Theo Kotze

Theo Kotze (19 May 1920 – 5 July 2003) was a South African Methodist minister, theologian and anti-apartheid activist. After serving Methodist congregations in Natal and Cape Town, he became chaplain to political prisoners on Robben Island in 1966. His chaplaincy was curtailed after prison authorities discovered that he was using prayers, hymns, sermons and pastoral conversations to convey information between prisoners and their families.

Kotze joined the Christian Institute of Southern Africa at its establishment in 1963. At the request of its national director, Beyers Naudé, he left the Sea Point Methodist Church in 1968 and became the Institute's regional director for the Cape and Namibia. He developed its Cape office into an interracial meeting place, educational centre and source of practical support for political detainees, banned people and their families. The office published information about detention, torture and state repression and supported the White Conscientisation Programme associated with the Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society.

When the South African government outlawed the Christian Institute on 19 October 1977, Kotze was placed under a five-year banning order. In July 1978 he escaped from South Africa in the boot of a diplomatic vehicle and entered exile. He subsequently worked as a minister, lecturer and anti-apartheid advocate in the Netherlands, the United States and Britain. Kotze and his wife returned to South Africa in 1993. In 2008 he was posthumously appointed a Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab in Silver for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid.

Early life and family

Kotze was born at the Heads in Knysna on 19 May 1920. He came from an Afrikaner family. His father was a lawyer who had been imprisoned for supporting the Afrikaner rebellion of 1914, although he was less closely identified with the Dutch Reformed Church than other members of the family. Helen later became closely involved in the work of the Christian Institute and was a member of the Black Sash. Their partnership was subsequently the subject of Jean Knighton-Fitt's biography Beyond Fear.

Methodist ministry

Kotze entered theological training in 1948 and began Methodist ministry in 1950. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1953.

Kotze formed a particularly close relationship with Sobukwe, a fellow Methodist. After Sobukwe was released from Robben Island and restricted to Kimberley, Kotze continued to visit and minister to him until Sobukwe's death in 1978.

Harassment and arrest

The work of Kotze and the Cape office attracted sustained surveillance and harassment from the security police and white right-wing groups. The offices and meeting places were subjected to threatening telephone calls, smear campaigns, attempted arson and vandalism. Shots were fired into the Kotze family home on one occasion, although nobody was injured.

Kotze joined the Department of Mission at the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham and also served as a Methodist minister in the city. His South African banning order was renewed in 1982 for a further three years, and South African publications continued to be prohibited from quoting him.

The Kotzes returned permanently to Cape Town in 1993 after approximately fifteen years in exile.

Helen Kotze remained in Cape Town until her death in 2013. She was survived by the couple's five children, fifteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Recognition and legacy

Kotze is remembered as one of the senior Christian Institute figures who transformed ecumenical criticism of apartheid into practical accompaniment of detainees, banned people, political defendants and their families.

Under his leadership, the Christian Institute's Cape office became a meeting place for religious leaders, students, activists, diplomats, community workers and people excluded from conventional white institutions. Cochrane described it as an institution whose small formal membership was disproportionate to its influence on successive generations of anti-apartheid activists.

Kotze's Robben Island ministry also became part of the history of religious resistance within the prison system. By using the limited freedoms permitted to a chaplain to maintain prisoners' connections with the outside world, he challenged the isolation imposed on political prisoners.

His life and partnership with Helen were documented in Knighton-Fitt's 2003 biography Beyond Fear: In South Africa's Darkest Days—Theo and Helen Kotze. An extensive oral interview with the couple recorded in 1980 is preserved by the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

In 2008 the South African government posthumously appointed Kotze a Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab in Silver. The official citation recognised his “excellent contribution to the struggle against the injustices of the apartheid system”.

Selected writings and documents

(1971). “The Christian Institute—What It Is and What It Does.” The Cape Times, 7 April. (1973). Address to the Progressive Party Lunch Time Forum, 2 October. (1977). With Dot Cleminshaw, David Russell and others. Torture in South Africa. Cape Town: Christian Institute of Southern Africa.