Demonstrating against forced removal of District Six:
from left is the late Father Basil Van Rensburg, Father John Oliver, Imam Moerat, and Rev. David Newby, with hundreds of protesters
Photographer unknown
The
District Six Defender
BASIL
VAN RENSBURG
Author:
A.M. van Rensburg (b4
c2 d1 e6 f5 g5 h3 i2)
Webmaster:
M.A. van Rensburg
(b4
c2 d1 e6 f5 g5 h3 i2 j1)
Demonstrating against forced removal of District Six:
from left is the late Father Basil Van Rensburg, Father John Oliver, Imam Moerat,
and Rev. David Newby, with hundreds of protesters
Photographer unknown
Basil van Rensburg was born in Woodstock, Cape Town on 8 November, 1930. He was sent to a Catholic School even though his parents were not Catholics. At the age of 15 Basil became a Catholic.
When he was 21 he went and studied for the priesthood at a seminary in Pretoria. He was told he needed to do more living first and sent home. He worked as a bus conductor, a sound technician at SABC and in advertising. Twice he was engaged to be married. In his 40s he went to the St John Vianney seminary in Pretoria. This time he was accepted. At the age of 45, in 1975 he was ordained as a Catholic priest.
He became the priest for District Six in 1976. Ten years earlier P W BOTHA, as the Minister of Community Development, proclaimed this as a whites area. Force removals of families had commenced in 1970 and the bulldozers were destroying the houses. When Basil van Rensburg became priest at the Holy Cross Catholic church, the population of District Six had shrunk to 35,000 from a previous population of 60 000.
Adam Small wrote the following little poem which he shared at my school in 1971:
Die
bulldozers, hullit gakom
romtomtom
dom
was ons mos
stom mos
al die djare
Klaar gakom het hulle
een plat gadonner
alles hierso
alles, alles
hyse, harte
die lot,
alles,
God!
- so pêllie,
klim yt die klippe yt
op,
op!
Djy dink sieker ek is cynical?
God, pêllie, ek is serious.
Basil van Rensburg was to be seen where the police and the bulldozer were. He was their for the community in this time when they were being uprooted. Eventually what remained of District Six was three churches and one mosque. One of these churches was the church at which van Rensburg was ministering. He continued to provide Mass for his congregation even though they had to travel far to come to their church.
Van Rensburg was at the forefront in opposing the development of District Six and thus the empty piece of land still remains abandoned near to the heart of Cape Town. District Six belonged to its people and van Rensburg was going to ensure that its rightful owners be reinstated.
Basil van Rensburg became a well known figure, however within the church there were some uneasiness with him. Van Rensburg was asked to go and study at the Notre Dame Institute for Clergy Education in Indiana in the US. During his stay in the USA he commenced a hunger strike against apartheid.
The Archbishop of Cape Town, Stephen NAIDOO, then appointed him to one of the worst parishes, in the black township of Guguletu where crime and poverty was rampant.
Van Rensburg undeterred by the circumstances used his advertising background to make the most out of a bad situation. He made his church a tourist attraction.
Many people came
to St Gabriel's, including Nelson
MANDELA, the presidents of France and Ireland, and Helmut KOHL of Germany. He
became the loved priest by the high and the low. His high profile ensured plenty
of financial support for his local church. He used these resources to assists
students and he provided a library, research and study center.
Van Rensburg also supported Aids-awareness project. With success comes criticism,
van Rensburg popularity caused his superiors to questions his motives and his
celebrity status. He was not backwards and was prepared to challenge the church
authorities themselves publicly. There seems to have been a certain amount of
ecclesiastical jealousy by the church authorities. The church authorities requested
embassies to send money direct to head office, but these requests were ignored.
Van Rensburg confronted his superior archbishop Lawrence HENRY regarding these
matters. His direct approach did not endeare him to them, he was to direct,
and arrogant for their liking. Van Rensburg had no time for those who opposed
him.
Basil van
Rensburg, died March 28, 2002 at Cape Town, at the age of 71. He died at 2am
on Easter Sunday after being admitted to the city’s Vincent Palotti Hospital
suffering from complications of diabetes. He would be remembered doing more
than any other peron, drawing attention to the destruction of District Six.
He left to mourn three sisters and two brothers.
OTHER SOURCES
UCT Libraries
Type: Manuscript
Ref: BC847
Description: District Six Community Papers.
Starting: 1978
Ending: 1985
Remarks Donor: Father Basil van Rensburg; ca.1500 items.
Summary: +Consists of the papers of the District Six Advice Office, which incl.
correspondence, court cases, commissions of enquiry and housing survey records,
as well as photographs, maps, pamphlets and press cuttings.