Continue reading »]]> The community of Worcester are drawing together in the Worcester Hope and Reconciliation Process!

The process is a partnership between the people of Worcester, The Restitution Foundation and Khulumani Support Group.  You’ll find more about our journey on the page describing the Day of National Reconciliation.  And more information about the ideas behind community led restitution on this website.  Deon will welcome any further correspondence at deon.snyman@telkomsa.net.

Continue reading »]]> 16 December 2011

Dear Victims, Community and My family

Since early childhood I battled to find my space in the sun. Life threw me with many lemons and at the time of the bombing, I projected what I believed was right, into a deed impacting the lives ofmany innocent people, the community, my family and myself. I will only be able to comprehend thefull impact on the day I will be able to face you in person.I so badly wanted to share in this day, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I can only voice my sincere remorse through someone else and know he will impart my apologies for not being ableto be here in person. Fulfilling this desire will only be possible in God’s perfect timing for my release.

In prison I requested a Bible and timeosly searched out the truth. The truth started to oxygen myveins and awakened my zeal for a new beginning by opening my heart in 2006 to participate inprograms such as Khulisa, Mind Power and Restorative Justice.Embracing the truth of God’s Word, as well as the genuine care of people, have contributed to mysincere remorse, crying out for forgiveness and accepting Jesus Christ as my Saviour in 2007.

Soon thereafter a desire was born in my heart to personally meet the victims whom I have wronged.This dream was fulfilled in 2009 when Olga Macingwane visited me in prison. I did not expect her toforgive me, but the love in her heart imparted grace and forgiveness which resulted in freedombeyond understanding.

During the past 15 years I have learnt that happiness is created from within. There comes a time tolet go of hurt by crushing the lemons thrown to me and by me to make lemonade. To impart the lessons learnt to those in acceptance of my sincere remorse, enhanced by my positive life ofthankfulness. Everyday I am running the race in theory and practical participation on a treadmill,reading and penning down positive thoughts.

I hereby wish to thank God and everybody who contributed to my new beginning allowing me to bepart of this reconciliation and hope programme, as well as the team leading the way forwardestablishing a new foundation of reconciliation and hope. This honour belongs to God to whom I amonly a servant now and keeping my eye on the goal to live His plan for my life.

Yours sincerely

Stefaans Coetzee

Continue reading »]]> Worcesteriete© Floris Brown

So het ons gekom tot by hierdie punt

waar ons elkeen met ‘n groot goiingsak

ons verlede kom uitstrooi in die wind

kulture respekteer, probleme pak

Worcesteriete wat ‘n verskil wil maak

steek hande op loof prys jubel en juig

hul maak die sirkel groter vir SY taak

as hul vroegmôre voor GOD die knie buig

met die verlede deel ons saggies mee

werk aan ‘n toekoms vir ons nageslag

veilige vestings bou ons tree vir tree

want môre bly ‘n onvoorsiene dag

Help die pynlike les, genees deur die

Worcester Hoop en Rekonsiliasie Proses

Worcesterians© Floris Brown

Now we’ve come to this point thus far

where all of us came with a huge hessian bag

and scatter our past into the wind

respecting cultures tackling problems

Worcesterians who wants to make a difference

put their hands up worship praise jubilate and shout

they’re making the circle bigger for HIS task

bending their knees early morning before GOD

We are dealing with the past, very gently

working on a future for future generations

building safe havens step by step

because tomorrow remains unforeseen

Help healing the lessons of pain through the

Worcester Hope en Reconciliation Process

Continue reading »]]>

On the National Day of Reconciliation the people of Worcester joined a process of Hope and Reconciliation to remember those who died and those who were injured in the 1996 Christmas Eve Shoprite Centre bombing.  They gathered not only to mourn a difficult past, but to build a hope-filled future.  Recognising that this horrific event was but one of a painful past, people joined hands in the church just outside Shoprite in an act of penitence and community.  In this commitment to finding each other after centuries of pain, they offer us all a story of hope and healing.  The morning began with a short video telling the story so far, followed by introductions by Mr Basil Kivedo, the Mayor of the Breede River Valley, the reading of a letter from Mr Stefaans Coetzee, poetry and an address by Prof Jonathan Jansen.

Each newspaper has reflected on Worcester’s journey differently (below).  Dr Marje Jobson of Khulumani Support Group describes the event on their website.

Max Du Preez writes about the event in his weekly column  “For me, the South African story of the last week wasn’t Julius Malema mocking his party’s leader with a mock shower over the head or the forced resignation of yet another bad appointment by president Jacob Zuma. It was the Reconciliation Day meeting at Worcester in the Western Cape.
At that gathering, the right wing terrorist Stefaans Coetzee who planted a bomb in a shopping centre in the town 15 years ago, pleaded for forgiveness for killing four people and injuring 67 – a plea that was accepted by the victims and survivors. Coetzee is still serving a 20-year jail sentence. He was 18 years old when he and five other rightwingers bombed the Shoprite centre to kill as many black and coloured people as possible. His moving statement was read by his newly found friend, academic Tshepo Madlingozi of the Khulumani support group. (Cape Times, 19 December 2011)

The Rapport writes about Stephanus Coetzee’s letter to the Reconciliation Day gathering – a letter of remorse read out by his friend Tsepho Madlingozi of the Khulumani Victim Support Group.   In their editorial page Basil Kivedo, Mayor of Breede River Valley and member of the Worcester Hope and Reconciliation Process reflects on the 2 year journey in partnership with the Restitution Foundation to build this process of unity and solidarity across Apartheid’s boundaries.  This process has drawn in the survivors of the bomb, religious leaders, politicians, business people and ordinary people from Worcester and Zwelethemba.  “If we could be reconciled with Stefaans Coetsee, the rest of Worcester can reconcile.  Let us take this challenge seriously, by making it easier to believe that there is real sorrow about the human rights abuses that have happened in Worcester’s past.”  “The key objective of the project is to develop a strategy of reconciliation to heal the divisions in Worcester caused by Apartheid” (Kivedo: our translation).

Internationally known poet and member of the process, Floris Brown acknowledges the road ahead with the words “We are dealing with the past, very gently /working on a future for future generations / building safe havens step by step / because tomorrow remains unforeseen”.

The Sunday Times holds the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Professor Jonathan Jansen’s moving words as he considers victim Mrs Olga Macingwane’s response of forgiveness on meeting Stephanus at Pretoria Central Prison where she said, “Stefaans, when I see you, I see my sister’s son in you, and I cannot hate you … Come here my boy, I forgive you; I have heard what you said, and I forgive you”.  Professor Jansen’s speech takes us into deep reflection on the complexities of relating across our painful past, and the opportunities left open by the two bombs that did not go off that day.

The Burger reiterates Prof Jansen’s statement, “the community of this town exemplifies hope and reconciliation, and the rest of the country needs this outlook” (our translation).

Alexander Fuller of the National Geographic wrote of the early steps in this journey by sharing Tsepho’s comments “Meeting Stefaans has reignited my faith in the future of South Africa,” he says. “My worldview is black consciousness, and that hasn’t changed as a result of knowing Stefaans. But it has made me appreciate that even the most ardent racists—even murderers—can change and be humble. Yes, Stefaans’s intelligence, humility, acute appreciation of the consequences of his actions and the system of apartheid, as well as his appreciation that reconciliation is not merely about showing goodwill, have greatly inspired me.”

We know that the journey continues and we invite you to witness, to pray for ongoing peace and to be inspired to do restitution wherever life finds you.  We’d value your spreading the story by passing on this email, by “Liking” our Facebook page, or by joining our National Dialogue through sending us a paragraph or three on your view of The Role of Restitution in South Africa.

At the close of Friday’s service Worcester watched as Olga Macingwane lit a candle of remembrance and hope, and set free the doves of peace.  May the people of Worcester inspire us all across South Africa.

Peace,

Deon and Sarah

The Restitution Foundation — PS.  Claude and Deon have just been interviewed by Lynette Francis on RSG’s Praat Saam.  Listen in!!

Continue reading »]]> The modern economy of South Africa was founded on conquest. It was born in blood. From the moment of conquest on the same historical and economic processes that made some people rich made others poor. The exploitation and exclusion of the oppressed did not end in 1994. It continues to this day. People are still being made poor and being made rich by an unjust social and economic order.

Restitution cannot be restricted to the returning land stolen between 1948 and 1994. It must focus on overcoming all forms of social injustice and ensuring that everyone can take a respected and dignified place in society.

Service delivery is not restitution. The language of service delivery is used by NGOs, academics and the government to depoliticise the claims of the oppressed for justice by limiting them to a very narrow technocratic processes. In a time when the state, with the support of other elites, is trying to criminalise poverty, and the struggle to overcome poverty, our job is to politicise poverty and the economic and social systems that continue to produce and to entrench poverty.

Restitution must include decent health care and education for all. It must include safe and efficient public transport for all. It must include genuinely pro-poor land reform. It must include a genuine affirmation of the right to the cities for all who want to have an urban life. It must also include a deepening of democracy via a steady shift to more participatory modes of decision making including things like participatory budgeting, urban planning and so on. Real restitution must start and end with a commitment to the principle that every person counts the same. Real restitution is about real dignity for everyone.

Continue reading »]]> If we want justice, we need restitution. However, without equality or the victims obtaining influence, we cannot achieve restitution. In the case of immigrants who have been displaced by xenophobic violence the sad reality is that victims are often forced to forgive or forget as a prerequisite to reintegration. In their cases restitution could make reintegration impossible. Through circumstance they are forced to accept the perpetrators as their neighbors, forget their scars and pretend they are living side by side in harmony.

Continue reading »]]> It is perhaps more appropriate to start with a lament on the manner in which the poor of South Africa have been betrayed. Neither the Peace Accord of the early nineteen nineties, nor the negotiated political settlement or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had delivered to the poor of the country. In fact, it would be fair to suggest that the most serious deficit of all these processes had been the sacrifice of justice on the altar of cheap reconciliation. Retrospectively we now know that the interests of neo-liberal capitalism in general and of the South African petit bourgeoisie, both black and white, in particular, were paramount. To suggest, however, that the betrayal of the poor was only political, is to indulge in reductionism of the worst kind. Religion in South Africa has got a lot to account for. Even before any form of serious national dialogue gets going, there should be an opportunity for faith based communities to express shame and to plead for forgiveness from the “sinned against”, namely the poor and the God of the poor. 

In turning to the notion of restitution, it is perhaps important to engage the concept itself critically. A kind of “conceptual cleansing” might even be necessary. In the Catholic Encyclopaedia, for example, restitution is taken to be signifying “an act of commutative justice by which exact reparation as far as possible is made for an injury that has been done to another”. And further, “the grounds on which restitution becomes obligatory are either the possession of something belonging to another, or causing of unjust damage to the property or reputation of another”. There would off course be alternative interpretations of restitution, but an important question will be whether it is a helpful concept for the kind of process which seems to be emerging in South Africa pertaining to the redress of the socio-economic inequalities. The question needs to be posed: Does the concept not focus on a very narrow sense of justice that is legalistic, ignoring the bigger justice/injustice picture? Does the notion of restitution not come out of a mentality that supports the status quo? Is restitution not inadvertently and unintentionally perhaps, arising to from a protectionist tendency, i.e. to protect the interests of the wealthy as much as possible? A further question is whether restitution will be aimed at tackling the underlying system which has given rise to the huge discrepancies between the rich and the poor, however complex and difficult that may be, or will it degenerate into yet another delusion?

On a positive and constructive note: In what way should the contribution of theology and religion to the ongoing debate on restitution be theological or religious. In terms of a virtual subversion of the pertinent questions posed, I want to suggest the inducement of the vision of shalom, God’s shalom, which in the Bible is a condition of all-encompassing peace. It integrates a kind of spiritual well-being with material well-being. The vision of shalom can also quite easily be brought into a very creative discourse with the African philosophical concept of ubuntu. An indispensible dimension also, will be to keep justice and peace in creative tension to one another. In the Bible they operate as twin sisters or alternative as mother and daughter where mother justice gives birth to daughter peace.

Continue reading »]]> There are two pitfalls.

• To think that you can redeem yourself by paying back for damages, to think that you are able to make good what was destroyed or lost
• To think that God’s forgiveness which is a free gift allows you to walk off as a free man/woman without obligations leading to restitution

Reconciliation, leading to restitution, is a liberated life of forgiveness committed to a new transfigured dispensation with justice for all. Zacchaeus might serve as paradigm (Luke 19.1-10). Having become accepted as a disciple of Jesus, out of sheer joy he shares, he pays back and there is little of calculation but much generosity.

In our work for restitution we must have the courage to look critically at our churches. The following six points should be considered.

1. Restitution constitutes an integral part of any authentic reconciliation process.
2. Our understanding of what is church could vary enormously. At this time focus should be on church as communion, as fellowship in solidarity, as koinonia (Acts 2.42).
3. We must take courage to stare down the ugly face of segregation in our churches.
4. Those who are to be reconciled must find themselves in the same worshipping community.
5. A restitution process will flow from such a communion of Christians.
6. South African churches could again show the way and become role models for world Christianity.

Continue reading »]]> Where a wrong has been committed and relationships have broken down, there can be no healing without some restitution. This is basic to forgiveness, reconciliation and normalization of relationships. If there is to be peace and justice, restitution is a basic essential element both for the perpetrator and the victim.

In South Africa so many formerly (and presently) advantaged people are angry and distraught at the ongoing mention of the evils of apartheid and feel that apartheid is over, so why can South Africa not “forgive and forget”. On the other hand, so many former (and present) victims of apartheid feel that little has changed and that the heinous evil from which we are emerging is not understood or appreciated. How can one forgive and forget if little has really changed?

In the case of apartheid full and complete restitution (in the sense of restoring the former situation) is not possible. The same is true of slavery, colonialism, the industrial revolution and other evils that have changed the social, political, economic and spiritual environment in which we live. For example, in South Africa, the attempts for restitution through legal mechanisms for those people who were forcibly removed from their land through apartheid, tend to forget that forcible removal from the land does not only (and not even primarily) mean the loss of land. It entails the destruction of communities, of family life, of the ‘rootedness’ of people in their environment. It means also the loss of agricultural skills and experience as well as feelings of self-worth that flow from the experience of economic and social independence. So return of the land cannot be meaningful restitution in itself. It may potentially even add to the suffering of the victims to whom restitution has been made.

Perhaps this form of incomplete restitution is more important in giving the perpetrator a sense of righteousness and a feeling that forgiveness has been achieved – but for the victim there is not the sense that relationships have been corrected.

 So restitution is essential as a basis for the restoration of justice and peace in South Africa but restitution in the sense of restoring what was before is not possible – so what is the way forward?

 Certainly, some form of symbolic restitution can be helpful provided that it is properly understood both by perpetrator and by victim to symbolise genuine and deep contrition and the desire to make things right. But at the same time, we must be very careful not to go for a ‘quick fix’ so that we can feel better about the situation without really fixing it.

Fundamentally, the only restitution truly meaningful will be the establishment of a society that is based on principles of equality and justice – not only (and not even mainly) in the legal or political sphere, but especially economically, and socially.

At present society is run on the principle of the aggregation of the personal greed of individuals. This was the root cause of apartheid and colonialism in the past and it is the root cause of the injustices in the economic life of today. It is this that must be changed for real restitution to be effected. We need to move away from restoring only things to individuals and move towards working for a new order of peace through social and economic justice.

Is this pie-in-the-sky – will it ever be possible? Christian hope says “yes”. It is possible, it can be achieved. It will certainly take a change of attitudes and values, and a willingness to work tirelessly to that end in our own lives, in our institutions, and in our society and the world as a whole.

Continue reading »]]> Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s recent statement about a white wealth tax has evoked much discussion in the media.  His comments were part of a speech he gave at the launching of a book entitled The Humanist Imperative in South Africa, the culmination of a two year long research project based at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS).  What Tutu said about a wealth tax, as well as his challenge to government leaders to scale back on the amount spent on their luxury official cars, was a thoughtful response to a major theme in the book.  His comments came at the end of a speech in which he had stressed the need for us to recover that sense of human solidarity that was at the heart of the struggle against apartheid.  Human solidarity in the struggle for justice, he insisted, is of the essence of a genuine humanism, it is this which gave rise to our new constitutional democracy, and it is our failure to achieve economic justice that threatens it. 

The Humanist Imperative was an outcome of the New Humanist Project which involved thirty-nine academics and public leaders from a range of backgrounds and disciplines in discussions over two years.  Its aim was to examine the current state of the nation in terms of its humanist foundations.   While humanism is generally associated with the liberal secular tradition that grew out of the European Enlightenment, it has a more complex history in Africa, some of it liberal, some socialist; some secular, some religious.  But the underlying thrust of humanism remains: the affirmation of human freedom, rights, responsibilities, dignity, and economic justice. 

The anti-colonial struggle for independence in Africa, as many distinguished African leaders claimed, was a humanist project; so, too, the struggle against apartheid was humanist at its core.  Thus the eventual outcome, our remarkable Constitution is humanist through and through, but in its own way.  It is neither narrow in its formulations or focus, but embodies the insights of all those humanisms that contributed to overcoming apartheid and laying the foundations for the new South Africa.  As such it strongly affirms our common humanity irrespective of race, gender or sexual orientation, while at the same time respecting our differences as contributing to the enrichment of our common life.  It is a unique document amongst national Constitutions, an inclusive humanist manifesto that calls for an “open society in which government is based on the will of the people;” a society in which “every citizen is equally protected by law;” and, significantly, a society which seeks to “improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person.”  This is the “new humanism” we are called to affirm, protect and embody.

This new South African humanist project is currently under threat from various directions.  The litany of these threats needs little repeating here: racism, gender discrimination, homophobia, xenophobia are words that immediately come to mind.  But the most challenging of all is the growing gap between the rich and the poor, for this fundamentally betrays our common humanity and undermines our commitment to improve the quality of life of all citizens. This was a key concern of the New Humanist Project, it is reflected throughout the essays in The Humanist Imperative, and it was rightly highlighted by Archbishop Tutu in concluding his launching speech.   

Wealth originally meant human well-being, and commonwealth meant the well-being of society as a whole.  To regain this humanist understanding of society there has to be a decisive shift in the dominant value system currently shaping our democracy.  This was forcefully stated by Neville Alexander, one of the contributors to the book: “in order for a new humanism to become feasible, we have to find the vehicles that will enable our new South Africa to free itself from the trap of self-seeking individualism and status-seeking as well as power-hugging accumulation of material goods.”  Whether or not Tutu’s challenge is taken up in precisely the way he expressed it, we simply have to find ways to become a common-wealth for everybody’s sake.  At the very least, the Archbishop’s remarks should goad us into further discussion, perhaps within the context of an economic Codesa, but even more to some practical responses that will indicate that we are serious about the well-being of our society.

* Article published in City Press, 28 August 2011 and used here with permission from the author