TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 3

Subsection 6

■ FAITH COMMUNITIES AS VICTIMS OF OPPRESSION

66 Black, coloured and Indian members of faith communities suffered under apartheid legislation. Forced removals had a powerful effect on faith communities. The effects were also more direct, where faith communities were attacked for what they stood for — as alternative centres of loyalty or (in the eyes of the state) disloyalty.²⁰

Direct attacks by the state on members and organisations

67 Perhaps the most famous instances of direct attacks on churches and related institutions by the state were the banning of the Christian Institute in 1977 and the 1988 bombing of Khotso House, the headquarters of the SACC. This latter action by the state should be seen in the context of an ongoing battle with the SACC, waged on a number of fronts, symbolic (through media disinformation) and legal (the Eloff Commission). The SACC said that it was often the target of security raids. Many SACC staff members and associated personnel were detained, and some tortured. Others died in mysterious circumstances.

68 Six weeks after the bombing of Khotso House, the headquarters of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference was destroyed by arsonists who, it is now known, were agents of the state.²¹ Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, the Secretary General of the Bishops Conference, was detained and tortured by the state many times. Other faith communities said that their leaders, members and offices were targeted and detained. Post was intercepted and telephones tapped. The free movement of church officials and representatives inside and outside South Africa’s borders was hindered.²²

69 The submissions of the MJC, the MYM and Farid Esack mentioned Imam Abdullah Haron who was detained for four months in 1969 under the Terrorism Act and tortured to death. The Church of the Province singled out Father Michael Lapsley as “a living icon of redemptive suffering within [the Church of the Province]”. Father Lapsley lost both arms and an eye in a savage parcel bomb attack in April 1990 (two months after the unbanning of the liberation movements).

Closure of buildings, schools and institutions

70 Inevitably, faith communities were affected by Group Areas legislation; congregations were forced to relocate and historic buildings lost.²³ Among those mentioned in the submissions were the London Missionary Society church at Graaff Reinet (built in 1802) and the stone church at Majeng in the Northern Cape (built in 1874 and bulldozed in 1975). According to the submission of the United Congregational Church, the congregations of these churches were declared “trespassers in their own homes.” The Moravian Church said it suffered the loss of a number of Churches, especially in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.²⁴ Churches were forced to sell properties at low prices - something which seriously hindered their efforts to re-establish congregations after removal.

71 Bantu Education forced the closure of mission stations and schools that had provided education for Africans for many years.²⁵ Several churches with a long tradition in mission education, such as the Methodist Church, the United Congregational Church and the Church of the Province lost large numbers of primary schools and many secondary schools as well. The Methodist Church spoke of losing Kilnerton and Healdtown, and the United Congregational Church of the loss of Adams College and Tiger Kloof. The Reformed Presbyterian Church spoke of the loss of Lovedale and Blyswooth to the governments of Ciskei and Transkei. Indeed many properties belonging to this latter church were in so-called ‘white’ areas and the church was forced by law (which prohibited ownership of such properties) to sell them.²⁶ Several submissions made reference to the closing of the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice and the taking of its land.²⁷ Hospitals and other institutions were also affected by Group Areas legislation. One example of this is when the Seventh Day Adventist Church was forced to close its Nokuphilia Hospital in Alexandra township.

72 While many communities suffered losses, however, others benefited from them. The Volkskerk, a coloured ‘split-off’ from the Dutch Reformed Church, worshipped in a building they had built themselves in the centre of Stellenbosch, but lost it in the early 1960s under the Group Areas Act. The building was taken over by a white Christian congregation. The Uniting Reformed Church congregation in Messina made a similar allegation against its neighbouring Dutch Reformed Church congregation. According to the Hindu Maha Sabha presentation, Christian churches readily bought up Hindu religious sites after removals. The fact that faith communities - sometimes within the same tradition - both suffered and benefited from the same series of removals highlights the need for reconciliation and restitution between communities.