Beyers Naude, a rare white voice against apartheid

JOHANNESBURG – Beyers Naude, who died yesterday, was an Afrikaner man of the cloth cut from a different material from many fellow churchmen who saw racial hierarchy in South Africa as ordained by God.

Born on May 10 1915, Naude was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and a member of the Broederbond, a secretive society aimed at preserving white supremacy and the dominance of Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French settlers. He turned against his upbringing long before it was fashionable to do so, becoming one of the leading white opponents of apartheid.Former South African President Nelson Mandela once described him as “one of the most important pioneers of modern South Africa”.Yesterday, liberation icon Mandela hailed his friend Naude as a “true humanitarian” and “son of Africa”.The opposition Democratic Alliance also mourned Naude.”He was brave enough to take a stand against the National Party of the past (that invented apartheid) and refused to back down despite being banned for his viewpoint,” Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in a statement.”South Africa will always be indebted to him.”At the age of 25, the future anti-apartheid activist became the youngest member of the Broederbond.His father, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, was a founding member.CHANGE OF HEART Like his father, Naude studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch and entered the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church, then a strong proponent of the Bible as justification for apartheid.But after witnessing events such as the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, when police gunned down protesters demonstrating against the apartheid government’s “pass laws”, Naude began to have a change of heart.”I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to retain my integrity as a human being and as a Christian, I had to stick clearly, unequivocally and fearlessly in whom I believed in, what I believed in and why I believed,” he said in a 1987 television interview.Three years after Sharpeville, Naude stood in front of his white Afrikaner congregation in Aasvoelkop, Johannesburg, and denounced apartheid and his church for using Christianity to justify it.Shortly afterwards, he was forced to resign from the ministry after being asked to choose between his church and his activism.Naude’s strong public criticism of apartheid led, eventually, to his being put under banning orders by the government in 1977, which silenced him as a public voice.The Christian Institute and Pro Veritate, an anti-apartheid Christian magazine of which he was editor, were also banned.In the seven years he was under the ban, Naude continued to work with anti-apartheid activists and when the ban was lifted in 1987 he once again joined the public chorus for liberation.During negotiations leading up to democracy in 1994, Naude was the only Afrikaner in the delegation of the now-ruling ANC that held talks with the white National Party government.The African National Congress government would honour him by renaming a major street in Johannesburg after him – a street previously named after DF Malan, the first prime minister of the National Party, which had enforced apartheid with gusto.- Nampa-Reuters (Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg)He turned against his upbringing long before it was fashionable to do so, becoming one of the leading white opponents of apartheid.Former South African President Nelson Mandela once described him as “one of the most important pioneers of modern South Africa”.Yesterday, liberation icon Mandela hailed his friend Naude as a “true humanitarian” and “son of Africa”.The opposition Democratic Alliance also mourned Naude.”He was brave enough to take a stand against the National Party of the past (that invented apartheid) and refused to back down despite being banned for his viewpoint,” Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in a statement.”South Africa will always be indebted to him.”At the age of 25, the future anti-apartheid activist became the youngest member of the Broederbond.His father, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, was a founding member.CHANGE OF HEART Like his father, Naude studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch and entered the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church, then a strong proponent of the Bible as justification for apartheid.But after witnessing events such as the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, when police gunned down protesters demonstrating against the apartheid government’s “pass laws”, Naude began to have a change of heart.”I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to retain my integrity as a human being and as a Christian, I had to stick clearly, unequivocally and fearlessly in whom I believed in, what I believed in and why I believed,” he said in a 1987 television interview.Three years after Sharpeville, Naude stood in front of his white Afrikaner congregation in Aasvoelkop, Johannesburg, and denounced apartheid and his church for using Christianity to justify it.Shortly afterwards, he was forced to resign from the ministry after being asked to choose between his church and his activism.Naude’s strong public criticism of apartheid led, eventually, to his being put under banning orders by the government in 1977, which silenced him as a public voice.The Christian Institute and Pro Veritate, an anti-apartheid Christian magazine of which he was editor, were also banned.In the seven years he was under the ban, Naude continued to work with anti-apartheid activists and when the ban was lifted in 1987 he once again joined the public chorus for liberation.During negotiations leading up to democracy in 1994, Naude was the only Afrikaner in the delegation of the now-ruling ANC that held talks with the white National Party government.The African National Congress government would honour him by renaming a major street in Johannesburg after him – a street previously named after DF Malan, the first prime minister of the National Party, which had enforced apartheid with gusto.- Nampa-Reuters (Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg)