President Cyril Ramaphosa: Special Provincial Funeral of Rev Dr Tshenuwani Farisani

Programme Directors,
The Farisani Family,
Premier of Limpopo, Dr Phophi Ramathuba,
Representatives of the African National Congress and the broader liberation movement,
Leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa,
Traditional and religious leaders present,
Leadership of the University of Venda,
Fellow Mourners,

Fellow South Africans, batho ba Limpopo, muta waDean Farisani,

We are to bid farewell to Dean Tshenuwani Farisani.

His life bears witness to the mission of Christ espoused in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free the oppressed.”

We have lost an extraordinary man who led an extraordinary life.

He was born in 1948, a year that was a turning point in South Africa’s history. 

This was the year the National Party swept to power and ushered in the reviled system of apartheid.

Dean Farisani was born into circumstances that mirrored the lives of millions of black South Africans at the time.

He was just a child, barely three years old, when his family was confronted with the ugly face of injustice.

Many years later, in 1996, he would testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on how his family were victims of forced removed from the Songozi Tsapila area near then Louis Trichardt, now Makhado.

The authorities arrived one day without warning, and his parents were ordered to vacate the area immediately.

He recounted how they had to carry their belongings on their backs and leave, on foot. That which could not be carried, including all the family’s livestock, was left behind.

They were relocated to another empty piece of land and told this was their new home. They were never compensated for the land that was stolen from them.

Eight years later, in 1959, the family were forcibly removed again. 

Two years later, in 1961, again.

These experiences instilled in him a deep sense of justice. 

They planted the seeds of his political consciousness when he was still in his teens.

He only entered formal schooling at the age of 12. Like most children in rural areas at the time, he was a child labourer on the white farms.

At school a missionary from the Evangelical Lutheran Church noticed his academic brilliance and he was prepared to enter theological training.

It was at Maphumulo Theological Seminary in KwaZulu-Natal that he first became acquainted with the Black Consciousness Movement.

Its teachings fired his growing political awareness.

For him, there was no contradiction between the teachings of his faith and the mission of national liberation.

He soon became attracted to liberation theology, and its message that true Christian faith demands active resistance to all forms of oppression and solidarity with the poor.

Apartheid was a great injustice, and he, heroic heart, was not content to choose a quiet life of pastoralism.

He was eventually expelled from the seminary after hebecame involved with underground political organisations like the South African Students Organisation, the Black People’s Convention and the Black Consciousness Movement.

By then he was at the Beuster Mission at Maungani outside Thohoyandou and a rising figure in the BCM, going on to be elected its president in 1973.

I first met Dean Farisani when he spoke at my high school, Mpaphuli.

We formed an immediate and lasting bond.

For many years we worked alongside each other in the Black Evangelical Youth Organisation.

There were many points in the life of the great man we lay to rest today where he found himself sorely tested.

During the late 1970s and 1980s was arrested on a number of occasions for his political activities. But it was his third detention, in 1981, that he found his courage truly tested. His faith tested. His principles tested.

He was detained by the Venda police on suspicion of being involved in the bombing of a police station in Sibasa. 

He was held for more than eight months and severely tortured. 

In his book, Diary from a South African Prison, he recounts the unimaginable ordeal of beatings, electricshocks, being forced to squat for days and being smothered.

In an interview given years later he recounts how his torturers tried everything to force a confession, even offering him the position of Bishop of Venda.

And yet he, strong in will, did not yield.

Fellow Mourners, Comrades, 
Fellow South Africans,

Dean Farisani was a courageous revolutionary who inspired a generation to reclaim their pride and stand up for their rights. I was amongst them.

He was a beloved father and a grandfather who will be sorely missed by his wife, mufumakadzi Mudzunga, his daughters Nzumbululo and Ndamulelo, by his son Zwovhonala and by the entire extended family.

He was a renowned academic and prolific scholar whose writings gave voice to the voiceless. 

He was a guide and mentor to many. He was a dear friend.

And yet it is Dean Farisani’s most salient quality that I will most remember him for: he was a man of unwavering principle.

Nothing could sway him from what was right, from his dedication to the cause of the South African people, and to their total emancipation.

In detention, he was offered positions and status. He refused them.

When he was released and went into exile in the United States, he could have easily put the entire experience behind him and led a quiet life. 

Instead he campaigned vigorously against the regime from abroad.

When Venda was proclaimed as a so-called independent homeland by the apartheid regime he was outspoken in his opposition, even when this brought him into conflict with church leaders in his circuit.

His activism continued into the democratic South Africa.

He was determined to be part of the struggle to overcome the injustice and inequality bred of apartheid.

He was elected to the first democratic Parliament in 1994. 

He would go on to serve further as an MEC here in Limpopo and as speaker of the Legislature.

These roles placed him in a position of power and influence. Yet they did not change him. 

He did not succumb to the allure of high office. He was never arrogant. 

He was a servant leader who came, served and left, and continued to contribute to the betterment of his beloved country.

He did not regard loyalty to a political cause or party as being above his own principles.

When he saw corruption being perpetrated by those entrusted with public funds, he was vocal and scathing in his criticism. He held power to account.

The Foundation that bears his name continues to be an influential voice in the public space in advancing social justice, including for apartheid’s many victims.

Fellow Mourners,

Neither beatings nor torture could make Dean Farisani surrender his principles. The trappings of power did not interest him. He was content to walk in the footsteps of his Lord with the downtrodden, the oppressed and the marginalised.

He understood his life’s mission and it was not negotiable.

These are the greatest lessons we take from his life. These are the reflections we take today as we lay this great son of the soil to rest.

To the family, we share in your great sorrow. Yet even amidst our mourning we celebrate a man who has left such a deep and lasting impact on all of us. He was an inspiration. 

In Dean Farisani’s book of poetry, titled Justice in my Tears, there is a moving poem.

It is called “The Lord is my Shepherd: Psalm 23 in Pietermaritzburg and Howick.”

It was published in 1977, the period of his first imprisonment.

In it he writes:

“The Lord is my shepherd, 
I shall not buckle
He rests me in the land of freedom
I drink from the cup of liberty,
Even when I wander in the valley of torture.
I shall fear no human beasts,

He shall fight my fight.
His angels and his visions
Guide me through brutal interrogations
He gives me life in the hands of murderers
Giving me a crown for a victory his own”

Dean Farisani, yours was a life of service to others. As the South African people we crown you as you go to your eternal rest.

In the words of the Psalm 23 you so loved, surely goodness and mercy did follow you all the days of your life. May you dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Fare well brother, comrade, friend, patriot.

I thank you.