Wauchope born into a family of Struggle activists
Bobby part of a June 16 1976 generation
Born into a family of Struggle stalwarts on March 19 1958, Bobby Stanley Wauchope was destined to be part of a lifechanging generation that took a stand on June 16 1976. The family moved to Soweto in the late 1950s, paving the way for Wauchope commencing his primary schooling in the famed township.
By the time of the collapse of colonial Portuguese rule in Mozambique in 1974, Wauchope was already a conscientised student at the start of his first year at Musi High School in Pimville.
The family being a seedbed of Black Consciousness, Wauchope was by then ready material to sharpen his political teeth in student activism. His Struggle bloodline traces back to the mid-1800s. The era points to the colourful life of his great-great-grandfather Rev Isaac Williams Dyobha Wauchope (1852-1917). Rev Wauchope paved the way and influenced generation after generation of the Wauchopes.
Like many 1976 militant and radical SA youth of his generation, it was at Musi High where he joined the SA Student Movement (SASM), being led by the likes of Izzy Gxuluwe and Thabo Ndabeni. The Student Christian Movement served as a spiritual platform in which he threw his lot, believing that he was part of the children of a God from whom the oppressive system could not claim divine sanction.
From 1975-1978, Wauchope was all action in drama, acting and music lessons after registering at the reputed Open School Flaxbo Creative College in Johannesburg.
He endured numerous arrests and detentions between 1976 and 1979. As scores fled in all directions, into hiding, others into exile, Wauchope and his cousin sister Jenny Ngwenya took refuge in East London, in the Eastern Cape, to evade the secret police.
Back to Soweto, the situation was bedevilled by death squads’ sponsored inter-organisational internecine violence pitting Azapo and the UDF in the 1980s. Wauchope’s close comrade Sipho Mngomezulu was lost in that violence. It was not enough that Mngomezulu was dead, a rival group attacked with resolved intent to burn the coffin. Wauchope got shot in the leg and spent two weeks at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
Surviving the treacherous 1980s, Wauchope took a keen interest in African indigenous churches, drawing inspiration from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Back home, he was pumped up with learnt skills for community development to plough back to his Kliptown community in Soweto. He became the go-to figure as an active member of the WW Brown Memorial Mission Baptist Church in Kliptown and Azapo branch member in the health clinics.
His involvement spanned politics, church and civic duties. He was part of the religious secretariat of Azapo Kliptown branch (1984-1990). He also served as KIiptown branch chairperson in 2004.
Wauchope had a heart condition leading to his dwindling state of health. He died on Friday last week at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. He will be buried today at the Olifantsfontein Cemetery.
*Sifuba is the author of The Wauchopes Generational Activism and Wauchope’s sister
When churchman Dr Masole Petrus Ragimana of The Living Gospel World Mission Church at HaMakhuvha, outside Thohoyandou, Limpopo, died last year, he left his wife, Pastor Mojeremani Matsidiso Ragimana, with a huge task of running the church which has more than 50 branches in SA and 200 in other African countries.
The church also boasts a primary school with more than 500 kids. But even after the passing of her husband, many people still believed Pastor Ragimana would be up to the task.
But she died on Friday and was buried on Tuesday. Many church members liked her humility.
Ragimana said by running the church she was following in her husband’s calling. And indeed, after he passed away, she ran the church with aplomb.
The church is one of the biggest in Africa with 200 branches in countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After her husband passed on, Ragimana assumed the role of president of all the national and international branches.
Born in 1946 on a farm near the small town of Alldays in Limpopo, Ragimana was the fourth child in a family of seven children.
Her family realised that a farm was not an ideal place to bring up children, so they sent her to Gogobole village at Sinthumule, near Louis Trichardt to attend school there.
She started her primary schooling in thevillage before moving to Sinthumule Secondary School. She married her husband in 1965 and they settled at Tshikota, a township outside Louis Trichardt.
In 1972, her family relocated to Makwarela, Thohoyandou, where she went to Mphaphuli High School.
She later went to Tshisimani Teachers’ Training College at Tshakhuma where she enrolled for a Junior Teachers’ Course.
After completing the course, she became a teacher at Mmbara Primary School in Sibasa.
After a few years of teaching, she went to Assemblies Church of God Bible College and trained as a pastor to support her husband in his ministry.
As someone passionate about education, she later enrolled and obtained a higher diploma in adult basic education and training (Abet) and obtained practitioners’ certificate in Abet.
Together with her husband, they established Venda Bible Training College within the Apostolic Faith Mission to train pastors. She was one of the lecturers there.
Ragimana’s other passion was in Sunday school work, and she trained and produced many Sunday school teachers over the years.
Then in 1997, her husband opened his own church – The Living Gospel World Mission Church.
She also prided herself in being a fundraiser for the work of the Lord. She loved cooking and used to say she did not mind to prepare food until midnight. She is survived by three children, seven grandchildren.