DR MANAS BUTHELEZI – A CLERIC AND RELIGIOUS LEADER WHO ESPOUSED BLACK THEOLOGY

 
One of the religious leaders who also played a leading role alongside other activists in the struggles for freedom and human rights in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s was Bishop Manas Buthelezi of the Lutheran Church.
He died at the age of 81 in April 2016 while he was on retirement in his home village of Mahlabathini in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
In addition to being a leader in the Lutheran Church, Bishop Buthelezi also served as president of the South African Council of Churches, a leader of the World Council of Churches, and an activist who promoted Black Theology.
He was a first cousin of the former leader of the KwaZulu homeland and the Inkatha Freedom Party, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

                                

In June 1983 when he was elected President of the South African Council of Churches, the Press Trust of SA Third World News Agency published an article on his life and work. The article, “Bishop Manas Buthelezi – the Black leader who espouses Black Theology is now head of the South African Council of Churches”, was circulated around the world.
The article is being re-published below on October 31 2020.

 
BISHOP MANAS BUTHELEZI – RELIGIOUS LEADER WHO ESPOUSED BLACK THEOLOGY

 

It has been a long trek from the early days of being a teacher in a rural school in the province of Natal in South Africa to the powerful position of President of the anti-apartheid South African Council of Churches (SACC).
But for the newly-elected head of the SACC, Bishop Manas Buthelezi, his climb up the “religious-political” ladder has shown his fortitude and resilience in the face of strident government action against all clerics who concern themselves with the socio-economic-political situation in the country.

                                           MAHLABATHINI BOY

Bishop Buthelezi was born 48-years-ago in the tiny tribal village of Mahlabathini in Zululand where his first cousin, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who is the leader of the KwaZulu homeland, was also born.
After completing his schooling at a mission school in Marianhill, just outside the city of Durban, Bishop Buthelezi entered a teachers’ training college.
After graduating he taught in a rural school at a rural school but barely a year after entering the teaching profession he decided to become a lay minister.
He began his theological studies at the world famous Lutheran Theological Seminary in Natal in the early 1960s and two years later he continued his studies at Yale University in the United States. That was when the Bishop attracted the first of many headlines in the newspapers.
At the time of his departure, a daily newspaper recorded this by publishing the headline: “Zulu flies to study at Yale.”
After receiving his degree at Yale, Bishop Buthelezi moved to Drew University where he obtained his PHD in theology.
At this time the call of home was stronger than the rigid academic classrooms and he returned to South Africa to teach theology at the seminary in Natal.
While he rejected the tribal affiliation, his cousin, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, moved into the sphere of Bantustan politics and soon became leader of the KwaZulu bantustan.

STRONG PROPONENT OF A NON-RACIAL AND DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY

Bishop Buthelezi adopted a strong progressive stance in his contributions to the cause of a non-racial and democratic South Africa.
His campaigns took on greater emphasis when in the early 1970s he was nominated the Natal Director of the now banned Christian Institute, started by the restricted and banned Dr Beyers Naude.
This new portfolio brought him into constant clashes with the Pretoria authorities.
In 1973 he was served with a five-year banning order, but this was lifted after six months following strong condemnation by the United States and a number of European countries, especially Germany.
It was during this period that he successfully sued a Government-sponsored publication, To the Point, which agreed with the banning order imposed on him. He was awarded R13 500 in damages.
In 1975 he was appointed the general secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Johannesburg and also held important positions in the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the Lutheran World Federation.

                 BLACK PARENTS ASSOCIATION

When the school children of Soweto revolted against the inferior educational system in June 1976, Bishop Buthelezi played an invaluable role as chairman of the Black Parents’ Association.
Throughout his association with black theology and its spread among young clerics, Bishop Buthelezi has been hounded by the South African security police.
And now with his new position he is bound to come under further and closer scrutiny.

                 

                     SACC MUST BE SUPPORTED

                       

But he is not worried. In an interview he told the PTSA News Agency:
“I expect surveillance from the security apparatus of the Pretoria Government. But they will not intimidate me. The functions and programmes of the SACC will go on because I believe South Africa needs the SACC.

“Whatever is happening to it now is a challenge to everybody to uphold the SACC and the ideals for which it stands – a free, non-racial and democratic society in South Africa.” – ends June 28 1983 (Press Trust of SA Third World News Agency)