Cries of ”Viva the End Conscription Campaign!” and ”Down with the SADF!” rang out at the gates of Cape Town’s Castle this week as a 400- strong march of conscientious objectors and their supporters reached its destination. Abashed soldiers first hesitated, then accepted yellow chrysanthemums offered ”in the name of peace” as the crowd, standing under a yellow banner proclaiming ”Support Objectors: Stop the Call Up”, cheered and applauded. An old cannon had its mouth filled with more flowers, and a young national serviceman had the pockets and buttonholes of his uniform similarly decorated.
The historic fortress – a seat of military power since it was built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century – is now the headquarters of the South African Defence Force’s Western Province military command. The marchers had come to deliver the names of the 771 conscientious objectors countrywide who recently declared their refusal to serve in the SADF, and to hand over demands that conscription be scrapped and that jailed conscientious objectors be released.
Major Johan Redelinghuys, second in command of WP Command, was ”in a conference” and unable to meet them; said Mike Rautenbach, a member of the delegation which disappeared into the Castle’s depths. But the documents were delivered nevertheless. Permission had earlier been granted for the march, which attracted crowds of bystanders it snaked through the city. As the marchers – six abreast and walking with arms linked- moved down Adderley Street, a middle-aged white man said to his companion: ”You can see they’re all poofters.”
From others the response was friendlier. As the march progressed through the city, its numbers swelled with people falling in step. A police video unit filmed the procession, but otherwise the SAP was conspicuous by its absence. The march came after an ecumenical service in the St George’s Cathedral Hall, where the Anglican Dean of Cape Town, Colin Jones, paid tribute ”as a black person” to the courage of the 771 who were ”waging peace, not war”. Candles were lit, one by one, for ”unwilling conscripts now in the army”; for those forced into exile by their refusal, on political grounds, to serve; and for all those who ”have suffered at the hands of the SADF’.
Dr Ivan Toms, the first person to be jailed for refusing to serve in the SADF since legislation in 1983 provided for a Religious Board of Objection, lit candles for ”three comrades” now serving jail terms: David Bruce, Charles Bester and Saul Batzofin. ”Next year I will be joining them in prison myself,” said Toms, who served part of his sentence before being released on bail pending appeal.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
