Langa Khanyile

Paddy Kearney, the founding director of Diakonia, remembers events like it was yesterday. Picture: Sibonelo Ngcobo

IF THE late Catholic Archbishop Denis Hurley was the brains behind the iconic Diakonia Council of Churches then its founding director, Paddy Kearney, was its face and e x e c u t ive director Nomabelu Mvambo-Dandala is the fresh blood at the inter-church outfit. Mvambo-Dandala has been at the helm of Diakonia since Kearney, the longest-serving director, left – he was with it for 30 years. Ahead of Diakonia’s 40th anniversary fundraising and networking gala dinner on Friday, Mvambo-Dandala said: “I’ve been here so long that I feel like part of the furniture. I joined Diakonia in 1984, coming from a development background. I was responsible for the organisation’s labour programme. I have been an executive deputy director, then acting director then I became executive director in 2004. “Diakonia is a dynamic organisation that afforded me the chance to connect the two aspects of my life – my activism and church work,” she said. Interestingly, Kearney feels the same way about his tenure. Reflecting on the organisation’s eventful journey early this week, he joked that: “My time here felt like a life sentence, after I was asked by Archbishop Hurley to be the director. If a fortune-teller had said I would stay that long, I would have said ‘Give me back my money’.”

Diakonia, although established as an ecumenical NPO, its mission was to advocate for social justice in a divided society, premised on apartheid. While it has come to be synonymous with the annual interchurch Good Friday march, it has quietly contributed to many seminal struggles of the downtrodden, so much so that it has carved a name as the “go-to” place. On its website it says: “There was a time when anyone in Durban suffering as a result of the apartheid would be told: ‘Go to Diakonia, they’ll help you’. And help would be found.”

Kearney recalled: “The big idea, and it was Archbishop Hurley’s idea, was that he felt because apartheid was a problem of division between people, a church which was divided was on a weak footing to say anything about division, especially on social justice issue. That was his vision.”

The Diakonia Centre originally housed offices of the Black Sash, the Legal Resource Centre, a Career Information Centre, had a wellstocked and equipped resource cen- tre, the Lutheran Publishing House, feminist journal Agenda, among other “progressive” entities.

Both Mvambo-Dandala and Kearney said Diakonia constantly asked the question “why?”. She calls this the difference between social work and social justice.

“Where social welfare attends to the immediate needs of people, such as hunger and homelessness, social justice dictates that we always try to get to the bottom of the problem, asking what are the root causes,” she said.

The list of luminaries who have passed through the doors of Diakonia reads like a who’s who of the famous and influential. They include Bishop Philip Russell, Rev Wesley Mabuza, Bishop Norman Hudson and Mike Vorster (a former staff member).

Kearney said: “Lechesa Tsenoli (the National Assembly deputy speaker) was our communications officer, Terror Lekota (Cope leader) was on our staff for a short while, Thoko Didiza (former ANC Tshwane mayoral candidate) was our receptionist, quite a few eminent people passed through Diakonia.

“Zweli Mkhize (former KZN premier), Aaron Motsoaledi (health minister), would come to Diakonia while they were still medical school students. Also, May Mashego (Mkhize’s wife) was another medical school student who frequented Diakonia.”

It went on to champion the cause of the workers, forced removals, environmental issues and genderbased violence. Mvambo-Dandala and Kearney emphasised that throughout the different epochs of its existence, Diakonia has always sought to let people or interest groups own their struggles, and it would give strategic support behind the scenes.

Mvambo-Dandala said: “Working with the people (in their struggles) has always been our approach.”

This approach has yielded the desired results. In recent times, Mvambo-Dandala counts the relative calm at Glebelands hostel, the Clare Pine project, the Black Thursday campaign, a self-help group at Amoati, Mzinyathi and eMaphephetheni (northern Durban) as some of Diakonia’s success stories.

For the demure and sharp-witted Kearney, it was putting a stop to the planned forced removals of the people of St Wendolin’s (near Pinetown), highlighting deaths in detention of activists and the Worker Rights Statement that rank as Diakonia’s gratifying accomplishments.

On lowlights, Kearney recalled his 17-day detention in 1985, the intermittent detentions of his colleagues including the deportation of a German co-worker and Diakonia’s ill-fated membership with the United Democratic Front. He said at the height of the violence between Inkatha members and the UDF, that membership made increasingly difficult for them to mediate. Thankfully, the membership was rescinded by 13 votes against three. Ironically, the same polling result had prompted their joining.

Mvambo-Dandala appealed for help to sustain the iconic institution. “We would like to make an appeal to the corporate sector to ensure that Diakonia continues to sustain itself. Issues of social justice, such as social cohesion economic and environmental sustainability, will continue to be a thorn in the flesh of business.”

For the 40-year-young Diakonia under a new dispensation, it seems that it has its work cut out being the go-to place for new struggles.