Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. [Volume 39, Issue 8. April 1976]

The Christian Institute:

The Christian Institute:

The Sharpeville massacre of 1960 caused concern among clergymen several of whom established the Christian Institute of Southern Africa. Preaching that the system of apartheid is incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the basic tenets of Christianity has brought members of the Institute into disfavour with the Government and its supporters. Members of the Institute have been harrassed by the security police, banned and placed under house arrest and, together with other liberals, have bene subjected to right-wing terrorism.

There have been over 400 reported cases of right-wing terrorism; academics, students and clergymen have had the windscreens of thier cars smashed, tyres slashed, molotoy cocktails thrown into gatherings and buildings set on fire.

One academic had bullets fired through his bedroom window, which just missed his wife and child by inches. Very much of this terrorism has been conducted by reactionary elements among the Afrikaans - speaking, but the police have also been reportedly seen carrying out such acts. Except for the arrest of a fire-bug who called himself Scorpio the crimes have gone undetected.

In 1975 the Christian Institute was declared an affected organisation which means that it, too, can no longer receive funds from abroad.