Reverend Xundu foresaw the coming of liberation

IT WAS with great sadness that we heard the news that our elder brother, Reverend Mcebisi Xundu, had passed away.

I deeply regretted the fact that I was out of the country when this happened and the consequent reality that it was not possible for me to be at the gathering at the graveyard to say the final farewell.

I first met Rev Xundu in Lusaka, Zambia, during the period of our years in exile.

While he was in Lusaka, he delivered a sermon at the Anglican Cathedral.

Many of us, the South Africans in exile came to church that day to listen to a pastor who was fresh from home and who would be going back into the country. It proved a day we would not forget.

The preacher took all of us by surprise when he started his sermon by shouting the slogan, “viva Jesus, viva!”.

And indeed he proceeded to show us that Jesus had come among the peoples of the world to liberate the oppressed.

Thus it was that he too, Rev Mcebisi Xundu, had to honour his Christian duty to stand with those who fight for the liberation of our people from the yoke of apartheid oppression.

Thus he had visited us in Lusaka, the headquarters of the ANC, as a fellow-fighter for the defeat of the apartheid system and the building of a democratic, nonracial and nonsexist South Africa.

A man of his word, he had of course been involved in the struggles of the people during the years when he served as a parish priest in Durban.

In an interview he gave in July 1985 he spoke of his involvement with other church leaders in the popular struggles in the Durban townships. Such was the extent and depth of his involvement in these struggle that he could indeed be described and was seen by the masses as “the people’s pastor”!

In the interview I have mentioned he said: “At the height of violence here (in Durban), where they thought I was the person who instigated the violence and they thought I was training ANC cadres, they came here four times searching for bombs and so forth. They said, ‘we hear that you’re training ANC people here. You are an ANC pawn.’ “One time they were threatening to deport me but the solidarity in the township was too good.

“One time they took me at 6am and they said I must fill in papers. ‘Where do you come from?’ I told them. They said, ‘Now Rev Xundu, we are preparing a banning order for a deportation order. We must deport you.’ But immediately they took me, the schools went into a hell of a disruption, children went to the school with placards demanding Xundu. They went round the township and went on to all the councillors’ houses. And at 11 o’clock I was brought back.”

Such was the accolade which “the people’s pastor” received from the people, among whom he also served as a liberator.

So deep was Rev Xundu’s understanding of the struggle in which he was involved that he even foresaw the negotiations which were still to come, when many others could not imagine such an eventuality.

In an interview in August 1989 he said: “I want to say that in the next few years a serious attempt is going to be made to talk to the ANC by the government. When that takes place there may be partial upliftment of the ANC. And when that happens I think that negotiations will begin to roll.

“People have said there must be a particular assembly which takes charge between now and that time.

“That will be one of the things that should be negotiated.”

Xundu said he could not foresee the exact sequence of events “but I can see a process which will change the law and in which there will be many players involved. People will be talking about whether we should move in a federal direction, or in a unitary South Africa direction.”

It was only one who was deeply immersed in struggle who could have had the foresight he had which enabled him to speak of the negotiations which actually began in 1990.

All of us were very fortunate that he was present when, at last, in 1994, he could see the fruits of his labour, when we achieved the liberation for which he had fought over many years.

I must say also that even as a family we were very happy that Rev Xundu was present in Port Elizabeth when our father, Oom Gov , returned to the city after his release from Robben Island. Oom Gov himself showed his own appreciation of Rev Xundu by working with him until he, Oom Gov, passed away.

We must indeed lower our banners to pay tribute to a very Christian man and a brave fighter for our liberation, Rev Mcebisi Xundu.

May he rest in peace!

Thabo Mbeki