TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 3

Volume FOUR Chapter THREE

Institutional Hearing: The Faith Community

■ INTRODUCTION

1 Some of the major Christian churches gave their blessing to the system of apartheid, and many of its early proponents prided themselves in being Christians. Indeed, the system of apartheid was regarded as stemming from the mission of the church. Other churches gave the apartheid state tacit support, regarding it as a guarantor of Christian civilisation. They were the beneficiaries of apartheid, enjoying special privileges denied to other faith communities.

2 Religious communities also suffered under apartheid, their activities were disrupted, their leaders persecuted, their land taken away. Churches, mosques, synagogues and temples – often divided amongst themselves – spawned many of apartheid’s strongest foes, motivated by values and norms coming from their particular faith traditions. They were driven by what has been called the ‘dangerous memory’ of resistance and the quest for freedom, often suppressed but never obliterated from their respective faiths.

3 As involved and implicated as they were in the past, South Africa’s religious communities also represented important sites of transformation. Different interests, perspectives and world views are represented - often within the same faith tradition. Likewise local churches and similar communities contained victims, beneficiaries and perpetrators of apartheid. Reconciliation within such communities could have a leavening effect for the whole society. From them should flow a source of renewal extending to the entire South African society.

4 These factors served to indicate the importance of bringing faith communities into the Commission process. A further reason – grounded in the desire of many within the religious communities themselves – was to remind themselves of their obligation, testified to within their own traditions, to participate in social transformation and the national process of reconciliation.

5 In total, forty-one faith communities made written submissions or gave representations at the hearings. While a fairly wide spectrum of churches was represented, some important churches were missing. The Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk did not respond to the invitation sent by the Commission. The Gereformeerde Kerk considered the invitation but decided not to participate – although four theologians from this church (dss Alwyn du Plessis, Bennie van der Walt, Amie van Wyk and Ponti Venter) made a submission in their personal capacities.

6 The Chief Rabbi and the Hindu Maha Sabha sent submissions and testified at the hearings, as did the Baha’i Faith. A submission was received from the Buddhist Dharma Centre. The Moulana Ibrahim Bham of the Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal testified, as did Moulana Farid Esack, formerly of the Call of Islam. The Muslim Judicial Council of Cape Town (MJC) attended. Subsequently, the Muslim Youth Movement (MYM) made a submission.

■ FAITH COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

7 The term ‘faith communities’ encompasses groups as diverse as the Baptist Union and the Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal (Ulama), the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the African religious community, the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (Church of the Province) and the Hindu community.

8 Placing such a diverse assemblage together, and asking each to answer the same questions, risked overlooking differences in organisation and accountability structures. Some, such as the Baptist Union, have a strong voluntarist tradition and emphasise the local congregation and its autonomy. Others, such as the Roman Catholic Church, are much more hierarchical in character. Still others, such as the Afrikaans Reformed Churches and the African religious community, are largely associated with a cultural or ethnic group and identify organically with its activities. There are also different groups within each of the religious traditions. Precisely who was being represented was a problem that surfaced at the hearings.

9 While not comprehensive, the representation of religious groups and movements in submissions and at the hearings reflected a broad spectrum of religion in South Africa. They included: