In Honour of Dr Sam Buti: a Beacon of Hope in the Struggle for Justice.

This article was authored by Rev Reggie Nel, minister of URCSA Riverlea Congregation in Johannesburg and professor of Missioniology at UNISA.

UNISA recently honoured Rev Dr Samuel Palo Ernest Buti for his contribution towards the new South Africa. I am grateful to have known him and to have worked with him. He was a dignified church leader with a sharp intellect. He was also fearless.

Rev S. P. E. Buti was a third generation pastor. His father, Rev E. T. S. Buti, was the first black Moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) General Synod. He was born on the 01^st June 1934 and grew up in the rural areas of the Western Transvaal (now North West Province). He received his academic and professional education primarily in Afrikaans.

He graduated from the Stofberg Theological Seminary in 1959 and began his pastoral ministry in 1960 in Alexandra, where he continued to serve until his retirement. Initially his ministry was under duress, as community members were suspicious of his allegiance to the white Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). As a result the church buildings were burnt down at some point. His, however, was a journey of growth in conscientisation and activism. Of this, fellow pastor Rev Z. E. Mokgoebo writes: "Serving his parish with this uneasy conscience and being involved in the DRCA's struggles and the struggles of the community of Alexandra, would lead Sam to a critical awareness and an involvement from which he would not easily retreat." (1983:134)

In 1971 he went to further his studies in the Netherlands, which sharpened his mind and increased his resolved to oppose ecclesial and social apartheid. He became one of the organisers and founders of the Alexandra Liaison Committee that resisted the proposed resettlement of Alexandra by the apartheid government. He was also the chairperson of the Black Renaissance Convention.

In 1977 he was elected as the President of the South African Council of Churches when the bitter confrontation between the government and the prophetic church was deepening. This was a period when this confrontation shifted from critical engagement to non-collaboration and non-violent protest.

Protest action was also part of the two terms that he served as vice-president of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod (RES). In 1980 he boycotted participating in the RES when the white DRC, which supported apartheid, participated.

In 1982, he obtained a Master of Theology from the Princeton Theological Seminary and continued to travel worldwide and to be involved in church leadership, fighting for the cause of the oppressed globally.

He was elected as the mayor of Alexandra in the mid 1980s. This, however, did not sit well with a number of Alexandra residents. As a result his house was petrol bombed in 1985. The pressure was taking a toll on his family. After consultation with Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner at that time, Rev Buti decided to quit politics.

In 1987 he was again elected as the Moderator of the DRCA General Synod. In 1994 he led the DRCA when it united with the Dutch Reformed Mission Church to form the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). He was elected as the first Vice-Chairperson (Assesor) of the URCSA General Synod in 1994.

His relentless commitment to the struggles of the poor and the oppressed was acknowledged on the 25^th October 2008, when Selbourne Street in Alexandra was renamed Reverend Sam Buti Street. In 2010 UNISA conferred upon him an honourary doctorate.

May his legacy live on!!!

Source: http://rwnel.blogspot.co.za/2010/08/in-honour-of-dr-spe-sam-buti-beacon-of.html?m=1