Southern Africa

Contents: APARTHEID WILL NOT COMMIT SUICIDE • Selma Shejavali in Milwaukee • FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT • NAMIBIA-Two Accounts • COMPANION SYNOD REPORTS • Southwestern Washington Synod (ELCA)-Namibia (ELCON) • Metro Chicago Synod-South Africa Central Diocese • Companion Synods of the ELCA and Churches in Southern Africa • Some Ideas for Relating to Companion Synods • It's Been Done By... • ADVOCACY • Has Clinton Heard From You? • Hundreds Sign Letter to Clinton • Call for Wholesome Relationships • Human Rights Day Petition • SOUTHERN AFRICA NEWS BRIEFS • National Conference in Support of the ANC and Other Democratic Forces For a New South Africa • Pretoria, Windhoek to Run Walvis Bay Together • Buthelezi Proposes Natal's Own Constitution • South Africa Accused of Aiding UNITA • SWAPO Makes Election Gains • SOUTHERN AFRICA CHURCH NEWS • Churches Condemn South African Arms Fair • Police Surround Lutheran Church • Lutheran Message at U.N. • Church Leaders Shocked by Abuse in ANC Camps • Joint Peacekeeping Unit Key to Stability • CALENDAR OF ACTION AND PRAYER • February 7-14 Stop Apartheid Violence Week • February 24 Lent begins • April 2-4 Economic Sanctions and International Relations • BIBLE STUDY • SAN-ELCA RESOURCES • CHILDREN AT RISK IN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SOUTH AFRICAN THEOLOGY • PEOPLE RESOURCES • NETWORK NOTES • TEACH IN NAMIBIA • THANK YOU • BUDGET • OOPS! • The newsletter says the November tour organized by SAN-ELCA (Southern Africa, Nov. 1992) took South Africans Mrs. Reginah Farisani and Dr. Wolfram Kistner to Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis/St Paul; Dr. Kistner then continued to New York and Washington, D.C. The newsletter says the two speakers eloquently carried out the purpose of the tour: inform and update church people on the situation in South Africa and encourage continuing action in support of the struggle to abolish apartheid and build a just and democratic South Africa. The newsletter says Farisani alerted every group she met that apartheid was not dead-she did not yet have the right to vote in the country of her birth. The newsletter says the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee Campus) is bringing Selma Shejavali of Namibia to the campus for the month of February, 1993; Shejavali will hold the Gamaliel Chair sponsored by Lutheran Campus Ministry; the chair brings academic, political, and religious groups together to focus on peace and justice issues. The newsletter includes a report by Bishop David C. Wold of Tacoma, Washington visited Namibia and South Africa with a group from the Southwestern Washington Synod; the tour was organized by the Center for Global Education. The newsletter includes a report by Dorothy Diers. The report says Dorothy Diers, a member of the Northeast Iowa Synod Partnership Committee, travelled to Namibia in summer '92; she and her husband Herman had an excellent tour guide in their daughter Judy who is working in Windhoek. The newsletter says Mark Brown encourages SAN members to write to President Clinton asking him to support the move towards democracy in South Africa; specifically he can call on De Klerk to halt the violence and hold elections within 1993. The newsletter says four southern African countries have sent protests to Pretoria in recent weeks, complaining that their airspace has been violated by South African Defense Force planes flying clandestine supplies to UNITA in Angola; UNITA has been on a military offensive since losing the recent elections in Angola and is said to now effectively control 65-70% of the country; Namibia, Botswana, Angola, and Zimbabwe have all accused South Africa of supporting UNITA in this effort. The newsletter says Namibia's ruling party, SWAPO, made hefty gains in regional and local elections in the first voting test of its popularity since independence in March 1990. The newsletter says Bophuthatswana police surrounded the Lutheran Church in Mmabatho prior to a service called to protest human rights abuses in the homeland. The newsletter says on November 6 Dennis Frado presented a statement to the United Nations on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation. The newsletter says Rev. Dr. Mutlanyane Mogoba, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa says that a Joint Peacekeeping Unit is the only hope to end the violence and clear the way to free and fair elections. The newsletter discusses Lutheran Campus Ministry, Pastor Tom Soeldner, Dr. Zephaniah Kameeta, the National Assembly, Council of Churches of Namibia (CCN), Dr. James Prinz, Christians in Namibia, Bishop Kleopas Dumeni, Bishop Manas Buthelezi, Rev. Barbara Gazzolo, the Working Group on Southern Africa of the Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), the Lutheran Office on Government Affairs, F.W. de Klerk, President-Elect Clinton, the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), the ANC (African National Congress), Gatsha Buthelezi, Albert Blaustein, Marios, Oriani-Arnbrosini. Blaustein, Bruce Fein, RENAMO, South African Defense Force (SADF), Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), SAP (South African Police), SADF (South African Defence Force), MK, APLA (Azanian Peoples Liberation Army), ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army), Transkei, Ciskei, Venda, Bophuthatswana, Gazankulu, Defense Forces, the Police Forces of Kwandebele, kwaZulu, Lebowa, Qwa Qwa, Molefe Tsele, James M. Unglaube, and ELCIN (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia).