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

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Father Michael Lapsley: What Apartheid Has Done to All of Us, Black and White Father Michael Lapsley: What Apartheid Has Done To All Of Us, Black and White Just two days before African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela 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 cerlain 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 white state used and uses violence against the people South Africa which I assume brought you into conflict they call it law and order. with the law. Thami Mhlambiso: So what is the situation today? We Michael Lapsley: I was a university student at the hear talk of government reforms, initiatives by the University of Natal in Durban in the mid seventies and at government of De Klerk. What is the situation in South the same time I was chaplain to two Black university Africa today? campuses and one white university campus. Michael Lapsley: Well, I was back in South Africa for In 1976, I was the national chaplain for Anglican the first time in fifteen years July of this year. I was able students when Black school children were shot in the to be there because I was given indemnity. In a strange streets of South Africa, and I spoke out against the kind of way they had forgiv~n me for their sins. And I killing of children. Shortly after that I was expelled from asked the question, "Who will forgive them for their South Africa. When I lived in South Africa I was a sins?" pacifist, so I used to say to young Black students: "You should not use guns to achieve your rights." That was I saw that many of the laws which apartheid was acceptable within the law in South Africa. And I came to built upon like the Land Act, reserving 87% of the land see that pacifism in South Africa, according to the State, to five million whites, had been removed. The Group was supposed to be for Blacks. But of course when the Areas Act that had divided the suburbs was removed. Acts like defining people at birth according to race had Thami Mhlambiso: Now from your observation, is the changed. These are very significant changes, but I also atmosphere conducive to free political activity in South came to see that those laws were a mechanism to shape Africa? and create a certain society, a monstrous society. Michael Lapsley: My impression in South Africa firstly And when you remove the legislation the society that is that President De Klerk and his government are much you have created remains in place. I also traveled in the cleverer than they are good. They have successfully Transvaal, the Cape, Natal and to squatter camps. I saw hoodwinked large parts of the world by having an open people living under a piece of tin, under a piece of policy of moving towards negotiations and at the same cardboard, and there are millions, a greater number than time a secret policy of funding death and organizing the entire white population. I saw that for those people death squads and pretending to the world that this was they remain jobless, homeless, landless and most what was called black-on-black factional tribal violence. importantly voteless. I think that the world has to be What we have actually seen is the violence of the state clear that in South Africa today people yet do not have continuing to be unleashed on the people of South the vote. Africa. And in a sense what they have done is fed the racism in white western culture to make the people We cannot say that apartheid has ended when the believe that this has nothing to do with the state. majority of the people remain voteless in the land of their birth. Itis 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 The way President De Klerk is operating apartheid, that when we do have a democratic society, we can see he is an enlightened racist, but when we do have a one person, one vote then it will be a great moral responsibility for Western nations to be part nevertheless he is a racist because he of rebuilding South Africa. struggles for the interests of white people not for the interests of all South Africans. 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 So this ongoing violence of the state against the of South Africa. · 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 ~wo 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 Father Michael Lapsley with RAN Coordinator, Aleah Bacquie. permeated our lives, and to deal with the heads and hearts of all of us Black and white. Michael Lapsley: Well, I think it is not a question of ill feeling it- is a question of what the police and army Apartheid has dehumanized us; it has appealed to the continue to do to the people. Just weeks ago there was a basest aspects of ourselves as human beings. We have to funeral for Sam Ntuli who had been a civil leader of work on those structures; we have to deal with what is in South Africa, and who had been assassinated. At that the heads and hearts of all of us. It is a deep and a long funeral more than 20 people were shot dead and some of process, because when you have removed the structures the bullets were fired from a police Casper according to of racism you have not necessarily removed it from the eye witnesses. So the reality is that the state and the heads and hearts of human beings, nor what it has done machinery of the state continues to be violent and to whites in terms of them thinking themselves superior, continues to kill people. or what it has done to Black people with continuous messages that they are inferior. Only when we have a legitimate government with a commitment to creating a democratic army and police Thami Mhlambiso: Now there is massive unem­ force that will serve the interests of all South Africans ployment in South Africa. A lot of people blame it on will we actually see an end to that violence. And clearly the application of sanctions. They say that many people some of the police and army are a law unto themselves, lost their jobs as a result. What is your impression? and there is no sign that the de Klerk regime has the. political will to make them become the protectors of the Michael Lapsley: I think for decades the legitimate nation. It would seem that they are quite content to have representatives of the people of South Africa, going right the police and army continue to kill the people. back to Chief Luthuli, then president general of the ANC, said to the world, our people are suffering already Thami Mhlambiso: You have been in Durban, a large and we are prepared to sacrifice in the cause of our part of your activity was based there.
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