Unsung hero lights candle of hope

Bishop Dandala performed the marriage of President Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel and chaired our first Moral Summit but his most significant work was brokering peace accords in the hostels.

Sunday Independent, October 25 1998

When a talented teenager produced the play The Bishop and the Candlesticks at a high school in Buntingville, near Umtata in the Eastern Cape, little did he know that 25 years later he would be lighting candles made out of barbed wire in an East Rand hostel.

These unusual candlesticks, and the achievement of peace and hope they symbolised during the early '90s, were made possible by the efforts of Mvume Dandala.

Today, as Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, Dandala continues to light candles of hope for South Africa and to inspire many with his leadership.

Dandala believes that the long struggle for freedom has ensured that South Africans will not squander what they fought so hard for. He also believes that people have the spirit for reconciliation not despite South Africa's history but as a result of the shared pain.

During the '60s, Martin Luther King inspired Americans to sing We Shall Overcome. Dandala's refrain is "We have overcome".

He sees a crucial challenge in helping whites to see and claim the fact that they too were part of overcoming South Africa's gory history. The first step is to help them accept that, individually and collectively, they were part of oppression.

"You need to acknowledge the past in order to be free. But remember, we defeated the past together, so we can all be free," he says.

Dandala is best known for his outstanding work as a peacemaker during the years before the 1994 elections when political violence on the East Rand was particularly intense. As a senior minister of the Central Methodist church in Johannesburg, he brokered more than 30 peace agreements in Johannesburg's inner city and in East Rand hostels.

"He would actually go where angels and devils feared to tread," says Ishmael Mkhabela, executive director of the Interfaith Community Development Association (ICDA).

For Gertrude Mzizi, currently an IFP MP in the Gauteng provincial legislature, Dandala was the only cleric accepted in the hostels. The South African Council of Churches (SACC) was regarded as a wing of the ANC.

"All members of the IFP were rejecting people aligned to the SACC because it was aligned to the ANC. He is the only one who ever came to us.

"He never feared us. He never asked for a police escort. He just came to us because we were human beings and he acknowledged our suffering and he was interested in peace. All the peace we have in Thokoza, Katlehong and Vosloroos is mainly attributable to him," Mzizi says.

Peter Storey, the former bishop of the central district of the Methodist church, currently on teaching sabbatical in America, describes Dandala as having "a wisdom beyond his years and an instinct for statesmanship that makes him a naturally unifying person.

"One of his gifts of leadership is the ability to win trust from people who have very different views and interests. Witness his ability to win the trust of Xhosa and Zulu hostel-dwellers during their pre-election war."

That gift was undoubtedly shaped by early memories of his father, a Methodist minister, resolving faction fights. Dandala recalls the feeling of pride at the sight of his father, on horseback, skilfully mediating between crowds of people.

Showing leadership ability by the age of seven, Dandala was conducting the local Sunday school choir and by 15, teaching at Sunday school. In addition to organising plays, he persuaded the school principal to take the drama group on a tour of the Eastern Cape.

That tour gave him his first chance to practise being a reconciliator when he mediated between a teacher and a pupil.

Dandala studied at the John Wesley theological seminary in Alice in the Eastern Cape. He followed that with studies at Cambridge University (Wesley House) in England, graduating with a Master's in theology in 1981. He is married with two children. In his position as Presiding Bishop for Southern Africa, Dandala is responsible for six countries Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa.

How does a man with such a vast brief renew his soul?

He returns to his village in Mount Ayliff at least three times a year for three to four days. "That, for me, is inspiration. You touch people at their most vulnerable, at the level of poverty and you are attacked by their pain, yet you encounter their joy."

He also tries to understand the fears and aspirations of white communities.

"I consciously reach out and make white friends and talk to people in different communities my relationships go beyond the confines of the church. I make an effort to talk and reflect with people," he says.

He also finds inspiration and delight in other people's creativity and achievements, regularly attending live concerts of his favourite artists.

Brenda Fassie's effort and energy inspires him to think about how he can bring more energy to his own work. He is moved by the subtle spiritual beauty of Jonas Gwangwa's music and hears in it his calling to serve and contribute to the lives of people in South Africa.

"I always leave these concerts humbled," he says.

Dandala's skills will again come to the fore in the Rustenberg II initiative, designed to promote guidelines for peace and stability in South Africa from a Christian perspective.

In addition, other challenges await him as the newly elected president of the SACC.

One of these challenges, as perceived by Storey, will be to "build the same sense of unity and urgency about confronting the problems of the new South Africa as existed in the SACC's remarkable struggle against apartheid.

"Mvume's passionate interest in development and empowerment of ordinary people will be valuable. He can make a significant contribution towards getting differing groups pulling in one direction."

Mkhabela takes a similar view.

"Although he is a Methodist, I feel he also brings a quality to the SACC of a person who has a simple faith and simple life, which actually gives much scope for people to interpret and be affirmed.

"We just hope that that what he stands for is a reflection of a new generation of church leaders who could inspire faith and hope among all people of faith in the country."

Dandala's interest in social change and commitment to social issues extend well beyond the church.

Taffy Adler, chief executive of the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC), has observed that Dandala, who currently chairs the JHC, has a clear vision of what constitutes development and also has a firm grasp of the practical aspects of implementing that vision.

"His visions are very rooted in a reality that has allowed him to travel between the vision and the successful achievement of that vision. He exemplifies a mix of realistic idealism.

"Both the gift and the curse of South Africa is its ability to have plans but not the ability to realise them. All the projects Dandala works with combine reaching for a dream with a realistic chance of delivering on the ground," Adler says.

Several people interviewed commented on Dandala's capacity to inspire others.

Storey attributes that to the fact that Dandala is himself genuinely inspired. "Mvume is an inspirer. He has a fine intellect, but for him faith is not a head thing only: it is a passionate belief that God is alive and engages us personally."

Saki Macozoma, the managing director of Transnet, believes that Dandala has a role to play in the business sector as well. "He is probably one of the unsung heroes of our country and we should be giving him more responsibility," he says.

But there were differing opinions on Dandala's capacity to make tough decisions.

Shirley Molder, the director of Ashoka Innovators for the Public, said: "Mvume will make an unpopular decision because it is right and not because politics dictate it."

However, Storey feels that Dandala's warmth and friendliness could make it much more difficult for him "to make the hard decisions that may alienate people".

What are the kinds of issues Dandala himself worries about?

He is afraid that as a nation South Africa may fail to learn from its past and teach its children. Among his concerns is "the tendency of some white people not to realise that what South Africa will be is closely tied to what they will give.

"I become upset when I hear about the ease with which people talk about the brain drain, the ease with which people choose to emigrate. They don't realise that South Africa is not yet what they want it to be partly because of their refusal to invest their energy more fully in building the country.

"I want to say to the white people with this tendency that the stage at which we are here in South Africa is not that of harvesting, we are still planting."

Dandala exemplifies the kind of leader that South Africans may well need today a multitalented man, a natural harmoniser who mixes idealism with pragmatism and blends reconciliatory vision and creative insight with the capacity to inspire and communicate with others and deliver results.

"South Africa has been blessed with a very painful history that South Africans have overcome together," he said.

"And if we as South Africans were to work harder in that togetherness, we would show the world how to live together as brothers and sisters. This is part of our shared destiny."

This article originally appeared in the Sunday Independent October 25 1998. To contact the author: write to [email protected]

Click here to sign up to our free daily headline email newsletter