Apartheid fighter passes through Waimarino

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 389, 4 June 1991, Page 12

Apartheid fighter passes through Waimarino

A South African who has spent years fighting apartheid thinks that now is the time to lift sanctions against his country. African Enterprise evangelist Michael Cassidy would most likely say the most important thing he has to say was that it is important to, start setting up a new democratic system in his country based on biblical principles. But the interesting point for many New Zealanders is that he thinks sporting and other cultural links should be put back to normal now. "I believe South Africa needs encouragement in its work to dismantle apartheid," he said last week during a visit to the Waimarino. The man is on extended leave from his missionary work in South Africa, visiting Australia and New Zealand mostly for holiday making but interspersed with speaking engagements. Mr Cassidy said he believed President De Klerk and the South African people had achieved a great deal in the past 18 months and that the dismantling of apartheid was now irreversible. "Nations like New Zealand and Australia, which are first cousins to South Africa, should give him some encouragement for what he's achieved, he needs a pat on the back." Repentance and reconciliation are now

important in his country, says Michael Cassidy. He said the country now has many choices on how it sets up a new system of government and that he would like to see it based on biblical principles, based on selflessness rather than apartheid's selfishness. "It demands thinking of the other person and other groups at least as much as thinking of yourself and your own group. And if possible rise above that and think of the other more than oneself." "We can't build a new nation on vendetta, it needs to be forgiveness, from both black and white." He said he would like to see non-racial majority rule of both blacks and whites who believe in democratic and Christian principles. While the great majority of white South Africans have come to terms with the 'major gear change' that is required, there is a very dangerous and large right wing who have called for 'a million' guns, and opposite them there is an equally dangerous group of very angry and very dangerous often uneducated younger blacks whose slogan is 'liberation before education', so they are largely unemployed and unemployable. A dangerous slogan of theirs is 'one settler one bullet' . Michael Cassidy sees Christianity as the hope

in uniting all the elements of South Africa including these two extremes. He said it can be the force for healing as well as averting catastrophe because 78 per cent of South Africans claim to be Christians, and that includes many

from the ranks of the far left and the far right. New Zealanders are invited to help Michael Cassidy and his fellow workers , through Douglas Walker, African Enterprises, Private Box 51-214 Tawa, Wellington.