In memory of Jean-Francois Bill
Born: 8 July 1934, Died: 12 March 2005

JEAN-FRANCOIS BILL - PASTOR, ACTIVIST AND THEOLOGIAN

Professor Tinyiko Sam Maluleke
based on an obituary prepared by the Bill family

Rev Dr Jean-Francois Bill belongs to that generation of exceptional church leaders - few, to be sure - who led the South African church community through the most turbulent years in the history of this country - the sixties, seventies and eighties. It is the efforts, contributions and sacrifices of this generation of church-struggle veterans, which made the euphoric 1990s possible. Throughout his life, Jean-Francois Bill immersed himself in the struggles of ordinary South Africans, always seeking to bear witness to Jesus Christ from the vantage point of the disadvantaged. In his life was combined an amazing desire to be of service to his family, his church, his community as well as the wider world.

Jean-Francois Bill was the first born son of Swiss missionaries, Rev Rene and Mrs Renee Bill. He was born at Elim Hospital near Makhado in the Limpopo province. He always remembered with fondness, his childhood years at the Shiluvane Mission Station (near Tzaneen) and other villages in the Spelonken area today known as the Limpopo province - the area where his parents worked in his boyhood and young adulthood years. As a child there, he played freely with other children in total oblivion of racial differences, basking in the warmth of closely-knit African rural community. With Tsonga as his first language, speaking (Swiss) French at home and later learning English, Afrikaans and Sesotho, Francois was from a very early age, open to and formed by several cultures at the same time. Throughout his life Francois embraced and exercised his multicultural identity with a prophetic passion in spite of the countless constraints of both grand and petty Apartheid. Long before the birth of the New South Africa, Francois Bill heralded the new South Africa in and through his own life - yet accomplishing all these without denying his Swiss roots, his faith as a Christian, his calling as pastor and his Tsonga heritage. He was a world citizen who could not be contained exclusively and completely in any one of his cultural heritages.

Francois attended Capricorn Boarding School in Polokwane and completed his primary and secondary school at Boys' High school in Pretoria where the reality of South African racial segregation slowly but surely dawned on him. In response to a call to the ministry of the church, Francois went to Rhodes University for training. His first posting with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa (EPCSA) was as chaplain to the students at Lemana Teacher's Training College.

In 1964 Francois was awarded a study fellowship by the highly regarded Chicago Theological Seminary in the USA. In 1965 he completed his Masters of Theology degree after completing an incisive thesis titled: The Responsible Selfhood of the Church: A Study of the Tsonga Presbyterian Church. While in Chicago Francois became influenced in his thoughts and work by the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the writings, speeches and actions of Martin Luther King Junior. On his return to South Africa, his ministry became much more critical of South Africa's racially based government. His theological horizons were widened by the works of anti-Nazi theologians such as Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Already in these early years, the apartheid government was beginning to mark Francois out as a 'trouble-maker' warranting special 'attention'.

The theme of Francois' masters thesis already signaled at least two passions which were to stay with him for the rest of his life, namely, the quest for practical ecclesiology (practical Christianity) and a vision for radical ecumenism (church unity). When in 1962, the Swiss Mission in South Africa handed over what was then only a 'Swiss mission' to the local people, in the process renaming it the Tsonga Presbyterian Church, the daunting tasks of giving shape, content, structure and vision to the new entity remained. The execution and facilitation of these tasks were to fall on the capable shoulders of Francois. The twenty year period of 1966 to 1986 - arguably his prime years - saw Francois accomplish, amongst many others, the following significant achievements for the EPCSA, most of them almost single-handedly:

1. the articulation and consolidation of structures for the church;
2. the renaming and re-imagining of the church from the blatantly ethnic and tribal Tsonga Presbyterian Church to the more ecumenically inclined Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa;
3. the drafting of a proper constitution for the church;
4. the creation of a pension fund for Black ministers;
5. the creation of parity of salary scales for Black and White ministers in the EPCSA;
6. pioneering church investment through the identification and purchasing of the prime property of Portland Place in Braamfontein;
7. the drafting of a worship liturgy for the church Magandzelelo eKerekeni;
8. the cultivation of a prophetic voice for the church in the most difficult period in the history of both church and country - leading to and including his imprisonment for nine months and the imprisonment of his son Charles;
9. the promotion of theological education, including postgraduate theological education, to for blacks in the mission churches - serving as lecturer between 1971 and 1979;
10. the cultivation of an ecumenical spirit in the church, encouraging and ensuring its continued membership in local and international ecumenical organizations; and
11. the theological basis for, as well as the envisaged processes of, the ongoing Joint Commission for Unity and Renewal (JCUR) created in 2001 to heal the 15yrs old split within the EPCSA are the brainchild of Jean-Francois Bill.

Apart from the traditional activities and daily duties as minister and student chaplain, Francois initiated and ran, in the sixties already, a vast feeding scheme in the Zoutpansberg area where people were suffering and children were dying. At these times, parents were feeding their children with wine made from milala palms to put them to sleep so that they would not cry for food night and day. When in 1968, the Church moved him to Pretoria Francois experienced new levels of frustration as he came to experience more and more, the effects of the Apartheid system on community life. As a white person he was, for example, not automatically allowed to live among the people whom he served, leading to endless and frustrating applications and negotiations for Apartheid era permits. But during that time, Francois was brought into contact with the wider African Church - attending conferences in such places as Abidjan and Nairobi. These contacts gave Francois not only a larger view of the church in Africa, he was also able to get a glimpse into independent Africa, inspiring him to redouble his efforts in working for political independence in South Africa.

As theology lecturer at the Federal Theological Seminary (FEDSEM) in Alice, where he eventually became Principal of St Columba's College, Francois became an asset for the wider ecumenical family. There he was lecturer to many of the current leadership of the so-called historic-mission churches. FEDSEM was a community of people of all races at a time when this was not tolerated. Contacts with militant Fort Hare students, through their student organization SASO, clandestine meetings with student leaders such as Steve Biko challenged Francois deeply and made him even more radical in his views. In 1973, FEDSEM was expropriated by the government. South African churches stood together as one against this: challenging the decision, but eventually the seminary had no choice but to move; first of all to Umtata, then to Pietermaritzburg, where ironically, FEDSEM died a painful death in the new South Africa. While teaching at FEDSEM in Pietermaritzburg, Francois became a founding member of the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Action (PACSA), and was its first Chairperson.

In 1980, he was appointed Moderator of the EPCSA, and re-elected for the constitutional three terms - an honour which he treasured deeply. Between 1981 and 1986, Francois occupied a number of positions in important organisations fighting for justice and better education for all: the Alliance of Black Reformed Christians of South Africa (ABRECSA); the Association of Southern African Theological Institutions (ASATI) as well as the African Scholarship Programme (ASCOP). In 1984, Francois was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in recognition of his contribution to ecumenism and prophetic witness against Apartheid. His final term as moderator of the EPCSA was rudely interrupted when on the 20th of June 1986, Francois was arrested by the Apartheid police. After being held for 9 months in detention with neither charge nor trial, Francois was released. He was shaken but not broken. After a short stint in Switzerland, Francois returned to take up a position as General Administrative Secretary of the SACC. While at the SACC, Khotso House was almost totally destroyed by a bomb, a dreadful act of Apartheid agents that affected Francois deeply. Following this event, he was instrumental in the identification and construction of the new SACC building, including the chapel. He later worked as Administrative Manager of the Alexander Health Center and as Director of a rural development NGO Funda-Ithuseng.

At the time of his passing away, Francois was involved in a number of small business and community projects in the Polokwane/Tzaneen area. Though officially retired six years ago, Francois never stopped serving; he never stopped learning; never stopped working - working for a better life for all; and most importantly, he never gave up. He was indomitable. His students and colleagues will remember him by the nickname they gave him - Zukwa - a tribute to his accessible, helpful and simple personality and lifestyle. Within his church, the EPCSA, he was affectionately known as XiBilana (Junior Bill) - both a name of endearment and deference to Bill Senior, his father the Rev Rene Bill. Many times Francois would suggest - in jest - that his full and proper surname was Bilankulu - a very common name among the Vatsonga. Bilankulu was his assumed and adopted surname in order to give expression to his Tsonga heritage.

Go in peace Zukwa. Famba khwatsi XiBilana xa hina. Etlela hi kurhula Bilankulu. Que ton aime se repose en paix Jean-Francois.

A TRIBUTE TO REV. DR. FRANCOIS BILL (UZUKA)

Rev. Dr. Khoza Mgojo
Honorary Life President of the SACC

Francois Bill was a remarkable person who made a great contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa during the dark days of Apartheid. He was ostracised for his beliefs by the forces of darkness. He was my fellow-traveller in the South African Council of Churches and the Federal Theological Seminary of South Africa. Both institutions were very much hated by the Apartheid government. We used to travel together at a great risk, visiting our comrades who were in exile in the neighbouring countries beyond the borders of South Africa. Francois Bill had a great heart for humanity. He lived his beliefs. He served the Federal Theological Seminary with distinction, both as Principal of Chief Albert Luthuli and one time President of the Federal Theological Seminary. He was very much loved by the staff, students, children and workers. Hence he received a Zulu name: Zuka (meaning "sixpence" - Zukwa in Xitsonga).

All those who were privileged to come into contact with him will miss him. From his students he produced great scholars and theologians of our great universities in South Africa. This unsung hero was a great giant.

To his family we say: your loss is ours, too. Francois Bill has gone home to rest. May his soul rest in peace. Liwile isosha lomzabalazo, sithi akuhlanga kungehlanga.