Obituaries

Mfaniseni Ndwandwe: Quiet bishop who made a brave stand (1928–2018)

FANISENI Sigisbert in 1955. Three years later he was Ndwandwe died in Jouber- awarded a scholarship to study at the Mton, North West Province. University of Rome where he earned Aged 89, he was the Anglican Bishop the degree of Doctor of Canon Law. Suffragan of Johannesburg in the After his return he taught at Inkamana. volatile 1980s. He often found himself Having long been in love with a on the frontlines during the uprisings woman he met when they were fellow against as he tried to work pupils at Inkamana High, he was with young activists in his diocese, among those Catholic priests who felt and as far as possible shield them when strongly about the celibacy vow for they were being shot at, sjambokked, priests. When their representations to chased and detained by the police. the Pope failed, he became an Anglican This made him a target too. During the priest in 1968 and immediately national State of Emergency in 1986, married the woman he’d fallen in love his home in the Klerksdorp township with. of Jouberton was firebombed and he He was sent to Soweto as the priest was detained without trial for 99 days. in charge of The Good Shepherd His diocese incorporated parts of Church in Tladi. In 1976 he became the the homeland of , run Rector of St Cyprian’s in Sharpeville, by Lucas Mangope. When people in Vereeniging. In 1978 he and the late Zeerust were being hunted down by Bishop Simeon Nkoane were elected Mangope’s police in the early 1980s as Bishops-Suffragan of Johannesburg. for their resistance to his regime, He was based in Jouberton and served Ndwandwe visited and instructed the western part of the diocese while one of his priests, the Reverend Oupa Nkoane looked after the eastern part. Letsholo, to allow his church to be used In 1985 they joined Tutu (recently as a refuge for people who did not feel installed as Bishop of Johannesburg) safe in their own homes. His strong and two dozen other priests in an convictions were probably why in the illegal march to police headquarters late 1980s and early 1990s, he was part in Johannesburg in protest against the of a panel of four bishops appointed detention of Father Geoff Moselane by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, head of of Sharpeville, who was later charged the Anglican Church in South , with United Democratic Front (UDF) to promote peace between Inkatha and activists in the Delmas Treason the United Democratic Front in war- Trial. In the following year, in April torn KwaZulu-Natal. Ndwandwe’s house in Jouberton was Ndwandwe was born in firebombed. Police were suspected in KwaZulu-Natal on 25 November of being involved. Instead of 1928. He matriculated at Inkamana investigating the incident, they arrested High School in Vryheid and studied him on charges of public violence. to be a Roman Catholic priest at They released him, only to re-arrest Inkamana Seminary. He was ordained him under the Internal Security Act,

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Mfaniseni Ndwandwe, (left) with Bishops Tutu and Simeon Nkoane leading a march on Johannesburg’s police headquarters in 1985 (Image by Robert Tshabalala) and detained him without trial for 99 Ndwandwe had been arrested, he told days on a claim that he had conspired the government: ‘If anyone has been to murder policemen. He and other working towards holding together a prisoners engaged on a hunger strike community that was exploding, then because the food was inedible, which it was this person. This is not the way they ended after three or four days. to go around defusing this explosive They were served scorching hot, situation.’ mealie meal porridge but without Ndwandwe identified equally with spoons to eat it. Being ravenously the white members of the diocese. hungry, they used their hands which Despite a high level of conservatism, they scalded in the process, much to and a strong reticence to accept a the amusement of the guards. black bishop, Ndwandwe went out of Ndwandwe was a gentle, quietly his way to let them know that he was courageous, dignified man. He wasn’t their bishop too. His quiet dignity and strident or an overtly political priest. conscientious approach won many He believed that as a bishop, he had over. a sacred duty to look after his flock, On the day he was released from be with them when they were in prison, he went to St Peter’s Church in trouble and protect them, even if this Klerksdorp to preside at a confirmation meant physically interposing himself service. ‘We thought it [the confirm­ between them and the police, which ation service] won’t take place,’ pa- he was known to do. When Tutu heard rishioner Marie van Wyk remembered,

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‘But [the] bishop said ‘The work of the This is an abbreviated version of the Lord must go on”, and it did.’ obituary published in the Sunday Times, Ndwandwe retired in 1991. He 13 May 2018. is survived by Dorcas, his wife of 50 years, two sons and a daughter. Another son died in 2004. CHRIS BARRON

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