They’re Burning the Churches

Press release March 2004

South Africa in the 1980’s. What was it like to live in a township on fire with revolutionary ardour? Who were the grassroots opinion-makers who dared challenge the government’s propaganda machine in the tug of war for minds and hearts? How did resistance leaders network when army and police overran townships?

South Africa has so many stories still to be told. Bit by bit they are emerging out of a past – our “dangerous memory” - and claiming the light of day. So far most of these stories have been written up by journalists, researchers, and writers (many from overseas). Our gratitude goes to them for doing very valuable spadework on our turbulent past. All countries, all histories need people like this to prise open pasts not yet opened, not yet known, not yet seen. It is an exercise in health therapy.

The difference between those and the present author is that Patrick Noonan was there, a sharp-eyed witness, and participant in the events he describes so accurately. He tells the story, which filled the television screens of the world in the eighties – the inside story of the long remembered Vaal Triangle (cluster of black townships south of Johannesburg) uprising of September 1984, that led to international sanctions against South Africa and to the release of Mandela and the creation of another South Africa. Events such as the Sharpeville Six trial which elicited so much disinvestment fervour in the capitals of the world, the Delmas Treason trial of the top anti-apartheid leaders of the eighties, the unknown hunger striker-poet that threatened the prison system during the emergencies, the first great school boycott in modern times, the first ever army invasions of the townships, the stayaways and rent boycotts that angered the apartheid government so much, the detentions and smear campaigns against priests, ministers and laity, the united action of the churches in spite of  attacks from right wing Christians working with the security branch, the still controversial Boipatong massacre that stopped the Codesa negotiations for at least six months … They’re Burning the Churches is a book of broad sweeps and surprising details which points to an  integration of religion and life and sacrifices neither.

Much of the material is completely new. Historians will relish it. But it’s not only or mostly academic. Township people will see themselves in these pages. The peoples of Evaton, Sebokeng, Boipatong, Sharpeville, Bophelong and other urban areas such as Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark. People who made it happen. The heroes of the piece. It is their tumultuous story. It also includes a section on the formerly despised councillors whom the author invites to share with the reader their past memories and present concerns.  This surprising inclusion makes for compelling reading.

The average white South African, taught another history, might find the read emotionally taxing. Understandably, for these are stories of torture, violence, assassinations, intrigue, passion and betrayal perpetrated on behalf of non-blacks. We never knew is a common heart felt observation by readers. Those interested, even vaguely, in building a united South Africa will find it essential reading.  It is the type of book that will enable people of this great land to find common ground with one another so that they may move into the future confidently knowing what actually happened and where they are actually coming from. It is a book, which can aid reconciliation, through knowledge and information about our past.

The name of the book They’re Burning the Churches is inspired by analarmist report from the former apartheid SABC on the Vaal Triangle uprising in 1984

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