There is still hope as we celebrate the ANC’s 103rd birthday

ON FRIDAY, January 8, 1982 five young people crowded around a SW radio in a tent at Die Dam, a camping site near Elim in the Overberg region.

We had attended a camp of MJUSA (Morawiese Jeug Unie van SA) where the celebrated Oom Chris Wessels and Paul Joemat had facilitated workshops on liberation theology, the link between Christianity and socialism.

How to organise. Bible studies prefaced the day-long programmes. Our hymnal consisted of koortjies such as God is die liefde en my Verlosser and Xhosa freedom songs.

Elim is a mission station established by Moravian missionaries from Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). They were fiercely egalitarian in their work among the Khoisan and slaves of the region. Their pastoral practice, based on the annual liefdes fees, emphasised the development of skills and a commitment to sharing.

The village is home to the first, if not the only, memorial to the emancipation of slaves.

It was an appropriate place to wait out the old year and seek a way forward for the new.

This we did in our attempt to tune into Radio Freedom. The peaceful voice of Oliver Tambo broadcasting from Dar es Salaam would announce the mobilising message and slogan for the year. One of us was singing Kea Rona (It is ours). But there was only crackle and hiss.

We never heard the anticipated stutter of machine gun fire followed by “This is Radio Freedom”, words first transmitted by Walter Sisulu in 1963.

His brief message had spoken to the heart of the need of the people of our land: “Never has the country, and our people, needed leadership as they do now, in this hour of crisis. Our house is on fire.”

Later we learnt that the mobilising slogan for 1982 was “Unity in Action”.

As Christians we would attempt to integrate this message into our understanding of discipleship.

Our faith found a challenging focus in October of that year when the SADF invaded Lesotho. South African and Basotho nationals were killed.

The St George’s Cathedral leadership gave permission to observe a 48-hour fast in its precincts.

It would be a protest against the raid. Unfortunately the Cape Times produced an article under the heading “ANC fast at the Cathedral”. We sought a meeting with Dean King to convince him of our faith-based intentions. He was unavailable.

Father Bob de Maar kindly availed The Church of the Good Shepherd, Kensington where our fast ended on Sunday at 2pm.

On our way home to Mitchells Plain we broke our fast with salomies from Golden Dish in Athlone.

This week we celebrated the 103rd birthday of the ANC. The party that had led us out of the burning house of apartheid.

It can be said that our revolution hasn’t prevailed. But are there those who still raise the tattered flag of hope?

Let there be no doubt about that. Aluta continua.