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

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Will you please just switch off your - .thank   you very much. Thank you for your presentation and thank you for your concern   about trying to note the fact that we have time constraints and again I just   want to express our appreciation that you ready to come forward. Bongani Finca?
REV.

BONGANI FINCA: Chairperson, I am not going to raise a question, I will use my   time just to pay tribute to BK for the sterling work you did during the dark   days of apartheid, which is very well documented. Your own personal sacrifices,   especially yours, and many people who are members of BK, those who worked in   the rural areas, outside the glare of the media and publicity. I think you challenged   a number of us within the reform family.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Thomas?

UNKNOWN: I am sure that I am not going to sound very confident to you.   I want to maintain that you have since found a common bond between yourselves   and those in the Dutch Reformed Church, namely that of faith and language and   that from that basis, I think you are better suited than anybody to bring about   reconciliation amongst yourselves and this can even best be achieved very easily   when you are likely to find or to create common projects amongst yourselves,   because the primary thing that the TRC is after is so much reconciliation. Not   just, you know, simple, sweet reconciliation without hackles, but hackles will   be there and we accept the difficulties that you are talking about or you are   referring to, but we nonetheless feel that there is this kind of a common bond   between you and the Dutch Reformed Church that is of the white side, which can   enable you to find a new way forward.

DR MOKWEBO: Are we supposed to comment on that? Chairperson we are not under   any illusion that the question of reconciliation is a costly one. However, we   are thankful about the fact that the United Reformed Church opened up the possibility   at its Synod meeting in Bloemfontein this year, when they asked for the possibility   of there being a TRC process in the relationships between the white church and   the United Reform Church. But in that context, maybe we can meaningfully start   facing each other and confronting this experience which we are going together.   I am therefore not pessimistic that the possibility exists. I would, however,   also caution to say that the experience which is happening in the Free State   now and the Northern Cape, continues to bedevil this hope, because many of our   membership are saying, "You can't trust these people. On the one hand they   tell you that if you are critical, even under the new dispensation, we will   withdraw your salaries, they still cut back your salaries." How can you   - speaking of reconciliation experience this kind of situation? On the other   - most of the problems we had to support this kind of witness which is very   vital for reconciliation, has been ...[inaudible] of our churches. We are not   seeing very much being done about this. They are in the hands, on the tables   or in the files of our church, but we are not seeing them being actualised and   implemented and therefore it is only when our churches, especially the United   Reformed Church, in our view because of our members have also agreed that they   are going to now serve fully in the commissions and the lives of this newly   born church, are hopeful that within this kind of situation we can make the   kind of input which will create conditions where we can meaningfully enter into   the kind of discussions which will make it possible that some ways can be found   about creating bridges and reconciliation within the churches.
The sad thing, Chairperson, I must mention is that also we may succeed in our   own experience because most of our churches were pockets within the larger problem   of apartheid churches, but if you don't find churches in the coalition in the   white church, who are willing to pay the price, who are willing to say we are   not just critical in giving lip service to being critical, but we are willing   to pay the price and sacrifice of what negotiation entails. That creates the   possibility of having bridges in those contexts where we can meaningfully build   bridges between us and themselves.

DR HENRY THYSSE: Excuse me, can I say something in Afrikaans? When I speak   Afrikaans it comes from here and not from - you know.
Ek moet erken in skaamte dat ek kom uit 'n gemeenskap en uit 'n kerk familie   wat legitimityd verleen het aan 'n regering wat apartheid die lig laat sien   het. Ek moet erken ek kom uit 'n gemeenskap en uit 'n kerk familie uit wat legitimityd   verleen het aan 'n drie kamer parliament systeem. Ek moet erken dat ek kom uit   'n gemeenskap en 'n kerk familie wat 'n verontmenslikende en 'n mensondeerende,   dis nou "dehumanising and humiliating" dat ons toegelaat het dat so   'n systeem nog kon voortgaan. Ek wil net beroep doen van hierdie platvorm dat   Belydende Gereformeerde Litmate nie weer moet toelaat dat ons deel he aan so   'n systeem, dat ons die muishonde van die wereld weer moet wees nie. Ons moet   'n Suid Afrika daar stel wat vir die wereld gaan wys dit is hoe ons Ubuntu of   medemenslikheid kan uitleef. Ons het dit binne ons as kinders van Afrika om   dit vir die wereld te wys. En daarom voel ek dat on kan maar nie net hier kom,   en selfs die NG Kerk kan nie maar net kom en se ons belei, ons is jammer dit   was 'n klein voutjie, maar dat ons beslis iets daaromtrent gaan doen en dat   die kerke iets daaromtrent gaan doen. En ons kan nie se ons is jammer nie en   se nou moet ons maar wegspring en die een, en ons word verwag om almal saam   weg te spring, terwyl die ander persoon reeds 100 meter voor ons is, en nou   moet ons almal saam wegspring. Daarom sal daar erens gelykstelling moet plaasvind.   Hoe dit gedoen word het baie mense voorstelle gemaak, wat die BK heelhartiglik   ondersteun die afgelope twee dae. Ek wil 'n beroep doen on die NG Kerk familie,   dis die vier apartheids kerke, dat hulle sigbaarheid moet verleen aan die eenheid   van Kristus, nie vir mense nie, dat hulle sigbaarheid moet verleen aan die eenheid   van Kristus, dat ons nie die volgende millennium in moet gaan as verdeelde gereformeerde   belydende familie, en ek weet dat daar oorwegings is en dis nie geestelike oorwegings,   dis nie godsdienstige oorwegings nie, dis ander oorwegings. 'n Mens wil amper   se 'n verskuilde agenda waarom hierdie eenheid nie sigbaar is tot noe toe nie.   Want ongelukkig is sommige van hierdie kerke, die NG Kerk familie sommige van   ons lidmate, sommige van ons Predikante nog steeds besig om na die vleispotte   Egypte, alhoewel dit nie vleispotte is, te verlang in die hoop dat hulle die   ou systeem op 'n stadium weer in na 1999 kan voortsit. Daarom is my verlange   dat nie NG Kerk familie werklik waar alles in die stryd moet weg, om die sigbaarheid,   om die eenheid van Kristus sigbaar te maak. Baie dankie.

CHAIRPERSON: Baie dankie vir u oproep en u woord, ons waardeur dit baie. Wil   u ook iets gese het?