Father Michael Lapsley: What Has Done to All of US, Black and White

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Author/Creator Lapsley, Michael Contributor Mhlambiso, Thami Publisher American Committee on Africa Date 1991 Resource type Interviews Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, United States Coverage (temporal) 1976 - 1991 Source Africa Action Archive Rights By kind permission of Africa Action, incorporating the American Committee on Africa, The Africa Fund, and the Africa Policy Information Center. Description Apartheid. Thami Mhlambiso. President De Klerk. Violence. Sanctions. Format extent 4 page(s) (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org Father Michael Lapsley:

Father Michael Lapsley: What Apartheid Has Done To All Of Us, Black and White 4. Just two days before African National Congress leader sat down for his first round of talks with South African President F. W. De Klerk in May 1990, Father Michael Lapsley received a parcel bomb planted in a religious magazine. That bomb blew away both of his hands, one eye, and shattered his ear drums. That sophisticated device of death carries the almost certain hallmark of the South African regime. Father Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and prominent anti-apartheid activist for over 15 years, was put on a state assassination list and made the target of this bomb simply because he was speaking the truth about apartheid. His personal story is one of struggle against apartheid and a continuing faith witness for justice in Southern Africa. In October 1991 Father Lapsley toured the U.S. to tell his story. Standing before religious audiences, with both of his hands now replaced by hooks, Father Lapsley 's shattering experience is a compelling sign that apartheid has not ended. While he was in New York, Father Lapsley was interviewed by Thami Mhlambiso of United Nations Radio. We print below excerpts from that interview. Thami Mhlambiso: Tell us of your pastoral work in South Africa which I assume brought you into conflict with the law. Michael Lapsley: I was a university student at the University of Natal in in the mid seventies and at the same time I was chaplain to two Black university campuses and one white university campus. In 1976, I was the national chaplain for Anglican students when Black school children were shot in the streets of South Africa, and I spoke out against the killing of children. Shortly after that I was expelled from South Africa. When I lived in South Africa I was a pacifist, so I used to say to young Black students:"You should not use guns to achieve your rights." That was acceptable within the law in South Africa. And I came to see that pacifism in South Africa, according to the State, was supposed to be for Blacks. But of course when the white state used and uses violence against the people they call it law and order. Thami Mhlambiso: So what is the situation today? We hear talk of government reforms, initiatives by the government of De Klerk. What is the situation in South Africa today? Michael Lapsley: Well, I was back in South Africa for the first time in fifteen years July of this year. I was able to be there because I was given indemnity. In a strange kind of way they had forgiven me for their sins. And I asked the question, "Who will forgive them for their sins?" I saw that many of the laws which apartheid was built upon like the Land Act, reserving 87% of the land to five million whites, had been removed. The Group Areas Act that had divided the suburbs was removed.

Acts like defining people at birth according to race had changed. These are very significant changes, but I also came to see that those laws were a mechanism to shape and create a certain society, a monstrous society. And when you remove the legislation the society that you have created remains in place. I also traveled in the Transvaal, the Cape, Natal and to squatter camps. I saw people living under a piece of tin, under a piece of cardboard, and there are millions, a greater number than the entire white population. I saw that for those people they remain jobless, homeless, landless and most importantly voteless. I think that the world has to be clear that in South Africa today people yet do not have the vote. We cannot say that apartheid has ended when the majority of the people remain voteless in the land of their birth. It is important for the world to keep the pressure of sanctions up until we have indeed achieved a democratic society. But I also think it is important to say to Western nations, all of whom have benefited from apartheid, that when we do have a democratic society, when we do have a one person, one vote then it will be a great moral responsibility for Western nations to be part of rebuilding South Africa. It will be meaningless to have Nelson Mandela as our president if the lives of the majority of our people do not change. And the people who have benefited from that system have a moral responsibility to help us in rebuilding our country for the interests of all the people of South Africa. Father Michael Lapsley with RAN Coordinator, Aleah Bacquie. Thami Mhlambiso: Now from your observation, is the atmosphere conducive to free political activity in South Africa? Michael Lapsley: My impression in South Africa firstly is that President De Klerk and his government are much cleverer than they are good. They have successfully hoodwinked large parts of the world by having an open policy of moving towards negotiations and at the same time a secret policy of funding death and organizing death squads and pretending to the world that this was what was called black-on- black factional tribal violence. What we have actually seen is the violence of the state continuing to be unleashed on the people of South Africa. And in a sense what they have done is fed the racism in white western culture to make the people believe that this has nothing to do with the state. The way President De Klerk is operating we can see he is an enlightened racist, but nevertheless he is a racist because he struggles for the interests of white people not for the interests of all South Africans. So this ongoing violence of the state against the people does not create a good climate for negotiations; it creates a climate of fear. And it is difficult for people to conduct normal political activity. But I think it illustrates how urgent it is that we get to all party negotiations and that we have an interim government. President De Klerk has illustrated by his two track policy of talking and at the same time of funding and organizing death against the people that he cannot be trusted. So we need an interim arrangement, a transitional government representing all political parties that will preside over the process of negotiations. I don't think there will be peace in South Africa until we have a legitimate government and the army and the police begin to be, for the first time in the history of South Africa, the protectors of the people of South Africa rather than the historical oppressors which they remain up until this time. Thami Mhlambiso: Some have said that it might take at least fifteen to twenty years for people to overcome apartheid and have it lifted from their minds, especially the whites of South Africa. Michael Lapsley: I believe myself that we could have a democratic constitution in three years. That would take us to base one of what it means to be accepted as a civilized nation. I think it will take us a hundred years to create a truly human society in South and southern Africa to deal with those structures of evil that have permeated our lives, and to deal with the heads and hearts of all of us Black and white. Apartheid has dehumanized us; it has appealed to the basest aspects of ourselves as human beings. We have to work on those structures; we have to deal with what is in the heads and hearts of all of us. It is a deep and a long process, because when you have removed the structures of racism you have not necessarily removed it from the heads and hearts of human beings, nor what it has done to whites in terms of them thinking themselves superior, or what it has done to Black people with continuous messages that they are inferior. Thami Mhlambiso: Now there is massive unemployment in South Africa. A lot of people blame it on the application of sanctions. They say that many people lost their jobs as a result. What is your impression? Michael Lapsley: I think for decades the legitimate representatives of the people of South Africa, going right back to Chief Luthuli, then president general of the ANC, said to the world, our people are suffering already and we are prepared to sacrifice in the cause of our liberation. The reality is that sanctions do hurt. But apartheid kills. Do we go on hurting forever or do we sacrifice that in order to be free? The very heart of the violence is apartheid. Apartheid has always been based on violence; it has always been put in place by violence. I think the interesting thing about President De Klerk is that he has admitted to his own people that sanctions have worked. And that is why the time has come for negotiations. The reality is, however, that he is not yet struggling for the best interests of all the people of South Africa. In South Africa you have an ultra right that are fanatical racists. The way President De Klerk is operating we can see he is an enlightened racist, but nevertheless he is a racist because he struggles for the interests of white people not for the interests of all South Africans. That is indicated by de Klerk's recent constitutional proposals that speak of one person, one vote in large print, but in small print envisioned constitutional mechanisms that leave wealth and power solidly in white hands. Thami Mhlambiso: Father Lapsley, very briefly this question about the armed forces and the police and the real conflict in South Africa. Now we have a Peace Accord that has been signed by various parties in South Africa apart from the government, ANC and Inkatha. Do you see the Peace Accord working, especially now that it focuses attention on the codes of conduct for the police? Do you think all the mistrust and ill feeling in South Africa against the police especially amongst the Blacks will go away easily? Michael Lapsley: Well, I think it is not a question of ill feeling it is a question of what the police and army continue to do to the people. Just weeks ago there was a funeral for Sam Ntuli who had been a civil leader of South Africa, and who had been assassinated. At that funeral more than 20 people were shot dead and some of the bullets were fired from a police Casper according to eye witnesses. So the reality is that the state and the machinery of the state continues to be violent and continues to kill people. Only when we have a legitimate government with a commitment to creating a democratic army and police force that will serve the interests of all South Africans will we actually see an end to that violence. And clearly some of the police and army are a law unto themselves, and there is no sign that the de Klerk regime has the political will to make them become the protectors of the nation. It would seem that they are quite content to have the police and army continue to kill the people. Thami Mhlambiso: You have been in Durban, a large part of your activity was based there. Now we see violence in South Africa. They say it is ethnic violence, Black-on-Black violence as they call it. But we saw Zulu kill Zulu; it is not just Zulu and Xhosa. What do you think is at the heart of this violence in South Africa? Michael Lapsley: The very heart of the violence is apartheid. Apartheid has always been based on violence; it has always been put in place by violence. Every oppressor in human history has used some among the oppressed to fight others of the oppressed. The Romans did it; the Nazis did it; the South African regime does it today. It is racism in the world that blinds people from seeing that particular reality. When I come to the United States as I am today, a priest from southern Africa with no hands, I am a sign of what apartheid has done to all of us Black and white. We have had situations when armed masked gunmen have gotten on trains and killed everyone on the train. That was supposedly Inkatha. But it has now emerged that it was a unit within the South African Army who actually did it, that pretended to be members of Inkatha. So you see the bloody hand of the state acting against the people. Thami Mhlambiso: Father Lapsley let me ask, what happened in your case when those people bombed you? Was there any pretense to an investigation? Michael Lapsley: I received a letter bomb. I had been living since 1983 in . More than three years before the government of Zimbabwe had told me I was on a death list. Now, the regime knows that I am a member of the African National Congress of South

Africa as well as being an Anglican priest. But they also know that I was not part of the military wing of the ANC, . My work is theological. It is the work of mobilizing the international religious community and the Christian community in South Africa to say that apartheid is an option for death carried on in the name of the gospel of life. And therefore it is an assured faith for religious people, especially Christian people, to be involved in the struggle against it. The apartheid state illustrated my point by trying to kill me, and in a sense it indicates the way they have used the Christian gospel as a weapon to oppress people. My work, if you like, was the work of unmasking them. Otherwise what kind of conceivable threat could it have been? But when that letter bomb went off it was again with the great cynicism of the apartheid regime that they put it in an envelope inside two religious magazines, one in Afrikaans and one in English. When I opened the pages of the magazine the bomb went off so powerfully that it blew out the ceiling of three rooms and blew a hole in the floor. It was a miracle to survive. Through God and the love and prayers of the people of the world, I realized quickly after the bombing that if I became filled with hatred, self pity, bitterness I would be a victim forever. But instead my faith has deepened, my compassion has deepened and my commitment for a truly free South Africa has increased. When I come to the United States as I am today, a priest from southern Africa with no hands, I am a sign of what apartheid has done to all of us, black and white. But because I am not filled with bitterness and hatred rather with faith and commitment, I am a sign of the healing in southern Africa Blacks and whites need so much in our bodies, but even more in our heads and in our hearts. Thami Mhlambiso: Father Lapsley, with all that is happening in the international community many of the people today who are supportive of sanctions, who are supportive of isolation South Africa, are moving closer to South Africa now. What role do you see for the international community in the struggle today for the people of South Africa? Michael Lapsley: I think the peoples of the world need to be saying to their governments that Black people do not yet have the vote, it is not yet time to lift sanctions. The danger would be that if sanctions were abandoned completely the regime could stop negotiating, and our people would remain powerless. And without any international weapon to achieve a democratic society, we need support for the ANC for the whole process leading to democracy. People need to see that it is the people of South Africa and their legitimate representatives, particularly the ANC, that need their support on thebasis of common humanity. People should not be duped by a South African state that is cleverer than it is good. Thami Mhlambiso: Father Lapsley, in a nutshell, can you give us a post-apartheid South Africa. The danger would be that if sanctions were abandoned completely the regime could stop negotiating, and our people would remain powerless. Michael Lapsley: I think we have seen reactive legislation that has removed some of the laws of apartheid. We need to have in a democratic state proactive legislation, to begin to share the immense wealth with the majority of South Africa, to have an economy that serves all South Africans. We have to do something about all the millions of people that are homeless. South Africa has an acute shortage of skilled labor because there is a system of education that has prepared Black people for inferiority, and only the minority for the most skilled jobs. A system of education is needed for all South Africans that will begin to educate our people to take their place in a modern economy. It will be important particularly for the churches to deal with the spiritual side of what apartheid has done, the ravages of racism, if you like, to the souls and psyches of our people. Apartheid has affected every aspect of our lives. In a truly free South Africa we will have to act legislatively. But we will also have to help all of us to be free as human beings, not to allow ourselves to be filled and consumed with hatred and bitterness. That would make us all victims forever. But we must begin to build a truly human community and see that the different cultures that make up South Africa are not sources of fear but great riches that we have to share with one another. As time goes on, South Africa will be one of the most exciting countries on earth, and may indeed be a model for the future of humanity. I think, in the process of our struggle for liberation, we have begun to share those riches and to see that non-racialism is truly the alternative to racism. Thami Mhlambiso: Father Lapsley thank you very much for your most important message. Michael Lapsley: Thank you. Additional copies of this publication are available from the American Committee on Africa, founded in 1953. Price: 30 cents each. Over twenty, 15 cents each. Please add 15% postage. Minimum order $1.00. The Religious Action Network * 198 Broadway, Suite 402 * New York, NY 10038 * (212) 962-1210 Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, RAN Chairperson * Aleah Bacquie, RAN Coordinator *