9. The Church choir
We have already seen how the church choir was first directed by the dominican sisters because of their involvement in helping to set up the mission church and school. Later the teachers from Maloma School continued to lead the church choir. By 1976 the organisation of the church choir consisted of: Mr A. Mlotshwa as chairman,Mr S. Mathebula as vice-chairman,Mr J.Mashaba as secretary,Mr L.Nkosi as vice secretary and Mrs Mlotshwa as treasurer. Mr P. Masinga was the organiser while the disciplinary members were Mr J Mahlangu and Mrs C. Nkosi. Mr Shem Mathebula was the choir conductor. The previous chairman of the choir had been Mr E. Zitha. The choir was formed only for church activities such as singing at Holy Mass with the intention of raising the standard of music in the Church.
The church choir - which was then called "Abantwana bamaHeberu" - began to outshine all the other choirs in the Diocese of Witbank and started entering national choir competitions. In 1982 the Abantwana bamaHeberu won in the regional eliminations at Nelspruit and represented the region at the national competitions held at the University of Zululand. The choir's named was changed to Izwi le Afrika and also toured overseas in Germany with the support of Fr Knapp. The continual success of the choir has been largely due to their hard work and discipline under the conducting arms of Mr Raymand Ndimande.
10. From 1984 to 1989 :The Anti-Apartheid Struggle
After the student uprising against apartheid education in 1976, the apartheid government began to increase its oppressive policies. Preseident P.W. Botha began to oppress even the churches in the 1980s.Fr Mkhatshwa was released from prison in 1984 after 130 days detention without trial in the Ciskei prison. In 1985 the Congress of South African Students was banned by the government and the police began to detain students without warning and without trial. In Witbank many Black students were detained and tortured then released. The police killed a number of people in Witbank through indiscriminate shooting. Anton Hasena, a Catholic boy,was killed in the back yard of his home by police bullets. Six others were killed between July and October 1985, and many were injured. Fr Joao Rodrigues joined the crisis committee which was formed by the Black community to try to maintain communications with the authorities of the schools and police. The crisis committee also helped the detainees and their families. Some local church leaders,including Bishop Mogale Nkhumishe, tried to mediate between the local authorities and the students and parents. Fr Maier helped the suffering people to make affidavits and to get legal representation. Fr Maier also allowed the church hall to be used by the unions for their meetings. The security police threatened to kill the priests and to destroy the church and accused the priests of hiding "terrorists." In spite of all these difficulties Fr Maier completed the building of the new classrooms. But the hall was eventually firebombed and totally destroyed in 1988 while Fr Redaelli was helping at Ackerville. This happened just before the end of the trial of the 12 Witbank community activists convicted of "terrorism" and sentenced for three to seven years in prison. The 12 were: Clement Zulu,Jerry Lentsoane, David Maloma, Abram Sebopela, Sipho Siboza,Stanley Phahlamohlake,Lazarus Chiwayo, Bennet Nkosi,Moses Mokoena,Vusi Khoza,Peter Mnisi and Gloria Twala,who was the only girl in the group. These were violent and difficult years yet the Church never gave up hope and the priests continued to serve and pray amongst the people.
Mr Samuel Mazibuko of Ackerville was ordained a permanent deacon
on 20 August 1989. During that year Fr Alois Plankensteiner,Fr Chico Madeiros, Fr Solly Mokoena and Fr Francis Manana formed a team of priests and served all the Catholic parishes and communities of Witbank which included Lesedi,Springbok,Goedehoop,Greenside,Vandyksdrift,Tweefontein residence and hostel.
Sacred Heart History