Apartheid Survivor to Preach at Southwark

28 Feb 2002

For immediate release

A former victim of the apartheid regime in South Africa is to be this year's Holy Week preacher at Southwark Cathedral. The Rev Dr Nyameko Barney Pityana is now Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa, but as a lawyer in the apartheid era he was imprisoned frequently. He escaped to the UK and trained here for ordination.

Dr Pityana will preach at the principal services throughout Holy Week, beginning on Palm Sunday, 24 March. This will include Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes, 25-27 March, then Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, concluding with the Easter services on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March.

The Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev Colin Slee, says: "Barney Pityana is someone it's worth travelling to hear. His learning and his courage, together with his personal experience, give a prophetic edge to his preaching. He continues a tradition of high-profile South Africans visiting Southwark Cathedral - were very privileged to have Dr Nelson Mandela to open our Millennium development in April 2001, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, long a friend of the Cathedral, returned on a visit shortly afterwards."

Barney Pityana trained as a lawyer, and was imprisoned frequently under apartheid, as was his wife Dimza who will accompany him on this visit. The authorities used to release them in turn, arresting the other one the day before, so their daughter hardly ever saw them together. He escaped to the UK and was given a place at King's College London where he was a student of the present Dean of Southwark. He gained a BD, then went to Cuddesdon College to train for ordination.

After a curacy in Oxford Diocese he was Vicar of Immanuel, Highters Heath, on the outskirts of Birmingham, 1985-88, where his suffragan bishop was the Rt Rev Colin Buchanan, now the Bishop of Woolwich. Subsequently Barney Pityana became Director of the Programme to Combat Racism at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, 1989-92.

He returned to South Africa when apartheid and banning were abolished, and under Nelson Mandela was appointed chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission, where he has achieved notoriety not least for his criticisms of some of the present government and his defence of human rights in all respects.

He was appointed to UNISA - the University of S Africa - in September 2001, where a major controversy was in progress between the Minister of Education and the University.

Ends.