Rehana Rossouw
Human Rights Commission chairman Reverend Barney Pityana was due to be admitted as an attorney of the Cape Town Supreme Court on Friday– almost 20 years after receiving his law degree. His repeated attempts to enrol as an attorney earlier had been thwarted by police persecution. In an affidavit to the court, Pityana explained that he had not been able to complete his articles of clerkship, which he began at a Port Elizabeth law firm in 1974. `Throughout my life … I have been policitically active in the struggle against apartheid. I fell foul of the then-regime … and was persecuted … for my political beliefs.’ Pityana began his tertiary education at the University of Fort Hare in 1966, but was expelled in 1968, without graduating, for participating in a student strike. He completed his BA and BProc degrees through Unisa. In 1970 he was elected president of the South African Students’ Organisation and, from 1971 to 1973, served as its executive secretary general. In 1973 he was banned for the first time and restricted to the magisterial district of Port Elizabeth. In October 1975 he was detained under the Terrorism Act and released five months later without being charged. He was refused permission to take his final exams for his BA while in detention.
In August 1976 he was detained for four months under the Internal Security Act, but this time was allowed to write his BProc finals while behind bars. In January 1977 he resumed his position as an articled clerk, but was interrupted by another spell in detention from August 1977 to March 1978. He wrote and passed his second examination in detention — the practical examination for attorneys. But he was re-arrested immediately after being released and remained in prison until August 1978. `Immediately upon my release, fresh banning orders … were served on me. These contained similar provisions to the previous ones served on me in 1973. In addition, however, I was expressly prohibited from performing any work as an employee of an attorney and prohibited from being within any area or place which constitutes the office premises of any attorney,’ Pityana’s affidavit read. `It was then and is now quite apparent to me that the overriding purpose and intent of my numerous arrests and detentions was to prevent me from continuing my work as an articled clerk. Having no means of supporting myself and my family, I was compelled to leave South Africa.’ Pityana moved to the United Kingdom, where he attained a Bachelor of Divinity degree and a Certificate in Theology. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1983 and, in 1988, was appointed director of the World Council of Churches Programme to Combat Racism. He returned home to South Africa in December 1992 and took up the position of senior research officer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town. In October last year he was appointed to the Human Rights Commission and elected chairman. Pityana concluded his affidavit by saying he had always wanted to be admitted as an attorney and knew of no valid reason why he should not be enrolled. The only offences of which he had ever been convicted were under the Internal Security Act for contravening his banning orders. `It had been made legally and physically impossible for me to continue with my articles or even to live a normal life. Furthermore, my wife, too, was subject to banning orders which effectively precluded her from earning a living as well. I thus faced the prospect of a future of continued persecution, poverty and starvation for myself and my family and it was in these circumstances that we left our home and country.’