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The Doctor in the Cathedral (E.-S for Two Weeks Christian Conscientious Objector Dr Ivan Toms Has Been Living Off Water Alone

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The Doctor in the Cathedral (E.-S for Two Weeks Christian Conscientious Objector Dr Ivan Toms Has Been Living Off Water Alone FAST FOR A JUST PEACE The doctor in the cathedral (e.-S For two weeks Christian conscientious objector Dr Ivan Toms has been living off water alone. Staff Writer SYDNEY DUVAL reports A LONG silent walk feeling,” he says. “I see food as one of the joyous rituals of through a darkened St life, something to be appreci­ George’s Cathedral takes ated and shared.” you down to the crypt where a young man is fast­ All his time is spent in the ing for a special cause. cathedral where he fasts, sleeps and talks. Time is set You will meet a new kind aside for him to pray and of monk. The habit and san­ meditate alone. dals have been replaced by denims, jogging shoes and a He believes that his fast, fisherman’s jersey. and the fast of those in sym­ For two weeks now Chris­ pathy, has prompted other tian conscientious objector churchgoers to realise that Dr Ivan^pns, who runs the they must do something about the crisis South Africa is in, Sacla clTmc at Crossroads, even if to fast for a day. In his has been living off water view whites are also part of alone. the struggle for a just He has lost 6kg - 5kg in country. the first week — and though his weight has been stable the ‘Sharing’ past few days he expects it drop again in the final week “We are fasting as a way of of his three-week fast. sharing in the suffering of the From his cell-like room, townships,” he explains. “We where nearly 900 supporters hope that a little act of com­ have called on him since he mitment will lead people into began fasting for a just peace a deeper commitment to in South Africa and the remo­ changing things. The support val of troops from the town­ so far and the broad appeal of ships, Dr Toms talks modest­ our End Conscription Cam­ ly of his existence on water paign have been very encour­ alone. aging. “It’s very nice to know “The fast ends on Monday, there’s only one week to go,” October 7, the anniversary of he says in a voice hoarse troops entering townships for from taHttg to 70 visitors a the first time. We call on peo­ day. ple to fast in solidarity from 8pm on Sunday until Monday “The big thing is I’m now evening when they are urged weak and feeling it. It’s hard to join us in a rally for peace to get up in the morning. at the City Hall.” Where I shower is two flights up. By the tim e I get to the Dr Toms is a committed lay top of the stairs my muscles churchman of the Church of ache and I’m very tired. I the Province. He grew up in have to rest. Durban where he went to school. He became aware of ‘No stamina’ Gandhi and his Phoenix settle­ ment north of Durban much “This lethargy is creeping later. over me. I’ve no stamina. You could say I’m feeling like With his blue eyes, fair hair many old people feel. At and solid frame Dr Toms and night my mind does not Gandhi are worlds apart in switch off as it used to. I lie physique and colour — but in there quite a time before I spirit there are affinities. fall asleep. ” “Our fast is a creative, non­ He thinks about food, but violent, passive way of high­ with a new perspective. He lighting things for people realises how important it is here,” he says. as a part of life. Weak as he is, water alone Pictur*: PIERRE OOSTHUYSEN, Th«-Air8u “Food should not be thrown is enough to put iron in the together and eaten without soul of Dr Ivan Toms. Dr Ivan Toms . living off water alone for a just peace. ,1 I ! I Support “A number of people have contacted me to say they are fasting for shorter Five in periods in support of our campaign,” Mr Steele; caretaker at the Gandhi settlement outside Durban ‘troops and a member of the End Conscription Campaign, said in Durban. f In 1980 he spent a year in detention barracks for re­ ouf fusing to do his national man Ho fight’ •• service, and was released Staff Reporter from nearly two weeks' police detention late last THE chairperson of the protest week after a Supreme End Conscription Cam­ Court judgment ordered paign in the Western that he, and two other peo­ Cape, Mr Mike Evans, is ple detained with him, be “more determined than fast released by the security ever to fight for the re­ police. lease of detainees” Mr Steele said his fast was following his release By SHAUN HARRIS being strictly monitored by from Pollsmoor Prison FIVE people In different doctors, and he didn't in­ yesterday afternooni tend to harm himself in after 15 days in solitary! parts of South Africa any way. are on a “protest fast” confinement “I choose fasting as a form of Mr Evans, who was de-: to urge the Army to protest because it is com­ withdraw from black tained under Section 29 pletely non-violent, and of the Internal Security! townships. doesn't affect anyone but Act earlier this month; The five men, including a myself,” he said. “And one thing that nobody; said last night he was d e ; medical doctor and the termined to continue! caretaker of a Mahatma can stop you from doing is refusing to eat. Historical­ fighting for an end to? Gandhi centre, have not conscription and to t£e eaten for a week and plan ly, fasting has been used to fast for at least another by people as an effective system of detention week as part of a national form of protest." without trial. “troops out the townships” Mr Steele is staging his “The worst things campaign. “troops out” protest fast about my experience in They are expecting other at St Anthony’s Catholic detention were the isola­ South Africans to join ' Church in Durban. tion, th e lack of access to them in a 24-hour fast at news and the constant the culmination of their threat that I could be campaign in just over a kept there indefinitely,” week's time. he said. ‘The basic reason for the fast Mr Evans said he was is simple. We know that convinced his detention, many young South African and the detention of national servicemen do other ECC members in not want to be in the town­ Durban, was part of a na­ ships helping the police, tion-wide investigation ana we are calling on the Defence Force to get out into the ECC’s activities. of the townships,” 28-year- old Richard Steele said in 1 Mr Ian Koenigsfest. Durban this week Kenilworth: “I wouldj^ Two students at the Univer­ like to extend my sup-»i sity of Natal in Durban — port and strength to Dr * Donn Edwards and Steve Ivan Toms and wouldJj Collins — have joined Mr like to call on thinking-v. Steele in his two-week South Africans to join inc* fast. and fast on 7 October.” £ In Cape Town Dr Ivan Toms, nicknamed the “Cross­ roads doctor" because of the clinic he has run in the squatter settlement for five years, has also fasted for a week, as has Wits student Harold Winkler in Johannesburg. CT Peter Krummeck to fast for peace CONSCIENTIOUS objector Dr Support for Ivan Toms has no illusions that his ON THURSDAY night Peter Krum­ “I hope to generate an awareness of three-week fast will change the the power of peaceful protest as peace fast meck will join Dr Ivan Toms of mind of the Defence Minister Mag­ well as demonstrate the need for the SACLA Clinic, Crossroads, nus Malan. When someone suggest­ pours in and the Rev John Freeth, rector individual involvement,” he said. Portraying Christ in The Passion has ed he fast until troops were with­ of St John’s Parish, Wynberg, to drawn from the townships, he said: CAPE TOWN. — With fast for a just peace. helped him to experience a kind Dr Ivan Toms halfway of discipline, he said. “I’m not Interested in committing through his three-week (Peter will remain in St George’s “I stopped smoking and prayed a suicide.” fc.O. Z M V C J fast for a just peace in Cathedral for a period of 24 lo t ” Cape Town’s St George’s hours, leaving only to perform in Although he is not a member of the Isn’t It Romantic at the Baxter Cathedral, messages of End Conscription Campaign Theatre. support for the End Cons­ which has organized the nation­ cription Campaign (ECC) J After the show on Thursday he will wide fast and prayer vigil, he sup­ ports the call for the removal of have been flowing in from begin his fast and will leave again on Friday night for his perform­ police and troops from the town-, around the world. ships. Most of the messages I ance. have been supportive of the ECC and its call for the removal of the troops from the townships as well as for Dr Toms, and Silent Tutu his co-fasters in the cathe­ Foyer In the foyer of Khotso dral. War Resistors Internat­ House, outside the chapel where Mr Winkler spends ional said in its message most of his days fasting, is that “the ECC offers one avoids Press a poster with photographs of tl^test hopes for mini- of troops in townships mis.^P the violence in with a quotation by Mr Sooth Africa.” — Sapa.
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