly was a key ingredient in the spreading of the gospel in Seoul, yet only in 1999 did Rev. Cho reveal during a meeting with pastors and missionaries in Italy what experts had overlooked as a major factor 274 in his success. Cho informed the audience that women played a key role in his ministry — from the beginning when he began his church with Choi Ja-shil, a female colleague who eventually became his mother-inlaw. Cho explained to the attendees at the Italy event that he collapsed from exhaustion in 1964 when he was ministering to his 3 000-member congregation. When he told his male leaders that he wanted to divide the church into home cells, they resisted the idea. They didn’t want him to delegate his work to them. “We are not trained to do that, and we are not paid to do that,” the men told Cho. When Pastor Cho presented his idea to Yoido’s female leaders, they eagerly embraced the concept and asked him to teach them how to lead. “Teach us, pastor!” the women told Cho. “We will do anything for you.” Cho admitted that he had to step out of the pastorate briefly in the 1960s because of stress. He crashed emotionally and physically because of exhaustion. But it was during those five years, when mostly women led the cell groups at Yoido, that the church grew from 3 000 to 18 000. With the teaching and example of Count Zinzendorf in the 18th century, one would have expected the Moravian Church to pioneer with female leadership in South Africa. The United Congregational Church seems to have beaten that denomination in this regard. Rev. Margaret Constable was first elected as moderator in 1982. After years of segregation due to the apartheid laws of South Africa, the two Moravian Church Provinces in South Africa worked towards one united Moravian Church and the proposal was accepted in 1992. In October 1994 Rev Frederica Goliath became the first female to hold office as a Vice-President of the Moravian Church in South Africa. At the 2001 synod Ms Angelene Swart was the first female to be elected as President. 275 CHAPTER THIRTY CHURCH GROW TH T WINNED WITH RECONCILIATION ___________________________ Another powerful move of God in the mid-1980s was the National Initiative for Reconciliation. In a sense this was a spin-off of SACLA (1979), but it was also a result of the political tension of 1985. The country seemed to be rushing towards the precipice of civil war. The country seemed to be rushing towards the precipice of civil war. Michael Cassidy, the leader of Africa Enterprise, had issued a ‘Statement of Intent’ on 18 July 1985. From 10-12 September 1985, four hundred Christian leaders, drawn from forty-eight denominations, cleared their diaries and cancelled engagements to come to Pietermaritzburg for three days of consultation and the inauguration of the National Initiative for Reconciliation (NIR). The call for a National Day of Prayer by this group, to be held on October 9, was fairly widely followed, but not yet across racial barriers. Specific Reconciliation Initiatives Meantime, the harsh repression by the government and its agents continued unabatedly. In September 1985, a group of ‘Black' concerned evangelicals met to discuss how the crisis in South Africa affected their lives. They produced a shattering critique of the evangelical tradition, asserting that ‘born again’ believers have turned out to be the ‘worst 276 racists, oppressors and exploiters.’ The document, which became known as the ‘Evangelical Witness’, was emphatic that there can be no peace without justice. Using a different approach, through a process of discussion and consultation with an ever-widening group of Christians of all races, the Kairos Document was issued on 25 September 1985. Some people interpreted this document as a blanket endorsement of violence. On the other hand, it did encourage many of those who had abandoned the Church as an irrelevant institution. Yet another evangelical gathering was organised, this time by the Evangelical Fellowship of South Africa (EFSA) at Hekpoort in Gauteng in October 1985, with the purpose of providing guidelines for evangelical action in the midst of the crisis in the country. The rift among theologians – more or less along racial lines – appeared to be as wide as ever before. In spite of security concerns and the fear of a government clampdown on the event, more than thirteen hundred people gathered in a lunchhour service at Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral on 9 October 1985. There were reports of Christians from all denominations meeting in one another’s churches to pray together. Dean King of the cathedral wrote about that day: ‘In Cape Town we broke out of our islands as never before.’ Pentecostals Usher in Transformation Evangelicals in general, and Cape Pentecostals in particular, were not known for radical change. In fact, they were regarded as reactionary, supporting the racist structures of our society. The Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC), much better known in the Afrikaner version, the Pinkster Protestantse Kerk (PPK), was regarded as a stronghold of apartheid practice in the 1960s and 1970s in the northern suburbs of the city. No one would have suspected that radical change of Cape society would emanate from this denomination. Pastor Walter Snyman, better known as Walti Snyman, pioneered this when he moved with a number of believers into the premises of the Lantern, a former cinema in Parow. Walti Snyman had already caused something of a stir by marrying Irish background Colleen. She started learning Afrikaans in Bloemfontein, 277 where the couple had met. When they left the denomination to start a new non-denominational fellowship, this was not an earthquake, but there was a significant ripple effect. As a part of their new emphasis, Ps. Snyman started using English, instead of Afrikaans, in his teaching and preaching. The new fellowship had been an Afrikaner congregation, but Walti Snyman understood that the church had to be there for all people. He challenged the traditional racial and language prejudices of the early 1980s. Pastor Snyman was obviously sensitive to the post-Soweto (1976) situation, where Afrikaans was seen as the language of the oppressor in many a community. The fellowship linked up with a national move of the Holy Spirit through other charismatic Pentecostal preachers. Pastor Snyman was obviously sensitive to the post-Soweto situation. All over the country fellowships were established which called themselves ‘Christian Centre’. In 1982 the Parow church became known as the Lighthouse Christian Centre. It became one of the first mega churches country-wide, even giving birth to another one in due course, namely His People Ministries. The congregation was to play a pivotal role in the run-up to the big event of March 2001 at Newlands Rugby Stadium, where the first Transformation video of George Otis had been screened in October 1999. A Teenager in His Search for God Lorenzo Davids, hailing from a dysfunctional family in Bellville South, had been placed in foster care with a family in Athlone that had links to the Moravian mission station Elim. In the late 1970s the godly values that had been inculcated in him, triggered a longing for a personal relationship with God. After he matriculated at Belgravia High School in 1979, a change of plan from studies at the Cape Evangelical Bible Institute (CEBI) was to have major ramifications. He proceeded to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he ultimately graduated with an Honours Degree in Biblical Studies. The devout Dr Chris Greyling, 278 who impacted outreach to Muslims at the Cape significantly, was one of his lecturers. Lorenzo latched onto a friend’s invitation of to attend the Bellville South City Mission fellowship where Barry Isaacs was the young pastor. There he not only became a follower of Jesus, but developed a close friendship with the pastor, whom he still honours as his spiritual father and mentor. Barry Isaacs With Campus Crusade While Barry Isaacs was attending the Johannesburg Bible Institute from 1971-3, a team of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) shared there. Ever since he had come to the Lord, Barry Isaacs had a passion for evangelisation. The method, using the 4 spiritual laws, immediately appealed to him. Law 1: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. Law 2: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life. Law 3: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life. Law 4: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. After some training, Barry and a student colleague set out. Eagerness turned to trepidation when the first house they entered, turned out to be that of a Muslim family. How big was their surprise when both husband and husband responded positively to the invitation to accept Jesus as their Saviour. Their evangelistic exploits among 'Blacks' on the other hand were on the other hand often countered with hate-filled animosity. Apartheid had instilled in many young 'Blacks' a negativity to the gospel. 'Go and tell that story to the 'Whites!'' was a typical response. On returning to the Cape, Barry's first pastorate was the Evangelical Bible Church branch in Bellville South, that slotted in with the City Mission in due course. After their experiences with Campus Crusade in the 279 Johannesburg area, both Barry and his wife Rita reacted positively when they were challenged to serve full-time on Cape tertiary campuses. When they heard that they would have to raise their own support, this was initially quite daunting, Regional Director of CCC While he was living in Greenhaven, a part of Athlone near to the CEBI, Barry Isaacs was appointed Regional Director of CCC. Lorenzo Davids was often at their home, often serving as 'baby sitter' when Barry and Rita were serving somewhere. They also did a training for marriage counselling at this time, from which they profited greatly, and in subsequent decades they counselled many couples. The 'I FOUND IT' campaign of CCC in Mitchell's Plain and Heideveld in the early 1980s had a significant impact. Blue billboards were placed on stations with the Words: I FOUND IT... After a Sunday evening service believers were trained for counselling at an evangelistic campaign. The next week the billboards were replaced with new ones: I FOUND IT... IN JESUS CHRIST. Pastor Alfie Fabe, who was the pastor of the City Mission congregation of Heideveld at the time, was excited by the result. Thereafter people queued on Sunday mornings to get into the building. He summarily changed its name to Great Commission Chapel. The Church Resource Programme that CCC launched at the Cape was another major correction to contemporary practices, attempting to instill the need for proper discipling of new believers. A Campus Changed On his return to South Africa in 1976, Dr Allan Boesak increased his political activities through the church, notably on the campus of UWC. As student chaplain at UWC, Peninsula Technical College and Bellville Training College for Teachers, he can be accredited for shifting many a student's mind-set. His sermons at UWC were usually preached before a packed auditorium. His appeal quickly spread beyond the 2.8 million 'Coloured' people to both 'Black' and 'White' opponents of apartheid. Initially intended to 280 conduct Dutch Reformed Sunday evening services, the chapel hour soon was packed out with students from many other denominations. The vibe of racial negativity with its attendant resentment and hate of 'Whites' by many a student was common. This would be replaced in the time of the struggle at UWC by what could be termed as ecumenical services, notably after the start of the United Democratic Front of which Dr Boesak was the founding leader. The articulate orator challenged atheist and agnostics on the campus. Religion became a welcome neighbour and partner in the liberation struggle. New Charismatic Churches Established As we noted, various churches that became known as Christian Centres were also established at the Cape. Pastor Neville McDonald and his wife Wendy led a church plant that would become one of the first Cape mega churches, the Good Hope Christian Centre of Ottery, via the use of the Three Arts Theatre in between. The Hippy Revival of the early 1970s resonated on two Cape university campuses that were more known for political upheavals and protests than for anything spiritual at that time. Julia Struben, who later married Michael Swain, studied at UCT. She was there from 1981- 1984. She wrote about that time: '… a handful of students met every week to pray through the night on a Friday for God to move on the campus. We also held prayer walks, vigils etc.' Julia was passionate about prayer. The group of students around Julia set out as visionaries with a motto 'Change the campus, change the world.' At that stage UCT was completely unreached and spiritually barren, with only a small percentage of students claiming to be Christians. Lorenzo Davids and Dean Carelse were among the leaders at UWC at this time. The dynamic Lorenzo, who also possessed great administrative skills, impacted the UWC via Campus Crusade, where many students became followers of Jesus. Dean Carelse emerged as a great leader, pioneering with Sunday afternoon services in one of the UWC hostels. This would be emulated in the late 1980s in the Robert Leslie Building and later in the Baxter Theatre where Paul Daniel would take the fellowship that became known as His People to even greater heights. 281 At UCT the spirituality seems to have remained fairly low. Students who were vocal and in the public eye were those who opposed apartheid, rightly so of course. The big difference was Dr Allan Boesak, who changed the interest in spiritual matters on the UWC campus. Paul and Jenny Daniel were to become divine instruments to bring about significant change at UCT from 1988. Spiritual Renewal at UWC and UCT During a quiet time moment in January 1980 at the outset of his studies at UWC Lorenzo made a spiritual commitment: he decided to speak to at least one person about the Lord every day. He found fertile soil in the wake of the Hippy Revival that had been impacting young people at this time. He was to lead many students to the Lord. Soon hostel students, led by Dean Carelse, decided to have services on Sunday afternoon. Carelse came to the Lord as a young lad from a Muslim background after his father had become a Christian. From other students Dean Carelse had heard about the non-racial fellowship that had started at the former Lantern cinema. Outreach work from the Lighthouse Christian Centre could build on what God had started to do on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and notably what had transpired in the hostel. The Lighthouse soon had a flourishing student ministry, both at UCT and at UWC. Colleen Snyman introduced Dean Carelse, the UWC leader, and Paul Daniel to each other. In July 1981, Paul Daniel, a young final year Rhodes University (Grahamstown) student, was dramatically converted in answer to the prayers of his grandmother. Paul married Jenny, after he had left Rhodes University. In obedience to a divine call, Paul and Jenny sold their house. They moved to Milnerton in the Cape thereafter. Intense spiritual warfare ensued from their house as a church. The group later became a forerunner of much needed multi-racial expression of the body of Christ in Cape Town. 282 Seminal Spadework at UCT Paul and his wife Jenny started the first service of His People in their home in Milnerton, Cape Town with just the three of them - Paul, Jenny and Ian Sheard, who was in a university residence of UCT called College House. Robin subsequently led his classmate Gareth Stead, a back-slidden Methodist, to the Lord. The Holy Spirit had prepared Gareth when he noticed how Ian and Robin would leave together with Bibles on Sunday mornings. Vanessa Stewart, a young adult from Table View came from a family that would later become part of the simple home church in Milnerton of 15 people led by Paul and Jenny Daniel. Vanessa’s mom, Rose-ann, was a hairdresser in Table View. Jenny visited this hair salon and while having her hair done led Rose-ann to the Lord. Vanessa later married Gilian Davids, a student believer from UWC. Gilian and Vanessa subsequently planted the Every Nation West Coast congregation many years later and, since 2018, have led the Every Nation N1 City congregation. In Milnerton about half of the fellowship of 1988 were UCT students. After a year of pioneering a home church and evangelising students at UCT, Paul and Jenny Daniel were invited to bring their ministry under the covering of the Lighthouse Christian Centre. Paul Daniel became an associate pastor of Walti Snyman, initially working with the young adults and pioneering a group called Acts 29. The Start of His People Ministries The ministry grew gradually at UCT under the powerful, intense and committed ministry of Paul Daniel. In the mornings students would go to the Lighthouse Christian Centre for the Sunday service in Parow. The first His People church service, as it became known, was soon held at UCT in 1989 in the Robert Leslie building for afternoon services that were attended by people from all walks of life. In due course there were also services every Sunday evening. The majority of those who attended were from UCT. They started bringing friends and family members from the nearby communities. Every Friday evening a prayer meeting started 283 10 p.m., which continued into the early hours of Saturday. A sense of expectation evolved that new souls would be reached at the Sunday services, which always ended with an altar call. Early on Paul established a strong and anointed Word-based Bible School at UCT. Paul poured himself into this and it soon formed the bedrock of a fast-growing church. The His People worship team was pioneered by Anne Siebritz and Anton Badenhorst, UCT students. Soon Glenn and Michelle Robertson joined them to become a major force in the music department, which led the band at the Newlands Stadium event of 21 March 2001. Mike Cerff also joined in those early years and later, with Gilian Davids, Carlton Julies and others, shepherded the ministry to rapid growth in the northern suburbs of the city. The strategic spreading of the gospel and Church Planting in other cities was part of the DNA of His People from the beginning. Already in 1990 Dorian Wrigley was sent to Johannesburg to continue his studies in engineering there to join forces with Bill Bennot and Roger Pearce of Maranatha Ministries where Bill had started a fellowship at Witwatersrand University the previous year. The leaders started engaging in what was happening nationally from a biblical perspective. After Mike Swain had joined His People, Paul Daniel, Bill Bennot and Mike began conducting interviews with national church leaders like Frank Chikane. Next to evangelism and the lordship of Christ, developing leadership and nation building became core values of the denomination. In 1992, with Dean Carelse as a pivot, a symposium was hosted at UWC, which was to have a national impact when they become known as God and government conferences. They were also formative in getting nation building as a part of Church involvement. Generally, the attitude had become so ingrained in society that politics are dirty and not suitable for Christians to be involved with. These conferences may have assisted a party like the African Christian Democratic Party to get members into all tiers of government subsequently.) 284 A By-Product of the Boesak Legacy A less fortunate by-product of Boesak's legacy was the promotion of a theological position in which political correctness rather than biblical correctness seemed to become central. Thus, the God of the Bible came to be equated in due course with the Allah of the Qur'an. This led, surely unintentionally, to significant growth of Islam via many marriages. Dr Allan Boesak prepared the soil on which Professor Jakes Gerwel, the other giant alumnus of UWC, could build a world class university. Recognising the special gifts of Professor Jakes Gerwel, President Nelson Mandela appointed the former rector of UWC as his personal advisor. In Gerwel’s short revolutionary tenure there as Rector and Vice-Chancellor, UWC changed from a tribal institution intended for 'Coloureds', into a tertiary bastion of higher learning for all races of the Western Cape. In due course students from many countries came to UWC. One of the most prominent 'disciples' of Dr. Allan Boesak was Russel Botman. Hayman Russel Botman was Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU) from 2007. Dr. Russel Botman showed an unwavering commitment in working towards a just and equal society and environment. He expressed the grave need for funding that would give talented students, who had potential but no means, access to financial assistance so that they would have the opportunity to engage in higher education. He was acutely aware of the tremendous talent originating from the townships and rural towns of the Western Cape that would simply go to waste without an exceptional effort to invest in these young people and their education. Botman was halfway through his second term as Rector and ViceChancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU) when he unexpectedly passed away in his sleep on 28 June 2014. 285 CHAPTER THIRT Y-ONE VICISSITUDES IN THE 1980s ___________________________ A season of significant spiritual upheaval started in 1984. The rise of the eloquent Bishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Allan Boesak in their respective denominations in the 1970s gave the Church in the country a strong voice. The two church leaders subsequently received substantial recognition nationally and internationally. In 1982 Dr. Boesak was elected President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a position he held until 1991. Bishop Tutu became even more renowned when he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984. Upheaval After a Call for Prayer Many Christians supported the call of Dr. Allan Boesak at the SACC national conference of 1984 to pray for the ‘abolition of all apartheid structures’ and for ‘the end to unjust rule’. A year later, in the run-up to the anniversary of the Soweto tragedy of 16 June 1976, Christians were summoned to pray through a statement prepared by the Western Province Council of Churches called a ‘Theological Rationale’. This was in essence a cautious document with an inclusive character, intended to achieve consensus. It ended with a pledge – an invitation to pray for a new and just order in South Africa. 286 A Theological Rationale ended with an invitation to pray for a new and just order. However, the yoke of repression appeared to increase, and racial tension worsened. Opposition to Apartheid Boosting Islam Opposition to apartheid boosted Islam, notably when Christians and Muslim leaders joined hands in opposition to it. Two of the leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF), Dr. Allan Boesak and Advocate Dullah Omar, were often seen sharing the stage together. The fallacy was spread – possibly unintentionally - that Christians and Muslims are serving the same God. Marriage swelled the numbers of Cape Muslims, when the Christian partner converted to Islam (and remained Muslim even after divorce). Often these marriages had been ‘prepared’ by a pregnancy. The Islamic revolution from Iran furthermore assisted radicals. In rather skew fashion the islamist group Qibla exploited this. Graffiti on a wall in Shaykh Yusuf Drive in Bo-Kaap proclaimed the Islamic revolution as the only solution to the apartheid repression. Mass Action Versus Non-Violence The success of the struggle against the Pass Laws was the incredible spirit of non-violence and its impact against the very oppressors. The discrimination and 'Black' population control by the apartheid government did not prevent 'Black' people from settling on the outskirts of Cape Town. After the scrapping of pass laws many 'Black' people, mainly Xhosa's, moved into areas around Cape Town in search of work. After a brief respite and whilst still basking in the afterglow of the Pass Laws victory, a whole new, different struggle was being waged, which required a different approach. The tone of the country was changing. Apartheid was still very much intact. In 1983 and 1984, conditions in 'squatter' camps like Crossroads and KTC worsened. This was exacerbated by official policing policy in which 287 homes were destroyed and by the rise of the Witdoeke, led by "Mayor" Johnson Ngxobongwana. The Witdoeke were actively supported by the apartheid government in its fight against the ANC-aligned UDF, which had actively opposed plans for people to be moved to the new township of Khayelitsha. As the ‘Black' population grew, the apartheid regime sought to solve the 'problem' by establishing new 'Black' townships. Khayelitsha was established in 1985 and large numbers of people were taken there.) The years 1985 and 1986 saw a country on fire. People disappeared mysteriously, later discovered shot, hacked or burned. Every funeral became a rallying point and an opportunity to level accusations at not only the State, but at forces deemed to be working hand in glove with the State. People who tried to promote peace, were maligned and severely criticised. Church Responses The Church in general stood aloof, but some problematic responses surfaced. On the extremes there were those who followed the path of traditional theology, who believed that churches should focus on getting people saved and let God take care of the rest, and those who followed liberation theology. Individuals among the latter group called for a radical siding with the poor and oppressed that saw nothing but good in the poor, and nothing but evil in the oppressor. It was a position that polarised, and that had taken leave of Christ’s essential message to love even one’s enemies. The little-known group of Quakers played a powerful role in mediation. At a special meeting of key youth at the Catholic Church in Langa, Aunt Sue stood up to make a stirring address to the youth along the following lines: ‘I have heard the rumours from our youth that we adults did not stand up to apartheid, that we ‘allowed’ things to get to where they are today. I find these accusations disturbing and hurtful. I don’t know where you got this idea from...’ ‘It is time for the youth to respect our struggle and to realise that for a successful campaign, respect and self-discipline are essential’, she 288 declared. ‘If we do not respect each other, we will reap a fruit which we will later regret. Our children’s children will inherit a legacy of hatred and violence, rather than peace and prosperity. Do not allow yourselves to be misled, I beg you. We as elders in the community are available to assist in whatever way possible, so that our struggle may progress in a manner where we always retain our sense of unity and dignity. Enkosi (Thank you).’ There was a profound silence for a few moments. Finally, one of the youth leaders rose to his feet and thanked Aunt Sue, saying, 'This Aunty of ours is truly one of the struggle heroes. We thank her for her wisdom today!’ Alas, the recognition of the wisdom in her words was short-lived. The restlessness and arrogance of youth was ever present. This was not the last of these exchanges, and the urge towards intolerance moved to its natural conclusion. We began to see the rise of People's Courts, necklacing16, violence, fear and suspicion. Aftermath of President Botha's Rubicon Speech After a long period of isolation and strained diplomatic relations between South Africa and the international community, the National Party decided to hold a meeting to bring about reforms in the government. However, the meeting was shrouded in secrecy and mystery and President P.W. Botha was reported to have kept quiet. This was erroneously taken as a sign that he was approving of the proposed changes. President Botha, whose stubborn will had earned him the name Die Groot Krokodil (The Great Crocodile), however, simply refused to make that speech. Instead, he drafted his own one. Due to the anticipation and publicity of various international media houses, the speech was delivered live to a worldwide audience of over 200 million on 14 August 1985. President Botha clearly stated that he was not willing to change his position regarding the apartheid policy and that Nelson Mandela would not be released from prison. What came to be known as his Rubicon Speech, sent the country back into the economic doldrums. The rand, the country's currency, plummeted to an all-time low from which it would take years to recover. 289 The rand plummeted to an all-time low. Funerals as Catalysts for Change Sadly, funerals contributed significantly to bring about change throughout South Africa. Few incidents increased political awareness as the funeral of four Cradock United Democratic Front (UDF) activists. On 27 June 1985 the Cradock Four, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli, had been executed by the security police and their bodies burnt. The funeral of the four men on 20 July 1985, turned into a massive affair with buses travelling from far-away places. Speakers at the funeral included Dr Beyers Naudé and Dr. Allan Boesak. The run-up and aftermath of the Cradock funeral sparked a chain reaction, including a wave of prayer. Eastern Cape anti-apartheid activists Victoria Mxenge and her husband Griffiths, a lawyer, moved to Natal. She had worked as a community nurse in Umlazi. In 1965. Griffiths faced various government-sanctioned bans and detentions, including a two-year sojourn on Robben Island. Some five years after her husband had set up a legal practice, Victoria had acquired legal qualifications, joined the practice and was subsequently admitted as an attorney. On 19 November 1981, her husband was brutally assassinated by government agents. Victoria Mxenge kept their law practice going. In 1983, Mxenge represented families of victims of the Matolo raid and Lesotho raid. She also started a bursary fund in memory of her husband and was also a member of the Release Nelson Mandela Committee (RMC) next to other national bodies. Victoria Mxenge spoke at the funeral in Cradock that was attended by over 50 000 mourners. During her speech Mxenge condemned the apartheid government and referred to the murder of the Cradock Four as a "dastardly act of cowardice". We See a New Africa Victoria Mxenge was shot dead on her doorstep in Umlazi on 1 August 1985. The perpetrators, too cowardly to touch internationally well-known personalities like Dr Beyers Naudé and Dr Allan Boesak, were never identified. However, God was at work in a special way in another part 290 of Durban, the spiritual Eastern Gate of South Africa. In fact, already in December 1984, God had spoken out of the blue to Malcolm du Plessis, a young musician who had been impacted by the Jesus People: 'He told me he was calling the church to fast and pray for 21 days and that specifically we should begin to fast on 4th August the following year, 1985. Initially everyone thought I was stark raving mad.' As the political situation in South Africa got increasingly bad, Malcolm and friends began putting on a series of worship seminars. At the series of uncanny events from mid-July in Cradock, his little leadership team suddenly thought 'this is obviously the correct thing to do'. The funeral of Victoria Mxenge was scheduled for Saturday 3rd August 1985, but it was disallowed by the police. As a result of that, the whole of Umlazi went up in flames. Malcolm recalls: 'literally for the next 21 days, which were the 21 days of our fasting time, our city was under siege, it was just like a war. There were bombs all over the place, there was chaos!' 'So, we were praying, singing our songs, and it was a very provoking experience. On the 14th day of that fast, I had an encounter with God. We were worshipping – and God showed me the extent to which the South African system had affected me, and He gave me this overwhelming hunger to be involved in the nitty-gritty of South African life. So my immediate quest was to meet black people. For the next six months my friends and I looked for any opportunity to broaden the horizons of our South African life.’ Together with Nick Paton and Steve McEwen, Malcolm du Plessis subsequently held worship seminars around the country with the main subjects being relevance, creativity and diversity – exploring all kinds of things with different churches. Out of that they began to write songs that were African, in a kind of an African genre. At some conference at about midnight, there were 'literally five white guys and five black guys all talking. When the one guy, Victor Mangani, said, 'Hey, we feel so much closer to you white guys... Danny Bridges grabbed his guitar and played a G chord and sang 'We feel so much closer'. So, then he sang this line 'We feel so much closer' and within minutes, four different guys contributed lyrically and the song 'Masihlanganeni' was written.' 291 Malcolm narrates: 'By March 1986 there was such a groundswell of activity. I just got on the phone – 'cos I mean, we were dealing with people from three different cities, from every corner of the country – and said, 'Let's document all these songs that we've been writing'. So we took the master tapes from city to city and made a record.' In 1986 an album with a prophetic title 'We See a New Africa' announced to the worshipping Church that in Friends First there were 'Black' and 'White' South African Christians prepared to cross the racial divide. The new album speaks hope and faith from post-apartheid South Africa. Seeds of Confession Start to Germinate Dr Nico Smith – of Crossroads fame – visited Holland around this time. He lodged in Bilthoven where I met him, only a few kilometres from Zeist where we were living. He moved to Pretoria to serve the 'Black' Dutch Reformed Church of Mamelodi from 1982. Dr Smith had been more or less forced to resign from his post as professor at the end of 1981 and saw the call to the ‘Black’ congregation near Pretoria as a special blessing. Living in the township as pastor of that church from 1985 was a powerful witness that defied the prescript of apartheid Group Areas legislation. Living in the township of Mamelodi was a powerful witness. After his visit to the Netherlands, we started corresponding with each other. This became the most intensive exchange I had with a Dutch Reformed minister. Koinonia Goes Global In Mamelodi Dr Smith served not only as minister, but also as a community organizer and civic planner. To encourage integration and interaction between the separated communities, he organized a big exchange in 1988. 170 'Whites' moved into Mamelodi to lodge with 'Black' families, while 35 'Blacks' lodged in 'White' homes in the suburbs of Pretoria. The exchange lasted four days. At the time, few 'Whites' knew how 'Blacks' lived due to strict segregation laws. 'Black' neighbourhoods 292 were avoided and perceived as dangerous. Dr Smith explained that he ran the 'swop' because 'White' fear was one of the great barriers to understanding and progress in this country. There was thankfully an increasing realization by 'Whites' of the depth and the degree of 'Black' anger. The Koinonia model of the in-home meal and story sharing earned Dr Nico Smith the 1989 Beyond War Award, which inspired the sustained JewishPalestinian Living Room Group in the United States. A Confession with a Big Impact The Belhar Confession of 1982 was adopted by the Dutch Reformed Sendingkerk in October 1986. This document reverberated throughout the country, well beyond its original constituency. Its expressed goal was to initiate ‘a continuous process of soul-searching together’ and a ‘readiness to repent for the sake of reconciliation and unity in the Dutch Reformed Churches’. However, some elements in the document were distorted. Thus, one could find in a Wikipedia summary the following wording: 'all forms of segregation always lead to enmity and hatred.' Such distortions jeopardised the stated intention to attempt a stimulation for repentance and remorse. The Uniting Reformed Church in South Africa kept the door open for the 'White' sector to join the denomination at a later stage with the choice of the name. However, they complicated things later, by expecting the 'White' DRC to adopt the Belhar Confession first. Significant Change in the Dutch Reformed Church A metamorphosis of Prof. Johan Heyns continued steadily, notably when he chaired a synod commission called Kerk en Samelewing (Church and Society). At the 1986 General Synod in Cape Town, the report of this commission brought the ‘White’ sector of the Dutch Reformed Church 293 to a major shift with respect to apartheid. In the policy document Church and Society it was formulated in so many words that ‘a forced separation and division of peoples cannot be considered a biblical imperative. The attempt to justify such an injunction as derived from the Bible must be recognized as an error, to be rejected.’ This position, however, was not supported by rank and file church members. Right-wing elements were perturbed that the Church and Society document actually included confession of sin with regard to the part played by the churches in causing suffering through the implementation of apartheid. The 1986 synod decision resulted in the formation of the racist break-away denomination, the Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk. In 1987 the reaction to that decision, expressed in a document called Geloof en Protes (Faith and Protest), laid bare a weakness of the majority decision: ‘It is also the question whether this confession of sin is really derived from true remorse or whether it is derived from a desire to please certain churches… and thus evoking an artificially created consciousness of guilt’. By September 1989, after the government had been indiscriminately crushing all protest marches, mediation by DRC leadership under Heyns convinced the government to allow peaceful protests. This concession heralded the first swing away from the armed struggle to a strategy of non-violent confrontation. On 13 September 1989, Boesak, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Gordon Oliver, the mayor of Cape Town, led 30 000 marchers in protest after 23 people had been killed by police in protests against the exclusion of 'Blacks', 'Coloureds' and 'Indians' from parliamentary elections earlier in the month. The police were determined to stop the peace march. The national government under a new pragmatic State President, F.W. De Klerk, however allowed the protest march. 294 Professor Heyns Assassinated In 1990, Prof. Johan Heyns finally declared apartheid a sin. Prof. Willie Jonker expressed regret at the Rustenburg Church Consultation in November 1990 on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church. This had a large impact on the 'White' minority government and helped open doors towards dismantling the apartheid regime. Sadly however, just half a year after Nelson Mandela had been inaugurated as South Africa’s first 'Black' President, Johan Heyns was assassinated on 5 November 1994 by a 'White' extremist at his home when playing cards with three of his grandchildren. Nelson Mandela called Heyns a ‘soldier for peace' for his contribution to bring about an end to apartheid Maimed in Exile Receiving a hazardous letter bomb would be the plight of Michael Lapsley, just like Ruth First a decade before him. In the bomb blast he lost both hands, one eye and had his eardrums shattered. He testified subsequently: 'People have asked me how I survived, and my only answer is that somehow, in the midst of the bombing, I felt that God was present. I also received so many messages of love and support from around the world that I was able to make my bombing redemptive – to bring life out of death, good out of evil.' Quite soon after the bomb blast he realised that 'if I was filled with hatred and desire for revenge, I’d be a victim forever. If we have something done to us, we are victims. If we physically survive, we are survivors with God's help, I was enabled to take a further step and become a victor and take back agency. ' He deduced: 'I can be more of a priest with no hands than with two hands.' All people are capable of being perpetrators or victims, and sometimes both. Maimed by the Apartheid Regime Next to Professor Heyns and Ruth First there were many others who were killed by the apartheid machinery, many of them not well known. Due to 295 the nature of this book, the contributions of communists can only feature on the periphery where they interact with those of Christians. Thus, we mentioned the biography that Ruth First co-authored with Ann Scott in 1980. It is interesting that quite a few prominent Jews, like Ruth First, played a role in the struggle for freedom in this country. Among those from the communist ranks and Jewish there was Professor Albie Sachs, who was maimed by an assassination attempt on 7 April 1988 when he opened the door to his car, and it exploded. Sachs lost his right arm and vision in his left eye, and a passer-by was killed. After his recovery in London, he received a letter promising he would be avenged. Sachs, a staunch communist, responded in a Christ-like manner. He decided to seek no revenge, but "soft vengeance." This "soft vengeance" would take the form of getting freedom in a new non-racial and democratic South Africa based on human rights and the rule of law after the attack, Sachs established and became the founding director of the South African Constitutional Studies Centre at the University of London. In a special Abrahamic contribution, Sachs flew to Dublin to work on the first draft of South Africa's Bill of Rights along with Kader Asmal, who became a Professor of Human Rights at the University of the Western Cape after his return from exile in 1990. This would culminate in the widely acclaimed constitution of the Republic of South Africa. 296 297 CHAPTER THIRT Y-TWO LATE 20 TH CENTURY REVIVAL FORERUNNERS ___________________________ The apartheid brutality of the mid-1980s ultimately led to the downfall of the government. To achieve that however, certain churchmen from the disadvantaged races traversed a treacherous route, one that incorporated ideas of Black Consciousness, Black Power and revolution. The Entry of Reinhard Bonnke The destination of Reinhard Bonnke, a young German missionary, his wife Anni and their baby son, was Maseru in Lesotho in 1969. Reinhard and Anni spent seven years in Maseru, during which his call to evangelism took wings. In those early days in Lesotho, God showed Reinhard a vision of a 'blood-washed Africa'. Even though there was little or no evidence in his ministry that such a grand idea was even remotely possible, Reinhard took hold of the vision and in Jesus’ name began to speak it and live it. In 1974 the evangelistic agency Christ for All Nations was born, and a small team gathered around the young evangelist to reach out to the peoples of Africa. The preaching of the Word began to produce a harvest of souls accompanied by people being healed of all kinds of diseases. With only one small fellowship co-operating, the meetings began amid 298 disappointment at the first stadium event in Gaberone, the capital of Botswana. Only one hundred people came to the first meeting. Bonnke nevertheless preached as if the place were full and to his complete amazement, after only a few minutes, a man in the congregation jumped to his feet and disrupted the proceedings by shouting out, “I’ve just been healed!” This was repeated five times over as others shouted out the same thing, resulting in an outburst of joyous praise. The news that God was doing miracles in the stadium soon spread across the city and by the final meeting, for the first time in his short ministry, Reinhard preached to a packed stadium. Thousands streamed forward for forgiveness of their sins, hundreds were healed, and this was just the beginning. On a return visit to the country of Botswana twelve years later, the leader of a large denomination reported that eighty percent of his current pastors were converts from that first crusade in Gaberone. Tent Campaigns Following the example of the Dorothea Mission and other evangelistic agencies, Christ for All Nations hereafter embarked on tent campaigns to reach out to the continent in countries where there are no stadiums. Events moved rapidly after this as the Yellow Tent seating ten thousand people was built and the results of the ministry began to grow. Preparation teams began to travel in advance of the ministry team to prepare the ground for harvest, and follow-up teams were formed to help usher the new converts into the local churches. Before long the need for a larger tent was crystallized into action, one that would seat thirty-four thousand people. Large enough to completely cover three football fields, with masts that rose as high as a six-storey building, the "Big Tent" was a giant in every respect. It stood like a gigantic combine harvester, ready to move out into the ripe harvest fields of Africa. Open-air campaigns became the order of the day as hundreds of thousands flocked to every meeting. The ministry team moved from East Africa to West Africa and back again as the two, now separate, technical and support teams, organized events on opposite sides of the continent of Africa. 299 Beyond Africa The ministry increased the number of crusades held per year in Africa and also began to branch out to Asia by holding one campaign per year in that part of the world. Campaigns were held in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and India, with three or four taking place in South America as well. Each event resulted in tens of thousands receiving Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and multitudes being healed and delivered from demonic forces. Before Caesar As news of what God was doing went ahead of the team, the reception in many places began to change. Some closed their doors to the prospect of such active Christianity, but many more opened up gladly. People in high places also began to take note of the huge crowds and the positive impact that the Gospel was having. Reinhard Bonnke was soon asked to meet State Presidents and to address Houses of Parliament. Many leading national figures opened their own hearts to the message of the Gospel while meeting privately with Reinhard. A Gale Catapults an Evangelist into International Prominence The destruction of a gigantic new tent by a gale in the mid-1980s, in which the German-born evangelist Reinhardt Bonnke planned to hold an evangelistic campaign in the Cape township of Valhalla Park, created much interest for the event. The organisers were forced to conduct the campaign in the open. Thousands attended who would never have fitted into the tent. Instead of the planned fifteen nights, four extra nightly services were added amid clear skies in mid-June, in the Cape rainy season! Thousands attended who would never have fitted into the tent. 300 Unprecedented Networking of Cape Township Churches The networking of township churches in preparation for this campaign was unprecedented. There was an unusual response at the altar calls. Many Muslims gave an indication that they wanted to become followers of Jesus. However, lack of proper follow-up by the churches prevented a massive spiritual turn-around at the Cape in this regard. A sequel of the gale in Valhalla Park and the campaign was that Reinhardt Bonnke became a household name throughout the African continent and beyond. Reinhardt Bonnke became a household name throughout the African continent. A Female Evangelist Forged Born and bred on a Free State farm near Cornelia, Suzette Hattingh was a member of Reinhardt Bonnke's team, whose life God had saved as a young girl. At age 10, she was caught in a harvesting machine on her parents' farm in South Africa. The doctor said one arm had to be amputated. Suzette Hattingh's father prayed in desperation! Upon hearing a voice saying to him for a third time 'Don't!', Suzette’s father obeyed, and passed on the perceived divine instruction. He had to sign that he took responsibility for taking her home. It took 11 years after the accident for Suzette Hattingh to embrace the God who had saved her life. Suzette Hattingh became a nurse and midwife. A believing colleague was intent on leading her to Jesus, but she was not impressed. "What a religious freak!", was Hattingh's conclusion. But God intervened again. Near-death experiences of dying patients impacted her significantly. One of them was a lady with terminal cancer. 'She was in pain, screamed at us and was very difficult. For some time, she was moved to another hospital for treatment, and there she made peace with God. She returned a changed person, so kind. She was still screaming but now it was about Jesus.’ These experiences caused Suzette Hattingh to start seeking God again. On March 14, 1977, prompted further by repetitive nightmares, she finally prayed: 'God, if You are what these freaks say you are, do 301 something!' A supernatural 'light' fell on her. She was born again in that moment. The life of the young nurse was, in her own words, 'turned around completely.' Her fiancé-to-be broke up with her. Her family disowned her for starting to fellowship with 'Blacks' because apartheid was as much a part of the Afrikaner lifestyle as predestination. An Evangelist in Her Own Right From 1980 to 1996, Suzette was part of Reinhardt Bonnke's ministry Christ for all Nations (CfaN). Heading up the intercession department, Suzette played a major role in the worldwide campaign preparations and the general ministry, later becoming Reinhardt's associate evangelist. An evangelist in her own right, Suzette's ministry quickly broadened into major evangelistic outreaches. On 1 January 1997, Suzette Hattingh, together with Gayle Claxton, founded 'Voice in the City' an international, interdenominational missions organisation, endeavouring to reach out to the lost and broken-hearted, irrespective of their walk of life. Suzette has a strong call from the Lord to concentrate on cities and local communities. Under the banner of servanthood, she reaches out with the same passion to one soul as to a million. Suzette was not the only female evangelist trained in the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke. In the new millennium Cape Town raised evangelist Lindy-Ann Hopley became an internationally recognized minister of the Gospel with a call to revival in the nations. A Great Afrikaner Evangelist Nicky van der Westhuizen (18 June 1948 - 25 October 1993) was one of South Africa’s greatest evangelists at the end of the century, possibly second only to Reinhardt Bonnke at that time. Large crowds would gather to hear him at his tent. One particular preacher that he followed was Evangelist Rassie Erasmus who was known nationwide for his playing the concertina with his boeremusiek group. (After he had received Christ, Rassie Erasmus became a great tent revival evangelist.) Nicky Van der Westhuizen started off as the pastor of the Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC) in Krugersdorp close to Johannesburg. It was a small church, but the folk took well to Nicky’s passionate and 302 fervent preaching. His dedication to prayer reflected nothing less than an insatiable hunger after God. For example, at his instruction his wife would drive him out and drop him with only a large can of water at some forlorn place in the Western Transvaal. He would pray through the day and then continue to pray through that night. He said that it would only be later on in the late afternoon of the next day that he would sense that his that thirst for God began to be quenched. He did this several times. Nicky also narrated how God had sent people to his house supernaturally to join him in prayer. He said that he did not know them, nor did they know him, but that the Lord had told them to come to his house. He then told them that he was praying for revival. Ministry With Miracles Nicky said on one of the recorded messages that every single significant thing that God had done in his life had been birthed by a sense of desperation. Pentecostal Preaching was especially accompanied by the healing ministry. South African satanists who had converted to Christ revealed that Nicky was considered to be their greatest enemy. This shows that his ministry was having a significant impact. Sometimes this influence would happen behind the scenes. Amanda Hattingh (néé van Staden) grew up in Port Elizabeth where she gave her heart to the Lord in Grade Nine. Raised in the Dutch Reformed Church, she was not discipled sufficiently. She was impacted subsequently at a meeting with the evangelist Nicky van der Westhuizen. Amanda was to make quite an impact in the twentieth century serving initially with the David and Jonathan Foundation and later with Hamigdalor Ministries in Sea Point in the Covid era of the 21st century. From Cape Town to the Nations In the years that followed, His People Ministries established local churchbased campus ministries on virtually every major university campus in South Africa. While fasting and praying with the students, Paul Daniel sensed God’s leading to pursue a vision to take the Gospel to the nations. 303 Every Nation London was started when Wolfi and Alison Eckleben responded to what they sensed as 'God’s call to the nations'. This resulted in their being sent out from the Cape Town congregation of His People, to start the work in London that evolved into Every Nation Ministries. Having never been to the UK before, Wolfie and Ali knew nobody there. They arrived at Heathrow Airport on 4 September 1993 with their two backpacks and a vision. A great adventure was just beginning. Soon Every Nation London had various venues and planted many churches in Europe and over into Asia. A Satanist Changed After the return of his family from the UK to apartheid South Africa in 1970, Phillip Shaw found it very difficult. He blamed God for this, and turned to Heavy Metal music, some of the Beatles' songs and reggae music. Compulsory military service in the South African Defence Force was very frightening. From the start he heard that many of them would die for keeping Communism out of South Africa!! Phillip was happy that he could get out of basic training when he was drafted into the military brass band. There he started using drugs. Soon he was pulled into a satanic 'coven' meeting on a farm on their off days, where they would drink a lot. Satanists infiltrated the military base. Soon Phillip wrote out a contract to Lucifer. They were commanded by the devil to go into churches and put curses on churches and on people. In the last six months of their training, a radical Christian from Port Elizabeth joined them who played the guitar. Andy was an 'undercover' Christian! Secretly, Phillip was praying that Andy would be drawn to satanism! Phillip, hereafter, however, discovered that Jesus Christ is more powerful than the demons that he had! 'The guide spirits were extremely angry towards me as they said I had sent them both to the Son of God, Yeshua or Jesus.' After his military service, Philip contracted typhoid fever while studying plumbing as an apprentice. 'Satan almost took my soul during that time.' At the old wing of Somerset Hospital in Green Point they dealt with serious diseases such as typhoid fever. There was a baby in the other 304 room that wouldn't stop screaming. The nurses asked everyone to pray for the baby. After first praying to deities of other faiths, Philip prayed to Jesus Christ that he should touch him first. It felt like he had stuck his finger into an electrical plug. He was so convicted that he immediately asked Jesus to remove all the spirits and demons out of his room and that of the baby. He went on to pray in Jesus' name for the healing of the baby. The divine answer to his prayer set Philip on course towards a full commitment to the Lord. A Special Couple Forged Selby Gray was a bubbling young woman raised in a more or less nominally churched home in the Cape township of Heideveld. The party girl suddenly had a premonition throughout 1987 that she wanted to give her heart to the Lord. She started to speak about God to all and sundry, even at partiers, to the surprise of everybody. This was the Holy Spirit, of course. She made a 'deal' with the Lord at the end of that year. In January 1988 this happened: her life changed completely when she started mingling with Pentecostals. Ultimately Selby worshipped with a group of believers around Pastor Roger Petersen. This interaction soon brought her into evangelistic mode, so that she went to the Kholo Christian Mission Centre, where she participated in the holistic practical missionary training program. When Phillip met Selby the first time, she was an extreme extrovert. He wasn't interested in looking for a wife, and he was with another missionary group. Phillip was doing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) Course with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The DTS outreach group was en route to Port St Johns in the Transkei! They drove from Worcester to the Eastern Cape and stopped at Kholo Kingdom Mission Centre in Idutywa. 305 Selby subsequently came to the Cape to attend a Bless the Nations conference in Wellington at the Andrew Murray Centre with David Bliss. Via Cape Town she then went on a missionary trip to Namibia and thereafter went back to the Transkei, where she was thoroughly trained in the deliverance ministry, that would stand her in such good stead later. The second time Phillip and Selby met was in September 1990 at an advanced Missions' Course. By now Selby was very different, very appealing and attractive to Phillip. He knew in his spirit that she was 'it'. He wrote: 'Even though we may not have any physical children, we have many spiritual children. We have been together for 28 years on the 15th February, 2020!' God used the couple wonderfully in the new millennium, notably in the deliverance ministry. A Young Cape Couple Moulded Among Hindus Denise and Dennis Atkins were both from Kensington and as young people were converted at the Dock’s Mission Church. They enjoyed exciting times of ministry at the Bloemhof Flats in District Six, open airs on the Grand Parade and the rich teachings of the Keswick meetings at the Dutch Reformed Synod Hall in Orange Street. Denise’s mom, Doreen Dennis was from Bo-Kaap. Denise remembers many happy holidays with the grandparents until the family was forcibly removed to Hanover Park during the apartheid era. Denise served with Youth For Christ in 1976 before proceeding to Bethel Bible School. Dennis, also hearing God’s call to full time missions, followed two years later. The couple was sent as 'Pilgrims' to Natal to serve as pioneer Africa Evangelical Band missionaries among Hindus. Working alongside Pastor Solomon, a great Indian preacher from Tinley Manor Baptist Church, the Lord blessed their work, with many a Hindu coming to faith. From 1985 they served as house parents and later as principal and matron of the Bethel Bible School until 2006. Many young people from all over the country profited there from their wise counsel and teaching. Irish missionary for the Metropolitan Church Pastor James Selfridge and his daughter, Subeth, served as lecturers during this period, next to various missionaries and ministers. The ministry of Dennis and Denise Atkins with the Bible School students 306 brought special ‘in- service training’ especially with the outreaches to schools, to the streets and 'squatter' camps of the Cape Flats as well as the head head-on collision and later conversion of a satanic high priestess. This experience not only enhanced the scope of their teaching ministry, but it also prepared the couple for spiritual warfare in serving drug addicts at the latter end of their missionary work. 307 CHAPTER THIRT Y-THREE THE CONSCIENCES OF 'WHITES' TOUCHED ___________________________ Behind the scenes, God was at work. The murders of prominent ANC activists in Cradock and Durban had become (inter)national news. Whereas the disappearances of 'Black' activists had gone less noticed after 1980, these incidents now suddenly came to the fore more forcefully than ever before. The consciences of 'Whites' were unprecedentedly touched in different ways. Whereas the government had successfully muzzled the likes of Dr Beyers Naudé, the move of Prof. Nico Smith to take ‘White’ Dutch Reformed theological students in 1981 to Crossroads and his residing in the 'Black' township of Mamelodi became news headlines. The speaking out against pillars of apartheid and agreeing that it is heretical by not less than the top Broederbond academic Prof Johan Heyns shook Afrikaner consciences severely. The Burial of Eleven Victims of Police Action One of the biggest funerals ever at the Cape took place on 21 September 1985 in the township of Gugulethu. It was the burial of eleven victims of police action, including Ayanda Limekaya, a two-month-old baby, who 308 died after inhaling too much tear gas. The special event on Saturday 21 September 1985 was 'a disciplined, motivated crowd determined to bury their dead as a celebration of liberation to come, not as a remembrance of defeats in the past.' At the start of the traditional burial march, the crowd increased dramatically. Within ten minutes it had swollen to between twenty and twenty-five thousand. 'Then it became impossible to estimate the numbers.' This occurred in spite of many roadblocks put up by the police and army in an effort to prevent people from other places from joining the funeral. Tragic Consequences Begin to Unfold The SACLA-inspired clinic in Crossroads continued to do fine work under Dr Ivan Thoms, a young doctor. However, when the proverbial chickens came home to roost in the resistance against the tricameral system of government, Crossroads was one of the first to erupt. Worse was to come in 1986, when the place was virtually in a state of civil war. On 9 June 1986 the Community Centre of Crossroads, which had sheltered over two thousand refugees on the chilly night before, was torched. Dr Di Hewitson and a nurse, Dorcas Cyster – committed Christians – in their service to the battered and bruised. Dr Di Hewitson and Dorcas Cyster – committed Christians – risked their lives. The SACLA clinic was located in the Witdoeke area, while many of the clinic’s workers came from the opposing Comrades’ turf. Even as they came to work, the benefactors were accused of tending only to the wounds of the enemy. In a prayer, Michael Cassidy summed up the situation, which epitomised the dilemma of the country at that time: ‘O God, only you can resolve all this. And without the power of prevailing prayer, our land will never be healed or saved.’ Cassidy sensed that ‘the Lord needs his people not just in prayer, but in active peace-making in such polarised contexts.’ 309 Reprisals in Response to Police Brutality The brutality of police came to the fore especially in the shooting at children who were running away. This ignited reprisals. Speeches at funerals by certain church leaders were tantamount to incitement towards violent retribution. (The majority of the cases of gross human rights violations before the 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Commission were perpetrated between 1985 and 1990.) God seemed to have intervened when, after the State President Mr P. W. Botha suffered a mild stroke on 18 January 1989, and on 14 August of that year, Mr F. W. de Klerk, a low-key Cabinet Minister but who was simultaneously the leader of the Transvaal NP, succeeded Mr Botha as party leader and ultimately also as State President. Many people, especially those from the ranks of the oppressed, believed that God’s sovereign intervening hand was in this move. God seemed to have intervened when P.W. Botha was replaced F. W. de Klerk as State President. A Young Pastor Gets his Hands ‘Soiled’ When Rev. John Thomas and his wife Avril came to Fish Hoek in 1987, the young Baptist minister soon became immersed in the tragic state of our country. At an informal settlement in Noordhoek known as ‘Green Point’ (and later known as Masiphumelele), Rev. Thomas wanted to see for himself what was happening there when the 'Blacks' were moved. He had heard rumours that the police were maltreating the people who lived there. Having studied at the Bible Institute of South Africa in Kalk Bay and at the University of Pretoria, Rev. Thomas was bilingual, but like the majority of 'White' South Africans, he was also politically ‘innocent.’ He, along with a young 'White' lady who was linked to the Black Sash, were the only 'Whites' who witnessed how the 'Blacks' who lived peacefully in the informal settlement, were treated like dirt. What he saw came to be – so to speak – the occasion of his 'second conversion'. As a typical evangelical, Rev. Thomas had been believing firmly that the so-called 310 Social Gospel was heretical, and that Christians only had to pray and work to save other people from eternal damnation. Rev. Thomas experienced a paradigm shift. He became a pioneer among evangelicals, to get their hands ‘soiled’ in the dirty racial politics of the country. He was an advance guard of transformation in the city, notably when he and his wife proceeded to start Radio Fish Hoek, the first community radio station in the country. John Thomas was an advance guard of transformation in the city. Divine Calling of Individuals What happened through Gerda Leithgöb and Bennie Mostert in 1987 are examples of divine callings received by individuals. The Lord also called pastors in South Africa to start writing on prayer. Books appeared concerning this issue. A visit to Singapore in 1988 by Gerda became a spur for worldwide prayer for South Africa. In the country itself she became a pioneer in using the results of research for informed prayer. She taught and implemented research on spiritual strongholds quite effectively. The Biblical models come from the twelve spies who were sent to Canaan and the reconnaissance work that Nehemiah performed before the actual building of the wall around Jerusalem. Confidence in South Africa's ability to lift herself from the constraints of apartheid was low, the economy was sliding. Fear was a constant companion to people from every racial group. In this time of despair the body of Christ began standing in the gap for the nation. The forty years of apartheid oppression, combined with prophetic actions and prayer between 1948 and 1988, helped to raise the consciousness of the poor and the oppressed. God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform! Even in remote parts of South Africa people were praying because of the deteriorating and explosive situation in the country. Thus, 311 vastly different groups, like those in the Mother City which gathered on a weekly basis, as well as 'Black' women in the Soutpansberg Mountains, interceded fervently that the country might be spared massive bloodshed. Many longed for an end to the misery caused by apartheid, praying that it might cease soon. The political climate was becoming radicalised towards the inevitable conflict, heading for the precipice. The political climate became radicalised towards the inevitable conflict. The March of Repression of Religion The decision of the government to outlaw the activities of the UDF and sixteen anti-apartheid organizations, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), turned out to be completely counter productive. The message of 24 February 1988 was clear: any opposition to the apartheid regime – including peaceful protest – would not be tolerated. Sweeping, ridiculous restrictions were placed on funerals; hymns, songs and sermons were forbidden, and tickets were issued by the police to limit funeral attendance. The police demanded that the parents of killed youths sign a pledge that no more than 50 people would attend their funerals. Unlike in October 1977, when the Christian Institute and other organizations were banned, the Church rose to the challenge. Dr Allan Boesak, the leader and founder of the banned UDF, preached in his Sendingkerk congregation on Sunday 28 February 1988, using Luke 13:31-35 as his text. He noted that Jesus chose confrontation as his response to the threats and intimidation of state power. He was truly brave in that volatile situation to quote Jesus’ words in which the Master, referring to King Herod, said "Go and tell that fox...". The very next day, Monday 29 February 1988, Archbishop Tutu, Frank Chikane and scores of other church leaders led hundreds of protesters in the Mother City in a prayer service, marching to the South African Parliament to demand the restoration of the right of non-violent, 312 peaceful protest. Emulating the civil disobedience of Martin Luther King in the 1960s, they refused to disperse and retreat when confronted by a daunting line of riot police and remained calmly kneeling in prayer. The clergymen were detained by the police, strictly warned, and then released. Hundreds of other marchers were hosed down with police water cannons. 313 CHAPTER THIRT Y-FOUR MOVES BEHIND THE SCENES ___________________________ 1989 was the year when things started to shift significantly. Internationally, the era of perestroika had arrived in Eastern Europe. The march to freedom looked unstoppable, but few people were aware of the fact that a wave of prayer for the country had been set in motion already in 1976. God was at work. On the very day of 16 June 1976, the day that sparked off revolutionary events, Johan Botha, a young policeman, had been posted in Soweto. Supernaturally God was to use him eighteen years later to bring many in the nation to pray when civil war seemed inevitable. Late 20th Century Reconciliatory Collaboration Opposition to Apartheid brought the two 'White' language groups together. This collaboration took especially place in the activities of the Christian Institute (CI), with expatriate Germans lecturing at theological institutions in conspicuous support until 1977 when the CI was banned. The vacuum was filled in part by the SACC and notably in the run-up to SACLA in Pretoria in 1979. Two prominent Christians in parliament, who started off in the respective backwaters of the Boer-Brit divide, had a significant impact on the history of the country. The third personality in this category, Dr Desmond Tutu, became internationally even more famous. 314 Alexander Lionel Boraine (10 January 1931 – 5 December 2018) was born and bred in a Cape poor 'White' housing estate. Alex Boraine left school in Standard 8 (Grade 6) and started work as a ledger clerk. As a Methodist lay preacher, he went to Rhodes University at 23 where he obtained a B.A. degree in Theology and Biblical Studies in 1956. After ordination as a Methodist minister, he was sponsored by rich Methodists to study at Oxford University in the UK. He returned from extended overseas studies with a PhD in Systematic Theology and Biblical Studies from Drew University in the USA during 1966. In 1970, he was appointed the youngest-ever President of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, a position he held until 1972. As the head of the denomination at the height of apartheid, he took a stand that the Church should be non-racial. During his time as President of the Church, he visited mine compounds, and he began to criticise the working and living conditions of 'Black' miners. In 1972 he was invited to join Anglo American to implement changes to the working and living conditions of its 'Black' employees as an employment practices consultant. Dr Boraine was elected to parliament as an MP in the Pinelands constituency. He resigned in 1986 together with Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, believing that the South African parliament was not relevant in establishing a non-racial South African society. From 1986 to 1995, Boraine headed two South African non-profit organizations concerned with ending apartheid and addressing the legacy it left behind. Boraine was one of the main architects of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He was involved in drafting the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995. He was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to be the deputy chair of the TRC and served under Chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 until early 2001, Boraine served as professor of law at New York University. In 2001 Dr Boraine co-founded the International Centre for Transitional Justice, (ICTJ) an international human rights NGO. He served as ICTJ's president for three years. Alex Boraine travelled to many countries that were in transition from dictatorship to democracy, at the invitation of governments and NGOs, to share the South African 315 experience. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, the second of the three prominent personalities who stood at the cradle of our democracy, was born of mixed Xhosa and Motswana parentage to a poor family in Klerksdorp, when it was a small town in the West of the Transvaal province. Entering adulthood, he initially trained as a teacher. In 1960 he was ordained as an Anglican priest and in 1962 moved to the United Kingdom to study theology at Kings College in London. He returned to southern Africa in 1966, to lecture at the interdenominational Federal Theological Seminary and thereafter at the Universities of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1972, he became the Theological Education Fund's director for Africa, based in London. Back in southern Africa in 1975, he served first as Dean of St Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg and then as Bishop of Lesotho; from 1978 to 1985 he was general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He emerged as one of the most prominent opponents of South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation and 'White' minority rule. Although he warned the National Party government that anger at apartheid would lead to racial violence, as an activist he stressed nonviolent protest and foreign economic pressure to bring about universal suffrage. In 1985 Dr Tutu became Bishop of Johannesburg and in 1986 the Archbishop of Cape Town, the most senior position in southern Africa's Anglican hierarchy. In this position he emphasised a consensus-building model of leadership and oversaw the introduction of female priests. Tutu polarised opinion as he rose to notability in the 1970s. 'White' conservatives who supported apartheid despised him, while many 'White' liberals regarded him as too radical. Many 'Black' radicals accused him of being too moderate and focused on cultivating 'White' goodwill, while Marxist-Leninists criticised his anti-communist stance. He was very popular among South Africa's 'Black' majority and was internationally praised for his anti-apartheid activism. He received a range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert (2 March 1940 – 14 May 2010) was born into an Afrikaner family and grew up in the dorpie Pietersburg (now called 316 Polokwane) in northern Transvaal. After graduating from Pietersburg High School, Van Zyl Slabbert studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch for 18 months before deciding that Sociology was his calling. He completed a BA Honours at the university and a doctorate in 1967. During his academic studies, Slabbert developed an active interest in politics, which led him to reject apartheid and to stand for a seat on the Students' Representative Council. He lost the election as he was considered to be too liberal. Subsequently he lectured at Stellenbosch, Rhodes University and UCT. In 1973 he was appointed head of the Sociology department of the University of the Witwatersrand. In the 1974 general election, Slabbert stood for election as a Progressive Party (PP) candidate for the constituency of Rondebosch. Although he was not expected to win the seat, he beat the United Party (UP) candidate convincingly. Slabbert rose through the ranks of the PP and came to play an important role in the development of the party's ideology, particularly as the chairman of its Constitutional Committee. Using his influence, he helped to position the PP as a liberal movement which advocated the creation of a non-racial democracy in the country. In 1986, Slabbert resigned from his position as leader of the opposition because he felt that Parliament was becoming an irrelevant institution in the context of South Africa's political problems. Prior to his resignation, he published a book entitled The Last White Parliament in which he explained his actions and giving predictions for the future of South Africa. Following his resignation, Slabbert and Alex Boraine formed the progressive think tank IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa). As head of IDASA, Slabbert played a leading role in initiating dialogue between 'White' South Africans and the African National Congress (ANC). His efforts led to the Dakar Conference of July 1987 in Senegal, which took place between the anti-apartheid movement and leading (mainly Afrikaner) politicians, academics and businessmen in. This conference represented a significant step towards dismantling apartheid, forming the foundation for subsequent negotiations at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which changed the course of South Africa's history. 317 The Homeland Policy Attacked from Within Since the 1950s, a system of “petty apartheid” which separated the physical day-to-day interaction of racially defined groups was complemented by a policy euphemistically called ‘separate development’. People were forcibly resettled to scattered reserves for indigenous African communities in ten ethnically defined Bantustans or ‘homelands’. The Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and Ciskei (1981) were finally declared ‘independent’. KwaZulu, designed as home to four million Zulu people, was granted ‘self-government’ in December 1977. But Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the entity from 1976, steadfastly resisted any bogus independence. Bantu Holomisa followed a trajectory similar to that of Dr Buthelezi. In 1988 he ousted the leader of the Transkei. He then turned self-government into an instrument against apartheid. In contrast to Buthelezi, Holomisa closely collaborated with the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC). Dr Buthelezi was the only one from the initial generation of Bantustan leaders who played a significant role in South Africa’s transition to democracy. His subsequent role as Minister of Home Affairs (1994- 2004), Member of Parliament and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party until 2019, testify to his political influence. God Works in Mysterious Ways The revolutionary situation after 1985 possibly influenced the pragmatic new presidential incumbent, F.W. De Klerk, towards a more reasonable approach. Such a scenario also called for more prayer. We can safely surmise that more people were praying for an end to the killings and violence than before that. At the interdenominational prayer meetings of the Regiogebed that had started in Zeist (Holland) and surrounds in 1988, we conducted concerts of prayer. We prayed for local issues, for missionaries who left from our area, but also for other countries. In 1989 we prayed especially for Communist countries, notably for the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Romania. We were really encouraged by the news that came through from Leipzig in East Germany. Christians there seemed to have become the vanguards of the surge towards real democracy in their 318 Communist-ruled country. Kjell Sjöberg, a Swedish pastor, visited South Africa in 1989 on an assignment to pray at ‘the ends of the earth’. He led a group of intercessors at Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa. A national prayer network was formed that started linking with international intercessors. All of this happened fairly quietly and unnoticed. A Defiance Campaign with a Difference God was answering prayers behind the scenes. With the likelihood of considerable ‘White’ support, the pro-ANC Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) – successor to the banned UDF – launched a new defiance campaign against remaining social segregation on August 2, 1989. The campaign intensified as parliamentary elections, scheduled for 6 September, drew close. President P.W. Botha suddenly had become a liability. On 14 August Mr F.W. De Klerk, a low-key Cabinet Minister but the leader of the Transvaal NP, ousted him. Yet, nobody expected much in terms of concession from a Prime Minister who had been known to be on the verkrampte side, (very conservative).17 On 1 September several groups of clerics and academics gathered to demand the right to protest. De Klerk appeared to be no different from his predecessor, when all the protesters were arrested and some of the clergymen badly beaten by the police. On 2 September attempted marches to parliament were broken up by police using tear gas, quirts and a water cannon. In the ‘White’ general election on 6 September, the PFP’s successor, the Democratic Party (DP), won all the city, southern and Atlantic suburban seats. On election night itself, many of the Cape Flats townships were turned into battlefields. 23 people were killed. A March to Freedom A mammoth march took place on Wednesday 13 September 1989 in the Mother City. After a short service of ‘peace and mourning’ at St George’s Cathedral, thirty thousand people packed the streets en 319 route to the Grand Parade. The city was witnessing its largest and most peaceful march since the one led by Philip Kgosana in 1960. Unlike most political demonstrations since 1960, not a single uniformed policeman was in visible attendance. Archbishop Tutu declared victoriously: ‘We are a new people, a rainbow people, marching to freedom’. Bishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak were the spokesmen of the Church when Mr F. W. de Klerk became the new State President. This march sparked more overt expressions of opposition to the government all over the country. It led to more peaceful marches in Johannesburg and Durban with Anglican bishops at the helm. The marches were organised to fight against the apartheid system, including the freeing of Nelson Mandela and other imprisoned activists. Confession Helps to Shake Apartheid Unwittingly I was preparing my return to Africa, to my dear Heimat to boot. On 4 October 1989 I posted a letter of confession to President De Klerk, the newly inducted president. I had been spiritually convicted because of my activism and arrogance. Over the years I had written quite a few letters to the presidential incumbent’s predecessors and to some of the Cabinet ministers. Unwittingly, I was preparing my return from exile. A Special Prayer Meeting for the Beloved Country At our regiogebed meeting the same evening I mentioned in passing to someone that I had posted a letter to President De Klerk that day. Spontaneously, a teacher from the nearby town who was no regular at our prayer meetings, overheard this. He promptly suggested that we should pray for South Africa. Nobody objected. That was a very special prompt. 320 The whole prayer meeting was devoted to intercession for my beloved country. That was the only occasion when we prayed so intensely for a single country. Nobody present at the prayer meeting was possibly aware that President De Klerk would meet Archbishop Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak the following week. That strategic meeting of the three leaders became in a sense a watershed in the politics of the country, the prelude to the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid. Also, in other countries, but especially in South Africa, people had been praying for a change in the suicidal direction of the political system. A watershed in the politics of the country. Matthew 24:14 and the '10/40 Window' The prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 24:14 had come to light in the Lausanne movement with new force in 1989: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” In January 1989 participants at the Global Consultation of World Evangelisation (GCOWE) in Singapore learned that there were over 2 000 separate plans relating to world evangelization at the time. The AD2000 & Beyond Movement disseminated the vision for reaching the '10/40 Window,' – the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude where ninety-five percent of the world's least-evangelized poor are found – a region first identified by the movement's international director, Luis Bush. The AD2000 prayer initiative Praying Through the Window mobilized many intercessors to pray for the 10/40 Window over several years. The vision was disseminated for reaching the '10/40 Window'! Several of these prayer initiatives included fasting. In recent decades fasting and praise have been profitably rediscovered. In May 1990, David Mniki, a pastor from the Transkei, called the first 321 national 40-day fast. It was here, as people waited on God, knowing that the situation was hopeless, that God clearly spoke from the book of Isaiah. The fast was localised, and not many people participated, but it was spiritually significant. During the fast God gave the intercessors a scripture from Isaiah: Can a nation be born in one day? (Isaiah 66:8). This was the word that spurred the Church to believe that a new nation could be birthed and that God wanted His Church to pray and believe in Him for the kairos moment in the land. As prayer initiatives sprang up around the country, Christians started to expect God to make the impossible become reality! A Big Conference in Rustenburg Church opposition to apartheid ultimately led to a big conference in Rustenburg in the Northwest Province in November 1990. Rev. Michael Cassidy was an important role player in the convening of that conference. Professor Willie Jonker started the ball of confession rolling at Rustenburg in November 1990, confessing in his personal capacity and on behalf of his denomination. The Rustenburg Conference of 1990 represented the Body of Christ in South Africa unprecedentedly. The confession publicized at the end of the conference ushered in the ideological demise of apartheid and the subsequent democratic era in our country. The government of the day and the Afrikaans press slammed the Rustenburg confession in general, but in the spiritual realm a deep impact was definitely made. This event became a major catalyst of change in the country at large. New Mega Churches Established Groomed by his father-in-law, Neville McDonald came with his wife Wendy to Cape Town in 1984 as a young pastor to start a church. They hired a cinema, the Three Arts Theatre, put an advertisement in the newspaper and began to preach and pray for the sick. Along with the Cape-born Derek Golding, who soon joined McDonald, a fellowship was started at the former Three Arts complex. After a few years this building became too small. A large new facility around a warehouse in Ottery became known as the Good Hope Christian Centre, with daughter 322 fellowships of their own in due course. In 1988 His People Ministries started at UCT with Sunday afternoon services in the Robert Leslie Building and later in the Baxter Theatre. In due course this institution became a blessing to many a country as missionaries left the Cape shores to plant fellowships abroad. Glen Robertson, a young musician, became converted at the Lighthouse. At His People he developed an extensive music ministry and he subsequently played a pivotal role in the Newlands mass events from 2001. His People Ministries grew into a multi-congregation church in the city with its main meeting venue a complex seating 4 000+ at N1 City, Goodwood, which was opened in 2000. A group of charismatic believers branched off amicably from the Wynberg Baptist Church, to form the Vineyard Church. Led by Pastor Graham Ingram, the fellowship grew gradually, and purchased a property called Forlorn where they had their office premises, with Sunday services in school halls. With the proceeds from the sale of Forlorn, they bought the old Dutch Reformed Church in Taronga Road, Crawford, which became their headquarters. Simon and Lindsay Pettit were part of a short term mission outreach group from the UK in 1987. After Ps. Ingram had decided to return to the UK, Simon Pettit was asked to join the leadership team of the fellowship. Terry Virgo from Britain subsequently led the church planting team that became known as New Frontiers. In due course this version of the Vineyard Church had services on Sunday morning in various venues, including the Waverley blanket factory. Satellite congregations started at other venues, such as in the Cape Town High School and within Khayelitsha. They changed their name to Jubilee Church in 1993 to distinguish them from the fellowship which had links to the internationally known John Wimber, and which also used the name Vineyard Church. There were also Cape congregations linked to so-called mainline denominations which grew significantly. The two Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) churches of Goodwood and Bellville belong in this category. 323 A Cape IDF Soldier Comes to Faith in Christ Already as a teenager Myron Phillips, a young Jewish man from the Cape, had become involved in the Zionist youth movement. He was driven by opposition to the 'final solution' of Hitler, the attempt to exterminate all Jews. Myron committed himself to 'fight' for Israel. After managing to get through at Abbots College in 1974, he went to Israel where he immediately tried to volunteer for the army. Finally, Myron succeeded in getting into a unit in the air-borne unit with volunteers who had come from all over the world and subsequently served in Lebanon. At the end of 1980 Myron returned to South Africa, hoping to enrol for Jewish studies at UCT, but also still hoping to return to Israel permanently one day. He subsequently enrolled with UNISA, studying by correspondence. George, a French learner classmate of Abbots College, was a close friend of Myron. In due course the faith of his friend impacted Myron. He soon started reading the Bible himself and started growing in understanding of the Christian faith. Myron ultimately had to face reality when he became convinced that Jesus could actually be the promised Messiah. He perceived that he would have to turn his back on Judaism, which was rather scary. He loved his family so much he didn't want to hurt them with such a move. At the end of 1983 George told Myron excitedly that Derek Prince, a prominent preacher from Israel would be coming to Cape Town, who had a special ministry with miracles. At this time the fact of the real existence of the devil and evil spirits remained a big riddle to Myron. At the public meeting with Derek Prince that he subsequently attended, Myron was enormously impressed. What Derek Prince shared there made so much sense that he wanted to hear more. That the speaker from Israel would be speaking in a church service the Sunday morning could not deter him anymore. During the long service at the Light House Christian Centre in Parow that went on till about 3 pm, he saw people miraculously healed in the name of Jesus and an evil spirit leaving a boy. Instead of committing his life to Jesus in response, Myron decided to oppose it. He now attempted quite determinedly to disprove that Jesus was the Messiah. More and more, however, he became convinced 324 in his heart that Jesus was Yeshua Ha Mashiach, but he was only ready to commit his life fully to Jesus 'if He would reveal himself to me personally'. The fact of Jesus as the real Messiah remained constantly on his mind, but as he had been raised with the understanding that faith in Jesus was the most un-Jewish thing, he thought that one could not believe in Jesus as Messiah and still be a Jew. He still thought that he would have to turn his back on his Jewish heritage if he were to commit to Jesus. Yearning also for a real experience with Jesus, Myron wrote a letter to Derek Prince mentioning his dilemma. Great was his surprise that Derek not only replied promptly, but he also continued corresponding with him. Later in the year Derek wrote that he would be coming to South Africa again. Myron decided to attend every meeting. This was still 1984. With crystal clarity he remembers the sermon on Romans 12 at the Corpus Christi Church in Pretoria the Friday evening. He got into a meeting the next morning in Northcliff, Johannesburg, meant for church leaders and parliamentarians. He had been invited mistakenly. When he arrived there quite late, he landed up in the front row; after all other seats had been taken. In the middle of Derek Prince’s talk, he suddenly stopped, saying that he felt that he had to ask someone to kneel. By some strange force, Myron found himself being pushed to his knees. He immediately knew that this was the Holy Spirit! This was personal divine stuff... After another few seconds Myron jumped up, shouting "Yeshuah HaMashiach! I have found you!” Everybody in the audience applauded, overjoyed of course that a son of Israel had expressed personal faith in such an exuberant way! This became the beginning of a special walk as a follower of Yeshua Hamashiach. Many years later God was to use Myron Phillips powerfully to link Jews with Christians at the Cape. Prayer and Protests While candlelit prayer vigils and protests were spreading from Leipzig, through Dresden, to all of East Germany, the East German government was bankrupt and tottering. Gorbachev's Soviet Union was also bankrupt and could no longer bail them out. Erich Honecker, the dictator of East 325 Germany, turned to the West Germans, who in the past had always been willing to provide enough to keep East Germany going. This time, however, the West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was not willing to bail them out. He demanded reforms. The Fall of the Wall While governments negotiated, the people in both East and West Berlin rose up to breach the wall and began to dismantle it physically. The leaders were overwhelmed by events. Days after the Berlin Wall collapsed, mass demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, long-time leader of the Resistance movement and prisoner of the communists, rose to power and dismantled communism in Czechoslovakia. Street fighting erupted in Romania to overthrow the brutal communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Soon resistance spread to Bulgaria where the communists were overthrown in December 1989. In Hungary the communist government was overthrown in October 1990. In Albania the first free elections were held in March 1991. Yugoslavia split into different republics as each broke away from the communist control in Belgrade. Soon the Baltic Republics – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – were demanding their independence from the Soviet Union. The End of the Soviet Union In August 1991 a coup in the Soviet Union was frustrated in its attempt to return the country to hard-line communism. Boldly waving the white, blue and red Russian flag, Boris Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union and pulled down the Soviet Flag. The Cold War had formally ended. But even as the Cold War with Soviet Union communism ended, a new war was starting with radical Islamic terrorists declaring war on the West. In South Africa the end of the Cold War removed Western support for the ruling National Party. The threat of a Communist takeover had ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. 326 327 CHAPTER THIRT Y-FIVE WINDS OF CHANGE HIT THE COUNTRY ___________________________ On 2 February 1990 President FW de Klerk rose at the opening of the 1990 session of Parliament to deliver a watershed state of the nation address. Political parties were being unbanned, political prisoners would be released, notably the iconic Nelson Mandela. Executions were suspended and emergency regulations on media and education were being lifted. Finally, South Africa was crossing the Rubicon, which De Klerk's predecessor had failed to do. 328 Viva Mandela! Bart Berkheij, a dear Dutch friend, requested me for a second time to accompany him to West Africa at the end of January 1990. Two years prior to that he had lost his wife in Mali in a car accident. At the previous request to accompany him, I had declined, because I was awaiting the result of applications for a teaching post. This time I had great liberty to accept the invitation to join him to go to Mali, on condition that he would join me going to Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). In the latter country I hoped to explore the situation at the WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) International mission school where I hoped to go and teach. To that end I had started learning French, using audio tape cassettes. In the village Djonkoulane in the desert of northern Mali, we heard about President de Klerk’s special speech via BBC World News at the opening of Parliament in Cape Town and the imminent release of Nelson Mandela from prison. In northern Mali we heard about the imminent release of Nelson Mandela. I was travelling in a bush taxi and lost a shoe while helping to push the taxi that had run out of fuel up a hill en route to Ivory Coast. After I retrieved the shoe, the vehicle started to pick up speed, going downhill. I was thankfully still fit enough to catch up with it. As the other passengers lifted me into the accelerating vehicle, they shouted excitedly ‘Viva Mandela!’ They had heard from my friend Bart that I came from Afrique du Sud. Nelson Mandela had been released 329 earlier that day! I was quite sad that I could not even witness the event via a TV set. We were travelling through rural Africa without any TV access! Come Over and Help Us! On my return from West Africa there were quite a few letters awaiting me, two of which were challenges cum invitations to new areas of ministry. Out of the blue there was also a hand-written letter from Pietie Orange, a friend from our days in Tiervlei / Ravensmead in the 1960s. Very clearly there was the clarion call: COME OVER AND HELP US! The release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the ANC created a new expectation in South Africa. This included the return of exiles like me. There was not much in Pietie’s letter in terms of contents, but very clearly there was the clarion call: COME OVER AND HELP US. Under normal circumstances I would have jumped at this opportunity to return to my home country, but with many different missionary opportunities that had suddenly opened up, I was quite confused. The experiences in West Africa especially were still fresh in my mind. For years the doors to mission services seemed to remain closed and now there appeared to be many doors wide open. Which was the right one? I was surprised to sense Rosemarie’s excitement about the possibility of going to South Africa. She knew of my fervent desire to return to my home country. In the early years of our marriage, it had caused a lot of strain when she sensed that I perceived it as a sacrifice to be in Europe. We decided to move further along the road towards the teaching post at the WEC school for missionary kids in Ivory Coast, unless the Lord closed the ‘door’. Lovingly Jean Barnicoat, the directress of the WEC mission school, pointed out in a letter that the age and number of our children militated against such a venture. I was shattered to some extent when this reply came. This was definitely no Jonah stint. I had been looking forward so much to serve in Vavoua and had started to learn French to that end. Journey Into the Unknown In his faithfulness the Lord intervened once again around the same time. 330 We received an unexpected phone call from Dick and Ann van Stelten, a missionary couple in the little town of Josini in South Africa, close to the Mozambican border. They invited us to come and take over their work. Through a process of elimination, we were guided to WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ). Jacob and Emmy Spronk, the Dutch WEC leaders, were very supportive of us should we go and explore this work in Northern Natal, to see if the Lord confirmed it. Perhaps it could become a new venture of the mission agency. My mother was due to turn 80 at the end of that year and the Golden Wedding anniversary of my parents was shortly thereafter. Obviously guided by a strong hand, things fell in place, and it was clear that we should start preparing for an orientation trip to South Africa at the end of the year with two of our children. The Lord at Work in Different Ways The procedure to become WEC missionaries was already underway when we suddenly became very uncertain. We asked ourselves what would happen if WEC turned us down or if we were to decide not to join the mission agency after all! Then we would be left without any accommodation. Would such a step be responsible towards our five kids? We decided to put out a ‘fleece’ to test the waters. If the Lord were to give us people who were willing to come and stay in our home and pay the rent for the six months of our missionary orientation, we would know for sure that God was confirming our call into the missionary venture. We subsequently found a couple who had no children. Both of them were lucratively employed and they were youth workers in a local church. That sounded wonderful to us, looking like God’s perfect provision. This was finalised before our orientation trip. A Sense of Home Coming In a wonderful way transport was supplied for us in Pretoria to get to Josini. A ‘bakkie’ (a transport vehicle with only one seat for two or three passengers) was put at our disposal to take to Durban, via Josini and Kwasiza Bantu. Two of our children who had come with us – Danny, our eldest son and Tabitha, our youngest – had enough space under a canopy at the back. When we arrived in Josini it was clearly confirmed that the 331 Lord did not call us to serve in a school with a hostel for Zulu children in the village of Ubombo. The road to Ubombo was completely unpassable from the heavy rains. We carried onto Durban. When we joined the national conference of WEC International in Durban, we experienced a sense of home-coming. Durban was the ideal preparation for our candidates’ orientation at Bulstrode in England, the international headquarters of WEC International, which subsequently followed soon after our return from South Africa. It was agreed that we could return to Cape Town at the beginning of 1992 with a role in representative work and possibly for evangelistic work among students. Our Stint with WEC Almost Still Born We arrived in Durban just prior to 16 December, a public holiday that evoked deep divisive emotions among the various communities of South Africa. It was called the Day of the Covenant at that time. I drafted a letter which I intended to send to President de Klerk, Dr Gatsha Buthelezi and Mr Nelson Mandela, the big three political leaders of the day. In the draft letter I suggested that they should meet as a sign of reconciliation and that the 16 December public holiday be renamed Day of Reconciliation. When I showed the draft of this letter to a leader of the mission agency, he lashed out at me viciously. Pointing to a right-wing activist whom they had to expel because of his political inclinations, he wanted me to understand that WEC was apolitical. They could not accept a left-wing activist as I had obviously been branded. The views of the brother led to some deep soul searching. I had indeed displayed a very activist position against apartheid. Yet, I also deemed my sentiments to be Bible-based. I asked myself: Was this the mission we could join? Soon hereafter, we were scheduled to go to Bulstrode for our candidates’ orientation course. A cloud was now hanging over our joining the mission. Divine Preparation The Lord used the prospect of missionary candidate orientation in Bulstrode, the international WEC Headquarters near London, to bring our friend Geertje Rehorst back into the missionary frame. When we 332 had served in Zeist among Moroccan and Turkish children, the Lord had started to prepare us for future ministry among Cape Muslims. And then there was of course the visit to Mali and the Ivory Coast. That had struck a special chord in my heart to reach out to those who were suffering under Islamic bondage. Come January 1991, we were already in Bulstrode for the candidates’ orientation course. The Lord used this time profoundly to mould us for our future ministry in Cape Town. There we were clearly confronted with the concept of spiritual warfare more intensely than ever before. Never before had we heard abot terms like ‘prayer walks’, ‘strategic and targeted prayer’ – although we had practised it before. We had already done this in Zeist, together with other believers, without giving it a specific name. Instruments Towards Changing the World? Our children were now the guinea pigs in the Bulstrode children’s club where they prayed for one country after the other, starting alphabetically with Albania. After the Berlin Wall had come down in November 1989, one Eastern Block Communist country after the other changed with a domino effect. Only Albania had shown no change in this regard. The schooling of our children at Bulstrode was a highlight of their educational career. Tante Geertje Rehorst would often take them into the spacious grounds of the castle-like area and a special relationship developed with Joyce Scott and her husband Chris. How we all rejoiced when just before leaving Bulstrode, we heard that the stronghold of Albania was also crumbling. The children were leading the way, exclaiming “Wow, we are changing the world!” Field Study As part of our missionary training at Bulstrode, Rosemarie and I had to write an assignment called a ‘field study’ about the country where we intended to go to. We decided that Rosemarie would study the politics, economy and related issues, while I would be examining the history of and issues pertaining to the South African Indians. This led me into studying Hinduism and Islam, their two major religions in more detail. My experience in West Africa influenced me in yet another way. I started 333 considering ‘Black’ South Africans as potential missionaries to the Muslim countries of the continent. I, furthermore, discerned how I was impacted and blessed while I was an exile, hoping that we could one day also inspire foreigners in South Africa in a similar way – to be a blessing for their home countries. In the months following, I started jotting down my thoughts about these matters, which ultimately led me into writing a manuscript that I called A Goldmine of Missionary Recruitment (I changed the title later to A Goldmine of Another Sort. The treatise is accessible at www. isaacandishmael.blogspot.com). It was special to hear in Bulstrode that WEC South Africa had already pioneered with two 'Black' missionaries in Japan, one each from South Africa and Zimbabwe. During our 'field study' on South African Indians, I discovered that Bo-Kaap, the residential area below Signal Hill, had become an Islamic stronghold because of apartheid. A seed was sown into the soil of my heart. During my 18 year absence from the Cape, Bo-Kaap had changed tremendously. It had become an Islamic stronghold, after having been previously known only for a strong Muslim presence! Bo-Kaap had become an Islamic stronghold. Restorer of Walls? Upon our acceptance as missionaries of WEC International, Jacob Spronk, the Dutch leader, gave us the verse Isaiah 58:12. Rosemarie and I were challenged to go and rebuild ancient ruins and to help raising up age-old foundations. What was left of the old District Six of my 334 childhood was the equivalent of ancient ruins, a big empty piece of real estate. Not in our wildest dreams did we, however, consider getting involved there again in any way. Instead, we were challenged quite miraculously a few weeks after our arrival at the Cape to serve in BoKaap. We had been blessed to rent a town house from February 1992 in the adjacent suburb Tamboerskloof, where the German School is situated. Spiritually, there was a definite need to rebuild walls there because apartheid had caused Bo-Kaap to become an Islamic stronghold like no other in the country. In the new Bo-Kaap there was not a single church left in the wake of Group Areas legislation. We set ourselves the goal to build 'walls' there of vibrant biblical Christianity that would be much stronger than the nominal version of pre-apartheid days. Three decades later, after we had stopped active ministry there, but thankful to our successors, there is little visible progress. But we hold on to a prophetic vision, that a revival that would impact the whole world could start there, a spiritual tsunami... Sports Influenced the 1992 Referendum. When President F.W. de Klerk announced a 'Whites'-only election on 20 February 1992, it was still unclear in which direction the country would go. The possibility of an unprecedented civil war could definitely not be ruled out. The 'Whites' were asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: ‘Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on February 2, 1990 and which is aimed at a new constitution?’ The success of the national cricket team at the World Cup tournament in Australia at that time possibly influenced the vote decisively. A ‘no’ vote would most certainly have sent the country back into the sporting wilderness. The latter possibility was for many in the sports loving country just as ghastly to contemplate! This phrase was a dictum coined by Mr B. J. Vorster, a previous Prime Minister, for the civil war option. With a resounding ‘yes’ – 68% from all corners of the country, Mr de Klerk was given a mandate on 17 March 1992, to negotiate a new constitution with the African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela. A new era could begin! 335 EPILOGUE ___________________________ At the end of the 20th century, major prayer initiatives brought about world-wide historical changes that influenced matters in South Africa. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the resulting demise of Communism can be best explained as the result of seven years of prayer by Christians around the world. Subsequently, many prayer operations targeting the 10/40 window, the geographical area between the 10th and 40th degrees in the northern hemisphere, plus ten years of prayer called by the agency Open Doors, ushered in big changes in the Muslim world. The 2001 twin tower tragedy in New York in the United States highlighted the violent nature of the Islamic faith. Subsequent violence, perpetrated by Islamists, including that of Al Shabbab in northern Mozambique and that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, may have contributed to the ultimate demise of the ideological base of Islam, just as the 'demolition' of the Berlin Wall affected atheist Communism in its core. Islamic media have been reporting, quite alarmingly, how millions of Muslims have turned their backs on the religion, notably in Indonesia and the Middle East. In South Africa the deep-seated racism and paternalism has been rearing its head again. How we need the redemption from both the condescending attitudes of western orientated parts of our population and the resentful if not hate-filled and undignified inferiority complex of other groups towards 'Whites'! The need of ubuntu – defined as a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity – has been expressed widely, but the practise is wanting. For quite a few decades, followers of Jesus in our beloved Cape Town – the Mother City of South Africa – have been longing fervently for a clearer expression of the unity of the Body of Christ. Having said this, I am very much aware that it is God's prerogative to bring such an expression of unity about. He must build the house! The 336 Biblical unity to which Psalm 133, Ephesians 4 and John 17 refers, is not an organizational unity; it is an organic unity. Here in Cape Town, I have been blessed to experience quite a lot of this organic unity in recent years, albeit not in the City Bowl. I have been privileged to meet many amazing people through the years, who each, in their own way, have been contributing to the 'germination' of the revival seed! Aware that unity in prayer has been the soil on which revivals have been growing elsewhere, I continue expecting to witness further germination towards the big revival! In closing this book I take liberty to remind all of us as followers of Jesus that obedience to the Great Commission as seen in Matthew 28:19,20 – to go and make disciples – is part of the last will and testament of our Lord. I believe that remorse for our omission in this regard on the one hand and committed involvement in evangelism and missionary activity on the other hand, could be an acid test in combination, to discern what is genuine revival, as opposed to mere spiritual renewal. Confession has often been used by God to open up the hearts of people to the Gospel. The Mother City of South Africa could be the ‘advance guard’ of a special move of God in this regard. The Church must rediscover by and large that the Gospel is dunamis, the dynamite power of God unto salvation ….to the Jews first (Romans 1:16). Positive encouragement of Jews to recognise Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah, could be a spark to ignite the dynamite wick of the big revival. It is my conviction that corporate confession, restitution and rectification where applicable – rather than attempts to defend debatable Biblical positions in a legalistic way – could go a long way in preparing the soil for the germination of the revival seeds already sown. We know, however, that God is sovereign. Believers of all Christian persuasions are challenged to pray that peace may return to the Cape townships in a multiple sense, namely that people there will feel safe again and that many may obtain peace at heart via a relationship to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. In spite of our efforts, God will build the house as He deems fit (Psalm 337 127:1,2) and in his own time. I have been looking forward to something that the world has not seen before, something which would usher in the return in glory of our Lord! The opposite seemed to happen in 2020 via the Covid-19 pandemic. Is there any sector of society world-wide that was not affected by the Corona pandemic? Vaccination – or not – became one of the demonic tools to divide the body of Christ for many months. I would not be surprised to still witness our sovereign God turning things around. Be it as it may: Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! In the follow-up volume we take the story from 1992 into the present. APPENDIX 1 ___________________________ Text of a public statement by Chief Luthuli in November 1952 when the Government dismissed him from his position as Chief for refusing to resign from the African National Congress. I have been dismissed from the Chieftainship of the Abase-Makolweni Tribe in the Groutville Mission Reserve. I presume that this has been done by the Governor-General in his capacity as Supreme Chief of the 'Native' people of the Union of South Africa save those of the Cape Province. I was democratically elected to this position in 1935 by the people of Groutville Mission Reserve and was duly approved and appointed by the Governor-General. Thirty Years of Knocking in Vain Prior to being a chief, I was a school teacher for about seventeen years. In these past thirty years or so I have striven with tremendous zeal and patience to work for the progress and welfare of my people and for their 338 harmonious relations with other sections of our multi-racial society in the Union of South Africa. In this effort I always pursued what liberalminded people rightly regarded as the path of moderation. Over this great length of time I have, year after year, gladly spent hours of my time with such organizations of the Church and its various agencies such as the Christian Council of South Africa, the Joint Council of Europeans and Africans and the now defunct Native Representative Council. In so far as gaining citizenship rights and opportunities for the unfettered development of the African people, who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door? What have been the fruits of my many years of moderation? Has there been any reciprocal tolerance or moderation from the Government, be it Nationalist or United Party? No! On the contrary, the past thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws restricting our rights and progress until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all: no adequate land for our occupation, our only asset, cattle, dwindling, no security of homes, no decent and remunerative employment, more restriction to freedom of movement through passes, curfew regulations, influx control measures; in short we have witnessed in these years an intensification of our subjection to ensure and protect white supremacy. New Spirit of the People It is with this background and with a full sense of responsibility that, under the auspices of the African National Congress (Natal), I have joined my people in the new spirit that moves them today, the spirit that revolts openly and boldly against injustice and expresses itself in a determined and non-violent manner. Because of my association with the African National Congress in this new spirit which has found an effective and legitimate way of expression in the non-violent Passive Resistance Campaign, I was given a two-week limit ultimatum by the Secretary for Native Affairs calling upon me to choose between the African National Congress and the chieftainship of the Groutville Mission Reserve. He alleged that my association with Congress in its non-violent Passive Resistance Campaign was an act of disloyalty to the State. I did not, and 339 do not, agree with this view. Viewing non-violent Passive Resistance as a non-revolutionary and, therefore, a most legitimate and humane political pressure technique for a people denied all effective forms of constitutional striving, I saw no real conflict in my dual leadership of my people: leader of this tribe as chief and political leader in the Congress. I saw no cause to resign from either. This stand of mine which resulted in my being sacked from the chieftainship might seem foolish and disappointing to some liberal and moderate Europeans and non-Europeans with whom I have worked these many years and with whom I still hope to work. This is no parting of the ways but 'a launching farther into the deep.' I invite them to join us in our unequivocal pronouncement of all legitimate African aspirations and in our firm stand against injustice and oppression. Servant of the People I do not wish to challenge my dismissal, but I would like to suggest that in the interest of the institution of chieftainship in these modern times of democracy, the Government should define more precisely and make more widely known the status, functions and privileges of chiefs. My view has been, and still is, that a chief is primarily a servant of his people. He is the voice of his people. He is the voice of his people in local affairs. Unlike a Native Commissioner, he is part and parcel of the Tribe, and not a local agent of the Government. Within the bounds of loyalty, it is conceivable that he may vote and press the claims of his people even if they should be unpalatable to the Government of the day. He may use all legitimate modern techniques to get these demands satisfied. It is inconceivable how chiefs could effectively serve the wider and common interest of their own tribe without co-operating with other leaders of the people, both the natural leaders (chiefs) and leaders elected democratically by the people themselves. It was to allow for these wider associations intended to promote the common national interests of the people as against purely local interests that the Government in making rules governing chiefs did not debar them from joining political associations so long as those associations had not been declared 'by the Minister to be subversive of or prejudicial 340 to constituted Government'. The African National Congress, its nonviolent Passive Resistance Campaign, may be of nuisance value to the Government but it is not subversive since it does not seek to overthrow the form and machinery of the State but only urges for the inclusion of all sections of the community in a partnership in the Government of the country on the basis of equality. Spirit of Defiance Laws and conditions that tend to debase human personality – a Godgiven force – be they brought about by the State or other individuals, must be relentlessly opposed in the spirit of defiance shown by St. Peter when he said to the rulers of his day: 'Shall we obey God or man?' No one can deny that in so far as non-Whites are concerned in the Union of South Africa, laws and conditions that debase human personality abound. Any chief worthy of his position must fight fearlessly against such debasing conditions and laws. If the Government should resort to dismissing such chiefs, it may find itself dismissing many chiefs or causing people to dismiss from their hearts chiefs who are indifferent to the needs of the people through fear of dismissal by the Government. Surely the Government cannot place chiefs in such an uncomfortable and invidious position. Remaining in the Struggle for a True Democracy As for myself, with a full sense of responsibility and a clear conviction, I decided to remain in the struggle for extending democratic rights and responsibilities to all sections of the South African community. I have embraced the non-violent Passive Resistance technique in fighting for freedom because I am convinced it is the only non-revolutionary, legitimate and humane way that could be used by people denied, as we are, effective constitutional means to further aspirations. The wisdom or foolishness of this decision I place in the hands of the Almighty. What the future has in store for me I do not know. It might be ridicule, imprisonment, concentration camp, flogging, banishment and even death. I only pray to the Almighty to strengthen my resolve so that none of these grim possibilities may deter me from striving, for the sake 341 of the good name of our beloved country, the Union of South Africa, to make it a true democracy and a true union in form and spirit of all the communities in the land. My only painful concern at times is that of the welfare of my family but I try even in this regard, in a spirit of trust and surrender to God's will as I see it, to say: 'God will provide.' It is inevitable that in working for Freedom some individuals and some families must take the lead and suffer: The Road to Freedom is via the CROSS. MAYIBUYE! AFRIKA! AFRIKA! AFRIKA! (The words of Albert Luthuli, who was truly a spiritual giant of the 1950s, that the road to freedom goes via the Cross was to resonate in own my life in a special way. The cross of our Lord signifies sacrificial death, alluding to dying to self, putting something precious on the altar.) Albert Luthuli was not around anymore to experience the freedom which Nelson Mandela would lead the country into in 1994, but he paved the way. Albert Luthuli was not around anymore to experience the freedom which Nelson Mandela would lead the country into in 1994, but he paved the way. 342 APPENDIX 2 ___________________________ Reverend Michael Cassidy sent the following open letter to Mr Julius Malema, published on 5 April 2023 in The Witness, the premier news source Pietermaritzburg and Kwazulu Natal, and the oldest continuouslypublished daily newspaper in the country. Good Day, Mr Malema! You have been a busy man these days. But in the midst of your busyness, I want you to read this and get an extra bit of perspective out of our recent South African history, and a different way of looking at things. You called for a national shutdown, although for most of South Africa it was an almost normal working day, while some took it as part of a long weekend. You nevertheless declared that it was "the greatest national shutdown in South African history”. This is where my bit of history comes in, because, with respect, I think you have got it wrong. In October 1985, a four-day non-racial conference of some 450 senior Christian leaders was held in Pietermaritzburg. It included Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Bishop Khosa Mgojo, president of the SACC; Bishop Mmutlanyane Mogoba, later head of PAC; Professor Johann Heyns, NGK moderator; Alan Paton, prominent Christian lay person and founder of the SA Liberal Party; Frederick van Zyl Slabbert, opposition leader in Parliament; Cardinal Wilfred Napier, head of the SA Roman Catholic Church; myself as team leader of African Enterprise and other involved Christian leaders. It was called the National Initiative for Reconciliation (NIR). The conference, among other things, resolved to send a delegation to then president PW Botha with the fourfold demand for "the release of Nelson Mandela, the unbanning of the liberation movements, the removal of the army from the townships and the establishment of a non-racial democracy". The conference also called for a "national prayaway", where we'd ask all South Africans to stay home on a working day to pray 343 for our country and ask God to bring an end to apartheid and for the government to heed our fourfold demand. The date was set for October 9, 1985. All this created quite a stir. But, Julius, you would not remember this as you were only a toddling little fellow of four. I think you were born in 1981, right? March 3, right? So, you've recently had a birthday. Right? Congratulations. Many happy returns. In a very heavy private confrontation that I had the day before the prayaway, and supposedly preparing for the NIR delegation, an infuriated president P.W. Botha told me that the day would be "a complete failurrre, Mister Cassidy, a complete failurrre”. However, it was not. Most South Africans stayed home to pray the next day. There were no marches, no protests, no violence, no arrests, no burning tyres, no threats, and no intimidation, although the police were on high alert. South Africa came to a standstill. Business, industry and academia shut down. Even the mines were affected. The City Press newspaper had a lead story with a bold headline the next day: "HEAR US, O LORD", accompanied by a picture of "the busiest road in South Africa", the rushhour road from Soweto to the city centre, and on it was one lone cyclist! No cars, buses, taxis or motor bikes. Nothing. Just one lone cyclist. That day, Mr Malema, was the "greatest national shutdown in the history of South Africa". And thousands of whites were involved in it as well as blacks. This is worth remembering, lest it be thought that only blacks were caught up in the struggle. Beyond that, you would find it instructive to watch a documentary called: The Threatened Miracle of South Africa’s Democracy, available on YouTube, where much of the struggle is set forth before your generation was involved. It is also instructive to register the strong Christian component that was inherent in the NIR. I don't think you are wise to disparage this 344 dimension in SA as you did the other day when you said: "We are not religious. Christians keep talking about Jesus coming again. But we are Jesus coming again!" Whoa, my young friend, whoa! You are stepping onto very thin ice, and you could come a real cropper. Moreover, if you do want to be Jesus coming again, you need to speak more like him, forgive more like him, and act more like him. And indeed, if you did embrace him as your saviour, lord and friend, and followed his ways, you could indeed use your considerable influence to help steer our country towards healing, economic reform, rescue of the poor and marginalised, and an honourable and respected place once more in the family of nations, as in Mandela's time. It is worth dreaming about. And I think I can say this, my young friend Julius, as I am an old mkhulu of 86 years, and for 65 of those I have been working for the spiritual, political and social freedom of South Africa. I might call it by another name: transformational revival. And ultimately this can only come from God. You know, I'd like to meet you. Really. You name the time and place. And I'll be there. Sincerely and respectfully, Michael Cassidy Founder of African Enterprise (You can Google us.) 345 GLOSSARY ___________________________ Afrikaners: 'Whites' of primarily Dutch descent, whose home language is Afrikaans. Apartheid: A formal system of racial segregation. Forcefully implemented by the National Party after it came to power in 1948, it entrenched 'White' domination in virtually all sectors of South African life. Broederbond: The Afrikaner Broederbond was a secret society with the professed aim of promoting the interests of Afrikaners, widely regarded as the think tank of the National Party in the apartheid era. Bo-Kaap: The geographical area of the Cape Town City Bowl which borders the lower slopes of Signal Hill. It is sometimes also erroneous referred to by parts of the area, viz the Malay Quarter or Schotse Kloof. Ds.: The abbreviation of dominee, the pastor of an Afrikaans- speaking Reformed congregation. It is derived from dominus, which means master or sir, a title of respect formerly applied to a knight or clergyman, and sometimes to the lord of a manor. Heimat: German word for homeland, rather than fatherland, with a strong emphasis on home. Translation as fatherland misses the aspect of 'home sweet home'. Kramats: The graves of Islamic saints of the faith that evolved into shrines. Khoe: (formerly known as hottentotten or khoi) and San (formerly called Bushmen: the indigenous first nation people of Southern Africa. medeleraar: In a Dutch Reformed congregation the medeleraar has a subsidiary role in the church. Sendingkerk: This was the name by which the 'Coloured' sector of the Dutch Reformed denomination became known. 346 ENDNOTES ___________________________ 1 A tradition developed where the pastors in the ‘White’ sector of the Dutch Reformed Church was being called a dominee, derived from the Latin dominus meaning Lord. Those serving in the mission churches were called Eerwaarde (Reverend), even if they had the same training. The missionaries among ‘Blacks’ were being referred to condescendingly as a ‘kafferdominee’. 2 Ds. D.P. Botha later became the moderator of the Sendingkerk, the ‘Coloured’ sector of the denomination. 3 I asked Rev. McBride to send me the names and the respective races of his colleagues, but unfortunately did not receive this in time. He died on 25 June 2022. 4 A recording of the event is accessible at https://youtu.be/-7nxQ5_QlvE 5 The agency was later renamed Healthcare Christian Fellowship. 6 In later years Rosenthal would play an important role as a go-between for secret communication between the government and the ANC. 7 In 2001 the MRA movement changed its name to Initiatives of Change. 8 SEEDS OF PEACE, Stories of Silent Heroes and Heroines in South Africa. Roberts, Rommel. 2022. 9 The title is Human Relations and the South African Scene in the Light of Scripture in translation. 10 Initially I had initially hoped rather naively to get this published in Afrikaans daily newspapers as a series. In a letter dated 22 July 1980 to Bishop Tutu as the SACC General Secretary, I also sent him a copy of the document ahead of a scheduled meeting on 9 August 1980 with Mr P.W. Botha, the Prime Minister. 347 11 These efforts are described in more detail in Jumping over Walls. 12 The other two, Sonder My Kan Julle Niks Doen Nie and As God Die Huis Nie Bou Nie did not get much further than the collating and commenting stage of the respective documents. Our daughter Tabitha assisted me with the editing of What God Joined Together, that we ultimately published in 2015. 13 Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. Proceedings and Decisions of General Assembly 1981, p.180ff. The Assembly also recognized ‘the bona fides of those Christians who in good conscience before God took up arms to fight either for 'liberation' or for 'law and order' in South Africa’ and paid tribute to conscientious objectors. 14 In the re-publication of Andrew Murray’s School des Gebeds, Dick Eastman, the founder of World Literature Crusade, conceded that he had received his inspiration from the prolific Cape writer. 15 Internationally, Dr Andrew Murray's pioneering 31-day or 365-day devotionals were the models. 16 Necklacing is the practice of summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tyre, filled with petrol, around a victim's chest and arms, then igniting it. 17 His brother Willem de Klerk, long time editor of the influential Afrikaans daily Die Transvaler and later of the Sunday newspaper Rapport, pointed out in a profile of him, (‘F.W. de Klerk Die Man en Sy Tyd’) that the new State President always saw himself as a middewegman. 18 Note: the original book cover contained an image of the old South African flag. This was removed from the image at the request of Healthcare Christian Fellowship, out of respect for our readers. 348