Listening to the silent majority

[p. 165]

[118]

The bishops at Crossroads were also expressing their doubts about the effectiveness of the present format of the NFBL: Archbishop S Mhambi told me, ‘We hear via the news much about reform. But we do not see much progress in the townships here at the Cape where we work and live. Our daily encounters cause us rather to have doubts about meaningful reforms. If the National Forum of black leaders is indeed going to discuss the future of our land, we feel it is not representative enough for the black population on the whole.’

‘Are there Church people in the National Forum?’ I asked.^98. Archbishop Mhambi: ‘I don't know, because we are not present. If someone would inform us where the meetings of the nfbl are being held, we could be there and try to express our opinions as well. The organisations that are setting up the nfbl are perhaps somewhat apprehensive towards us, in case we are members of the South African Council of Churches. But we from the Western Cape Council of Churches, are definitely not members of the SACC.’

Bishop Thomas Siyolo, Archbishop Mhambi's deputy, explained that in November 1988 more than 200 church leaders from the Cape and the Karee region had held a meeting in Graafrand. ‘We wanted to discover the feelings of the assembled churchmen on the use of violence in overthrowing apartheid and on the subject of sanctions. They unanimously shared our view of non-violence and they opposed the boycott as strongly as we do.’

98. According to Nelson Botile, no churchmen are at present in the NFBL