BY SUBRY GOVENDER
INTRO: During
the funeral of black consciousness leader, Steven Bantu Biko, at King
Williamstown in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa on September 25 1977,
one prominent progressive leader caught the attention of many among the
20 000 mourners. He was none other than Dr Beyers Naude, a former minister
of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), who ditched the conservative background of
the DRC in the early 1960s to join the anti-apartheid struggles. He rose to become
secretary general of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1985. Veteran
journalist, Subry Govender, recalls that for his bravery, Dr Naude was banned,
house-arrested, harassed and intimidated by the security police, and denied
several opportunities to travel overseas prior to 1994.
TEXT
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Forty seven years ago on September 25 1977 at the funeral of black consciousness leader, Steven Bantu
Biko, a prominent Afrikaner, who turned his back on his people’s bigotry and
racial prejudices, joined the more than 20 000 mourners in giving the
power salute and shouting: “Amandhla Awethu – Power to the People”.
A black
colleague watching this historic event whispered to this correspondent:
“He is a
true patriot and son of Africa.”
But 24
days later the black journalist, Mono Badela, who was serving a banning order
at that time, and the people as a whole heard with shock and disbelief that the
“true patriot”, Dr Beyers Naude, had been served with a five-year banning and
house arrest order.
At the
time of his banning, Dr Naude was Director of the Christian Institute – a peace
organisation he had joined after resigning as a member of the Afrikaner secret
body, the Broederbond, and as a dominee of the Afrikaner church, the Nederuitse
Gereformede Kerk (NGK).
Dr Naude
was silenced when the Pretoria regime in one major crackdown on October 19 1977
banned the Christian Institute, 17 other anti-apartheid organisations and their leaders.
In 1985
when his banning order was lifted, he accepted his nomination as the next
general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC). He succeeded Bishop Desmond Tutu who vacated
the hot seat to take up the position of Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg.
His
acceptance of the SACC post marked a milestone in his political and Christian
involvement in the country – an involvement which saw him fall-out with
Afrikaners in the corridors of power to being one of the most respected persons
among the progressive forces in the country and anti-apartheid supporters in
Europe.
Born in
May 1915 in Roodeport, near Johannesburg, as Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naude
to parents who were involved in the DRC, he started his schooling at the age of
seven in the country town of Graaf-Reinet in the Cape Province.
After
finishing his schooling, he went to the former Afrikaner University of
Stellenbosch where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in
Afrikaans, Dutch and German.
In 1936
he completed a masters degree. While at university it was clear to all that he
was destined for greater things.
He was
head of the university’s SRC – a position at that time generally meant that one
would eventually enter the white parliament.
However,
no one realised his destiny would be with the forces opposed to the racial
establishment.
After he
completed his masters, he studied at a theological school at the
ultra-conservative Nederduitse Gereformede Kerk (NGK) in Stellenbosch and
obtained a diploma in theology.
RELIGION AND POLITICS - A NATURAL CALLING
Religion
and politics were a natural calling for the boy whose father was a dominee in
the all-white NGK church, a pioneer of the Afrikaans language and a founder
member of the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond.
Before
he began to critically analyse what apartheid was doing to the black people, he
served a number of congregations of the NGK around the country.
He was
chaplin of the arch-conservative University of Pretoria, served on the
executive of the synod of the Transvaal branch of the church and was moderator
of the Southern Transvaal synod.
In 1940
he joined the Broederbond, an organisation which was sympathetic to Adolf
Hitler’s Nazi Party.
The
change in Naude’s life began after the Second World War when he began to
question the biblical justifications for the policy of apartheid. In 1954 he
began a study on the NGK church’s support of apartheid. In 1957, he claimed he
found that he, nor the “holy scriptures”, could defend apartheid.
But a
catalyst was needed for the young man to eject himself from the racial
oligarchy.
Visits
to black churches in the townships that surrounded the white cities were
shattering experiences for him. They showed him at first-hand what apartheid
was doing to more than 80 percent of the country’s population.
SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE - A TURNING POINT IN HIS LIFE
The
March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, in which more than 57 people were killed and
hundreds others wounded by unprovoked police action, was a turning point in his personal history.
“I was
no longer willing to be party to the injustices of apartheid,” he reflected
when interacting with this correspondent in the 1980s.
In the
same year in 1960 he and 80 other South African clergymen attended a gathering
of churches to discuss the racial conflict in South Africa at Cottesloe in
Canada.
The
conference declared, among other things, that racially mixed marriages, that
were still illegal at that time, could not be defended on biblical grounds and
that everybody, irrespective of race, had the right to buy land where they
wished.
The
conference then drew up a document condemning the whole apartheid system.
However, even though a number of ultra-conservative NGK delegates at the
conference approved the document, their synod rejected it. Eventually Beyers
Naude remained the only NGK delegate to endorse it.
In 1962
he started the ecumenical newspaper, Pro Veritate, to promote inter-racial
dialogue in the country, particularly between the Afrikaners and the black
people.
CHRISTIAN INSTIUTUTE
And when
in 1963 he was offered the position of Director of the Christian Institute, he
broke all links with Afrikanerdom by resigning as a dominee of the NGK church
in the former Transvaal. He also resigned from the Broederbond “as a matter of
conscience”.
The
Institute tried to convince whites of the injustices of apartheid. This action
invoked the wrath of the NGK church leaders who removed him from his position
as minister.
The
long, hard road of internal exile was to begin for him.
In the
late 1960s the Christian Institute began to take a keener interest in the
democratic political alternatives that faced the country.
Dr
Naude’s Christian Institute sponsored an investigation into alternative ways of
governing the country. Called the Sprocas Investigation, it was found that
South Africa could in no way be classified as a democratic country and that the
only way it could be democratic was when the government abolished all racial
discrimination, released all political prisoners, allowed all exiles to return
and to hold a national convention.
By then
Beyers Naude and the Christian Institute, which had become more vocal in its
opposition to apartheid, had become a festering sore for the apartheid regime.
In 1972
the apartheid regime appointed the Schlebusch Commission to “investigate” a
number of organisations, including the Christian Institute.
During
the sessions, Dr Naude was called to give evidence, but he refused as he
believed the Commission was too secretive and that it should have been a
judicial body rather than a government one.
He was
charged under the Commissions Act for refusing to testify and found guilty. He
was given the option of paying a R50 fine or going to prison. Dr Naude refused
to pay the fine and presented himself for prison. But an anonymous person paid
his fine.
In 1975
the regime declared the Christian Institute an “affected organisation” which
meant it could no longer receive any financial support from overseas. But the
organisation, despite this setback, doggedly carried on with its work.
OCTOBER 19 1977 - BEYERS NAUDE BANNED FOR FIVE YEARS
In
October 1977 the government outlawed the Christian Institute and 17 other progressive
organisations. At the same time Dr Naude was banned for five years. His
passport was seized and he was prevented from travelling abroad.
During
his years of banning, he had been refused permission to travel to Stockholm to
collect a R4 450 prize for his promotion of racial peace; refused
permission to attend the funeral of a close friend; his car had been wrecked by
a mysterious explosion; and in September 1982 refused permission to travel to
West Germany to attend a book fair.
After
his banning order was lifted on 26 September 1984, he joined the South African
Council of Churches (SACC) as its general secretary. He succeeded Archbishop
Desmond Tutu in this position and served the Council from February 1985 until
July 1988.
As chief
of the SACC, he played a vital role in helping progressive community-based and
other organisations around the country.
After
1994, when the new South Africa was born following the election of Nelson
Mandela as the new president, Dr Naude, in addition to receiving recognition
for his promotion of justice and peace, was welcomed back into the Dutch
Reformed Church. He was lauded as a prophet during a general synod of the DRC
in 1994.
He was
also awarded recognition by a number of universities in Europe and by the
University of Natal in 1991 and the University of Durban-Westville in 1993.
One of
the best-known landmarks in his honour is the Dr Beyers Naude motor way in
Johannesburg.
When Dr
Naude passed on in September 2004 at the age of 89, he was really “a true
patriot and gallant son of Africa”. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com August 28 2020 Oct 22 2024
