Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

MS B BAM: I had started to say that prior to 1968 before we were founded as   SACC, there were some important events, and I will simply refer to them without   going into detail, because they are very important and part of our history.   In 1949, at ecumenical conference at which Chief Albert Luthuli spoke and at   which a call was made to a franchise vote. This was a church conference. A very   important statement of 1957 by the United Church, which stood against the proposed   policy to curtail inter-racial worship. The good thing was that the clause was   never enacted. Then of course, the history of the [ ] conference of 1960 which   was not a conference called by the SACC. It was called by the World Council   of Churches and it is important that at that time the Dutch Reformed Church   had already pulled out of the Council of Churches as early as 1940. And of course   there is the history of the formation of the Christian Institute of which we   were part of the organisation that gave inspiration to that. We were not responsible   to it. 
There have been some wonderful words of wisdom and the prophetic role remained   very important to the SACC. One of the interesting facts in the development   is that in fact blacks became very involved and very articulate after 1972.   After the Government had decided that the SACC would be a black organisation.   I think this was something that was not necessarily bad because prior to that   the organisation had been led by white males which is the tradition of the church   in this country. And so that enforcement of the government to make to make it   a black organisation and recognise, by accident, the black leadership. This   made it important because it was the blacks who themselves were part of the   community which was suffering and the community that was in pain. There are   very important in our history prophetic ecumenical statements that were made   and I would like to just quote one of them. There are many, but I could not   quote all of them. This one was made by Desmond when he was general secretary   between the years of 1978 and 1984. I quote what he said to the Minister of   Law and Order of that time "We must remind you that you are not God. You   are just a man, and one day your name shall merely be a faint scribble on the   pages of history. While the name of Jesus Christ the Lord of the church shall   live forever." 
I want to say that it is statements of that nature, of people of courage, who   made this movement to be as involved as it remained, because of the burner or   hope, where people never lost hope that one day there would be a change in our   country. The SACC were able, they were never stopped from teaching, they were   never stopped from writing resolutions. They were never stopped from meeting   and having their annual conferences. And so their prophecy had a space, in spite   of the repression that took place. In 1968 there was indeed a small beginning   when a statement was sent out to the world and there were very positive responses.   The rest of the world responded very positively. They were encouraged, less   perhaps than that response at home. There were all kinds of confusing reactions   from some of the South African churches at the time. But a very important project   was launched in 1972 to start a project on Christianity in an apartheid society.   I am delighted to see in the audience one of the persons who was part of that   experience, Reverend[ ] I see you sitting over there. And a resolution on the   Conscientious Objectors, this was a statement that came from the 1974 annual   conference that was held by the SACC, and there was the wonderful idea of what   they called non co-operation in the 1975. Now these, sir, might seem to be statements   that were not as progressive or radical, but considering the context of that   day and the repression and surveillance of the church, these were very, very   important statements.
Then the declaration of Apartheid as a hierarchy, which was not a statement   of the SACC. It was a statement of the World Alliance Reformed Churches in 1982.   But this was very much the thinking as well as a concept that was shared by   the SACC. Then there was a call to prayer at the end for the unjust rule in   1985. There was a very important statement in 1997 that came after the Lusaka   Conference when many of our leaders were called to discuss with leaders from   all over the world through the World Council of Churches. Then there was the   controversial debate which almost really divided the churches, not only here,   but also the churches abroad though they remained controversial until the very   end of Apartheid. The statement by the ICT, in 1989, which also encouraged many   people in the SACC to continue to work the road to Damascus. I do not remember   at any time a document that was so important, not only for the churches in South   Africa, but for many churches abroad, who took that document and felt that it   did not only speak for our situation, but it also addressed many issues of the   world, and many warnings that came through the church.
The SACC, as you know, was involved in many activities, and I will simply go   through the list of these activities without discussing them in detail, as it   will take a long time. I think one of the most important areas of work was in   the area of justice issues. We had a division called the Justice and Reconciliation,   and were concerned that the SACC and its member churches were on the removals.   I hope that the same concern would be now with the churches on the whole question   of regaining land, which those people lost. The caring discipleship, the famous   work of what was known as the Dependant's Conference and the thinking that went   with that kind of work with people like Archbishop Ramse, who were part of that   work. The legal department of the SACC, as you know did a lot of work and handled   many cases, and worked with many lawyers. One of the biggest cases handled was   the Delmas trial and I am glad to see that one of the panellists today was part   of that experience. We also had a very important programme in the SACC, the   Sanctuary Programme, where many young South Africans, were protected from the   wrath of the police. Then we have the inter church aid work of the money that   was going to community projects before people talked as much as they do these   days about development. Already the money was made available to grassroots communities.   The African Bursary fund, which functioned for exactly 26 years and thousands   of South Africans, got an opportunity to go to school through that programme.   The faith and mission remained a very important part of our work, because it   was possible for us to do research work. There were other programmes, as you   know that were important at the time. The home and family life programme, the   youth programme, the women's day. I'm not going to say anything more on that.   And then we had the Visitor's programme, which was important as we had to keep   in touch on a regular basis with many people visiting South Africa at the time   and they were not always in a position to relate to Government, so we were able   to work with them. Then we had a problem of refugees, which we still do to this   day because we have many people who are coming into the country who are not   necessarily qualifying as refugees, and we refer to them as people who have   been uprooted from their countries. Many more other activities we did on the   Detainees Parents Committee. We were part of that and we were also part of the   National Committee for repatriation of many South Africans who were returning   to the country. In the late 90's we were also part or a group called AMSA helping   the church and community to monitor elections and try and prevent violence.
Prayer and worship became an important feature because it was the only way   in which people could share their pain, to pray with one another and it was   through this programme that they were able to sustain the work they were doing   spiritually. The programme to combat racism of the World Council of Churches   was not our programme, but we got a lot of inspiration and support through that   programme because many churches around the world could be informed of what was   going on through us. There were many protests that the churches organised, all   around the country. It was also a great boost that Archbishop Desmond Tutu as   a general secretary in 1984 received the Nobel Prize. The change now occurred   in the late 80's because the churches continued to negotiate with the government.   Many meetings were set up with the government, but also the churches at that   point became confrontational. They had to use that method because the response   was very poor from the government. You might recall the famous history, which   many of you in this room were part of, when you all went to parliament in February   1988, and it was the most important move that the churches of South Africa ever   took. That was then followed by the "standing for the truth" campaign,   where again many of you in this room participated. At that time the movement   had changed and there were many other interventions and I do want to remind   many people in South Africa that the Peace Accord in fact, the midwife to the   Peace Accord, was the SACC and its leaders. Finally then that programme then   was taken over by the government and other agencies. Then we went through very   difficult times during that time, as you are aware, as there were many difficulties   that the country was facing. There was already a very hostile reaction from   the government after the 1968 statement. The Eloff Commission was probably one   of the hardest things that the SACC had to go through. It was good that the   SACC had to go through this as it showed a response, which was positive and   overwhelming for many of our donor partners. There were police raids, no only   in Khotso House, but in homes of many of our staff members, our supporters,   many of our church leaders. Constantly people were being detained, tortured,   and as I mentioned earlier, some of the people died. Of course, the media was   constantly being that they couldn't report all the things that they wanted to   report. Bernard will say more on that. Then the bombing of Khotso House, which   you know has been publicly owned by those who bombed Khotso House, with a hope   that the work we were doing would come to an end and the poisoning of General   Secretary Frank Chikane and by God's grace, Frank Chikane lived. It think this   is a great story of God's power, because when he was poisoned and everything   had been tried, we were informed by the doctors in the United States that Dr   Frank Chikane would not live, because they had been unable to really diagnose   him. At that point, we were lucky that Bishop Tutu was able to get some of the   Bishops from the United States and the Anglicans to go to Frank, and he received   his last rights from the Anglicans. I think this is quite an ecumenical experience   for him, and I think that's why Frank lived. Needless to report, we had difficulties   to get Archbishop Tutu from his retreat, to ask him to do the job. There was   an interesting thing that they did once. St Barnabus College, some of you might   recall that the police had an idea of spraying a chemical so that those people   who were coming to the National Conference would all be affected by that chemical.   I don't know how many people in this room remember that. What I do remember,   in spite of that chemical, is that Buti Thlagale had to preach that night, and   he survived the chemical, as many of us did.
There are many things that we did, sir, it is a long history, which we hope   to write. I want to go on some of the things that were important and the kind   of impact that I think [SIDE 2] country where many, many of our staff persons,   many clergy, many lay people went and were very close with the families, and   were counselling these families and giving them all kinds of support. But there   was also the constant challenge which was important, that the churches of South   Africa all the time had to reflect and to retreat, and really begin to coin   a kind of theology that was emerging from the kind of work they were doing.   The greatest challenge and weakness perhaps of the SACC was the SACC tended   to be always reacting to the government, rather than being proactive. There   wasn't the time and the space for people to sit and plan the strategy very,   very careful because there was a lot that was going on. The second weakness   is that the SACC tended to act on its own, as SACC because some of the churches,   though at times supported statements that were made, they did not always support   the strategy and the action. It was not possible for the SACC to pull the churches   with them on every action and all the time. So there was a conflict always in   the family, not always in agreement with the actions that were taken. Very little   patience was there on trying to persuade other churches to take part and the   feeling is that if only, if only the time had been taken to persuade more churches   in South Africa to really be in the struggle maybe we would have shortened the   duration of this long, long time of repression in this country.