Questions on South Africa

by InquiryMan 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  InquiryMan

  Hi!

  I need to verify certain information given in the yearbook of 2007 on the report of South Africa.

  1. There were times, even during the apartheid period, that black brothers lived at Bethel, although in separate housing due to the laws of apartheid.

  2. The dining hall at Bethel had non-transparent windows in orderr that all the staff could eat together regardless of race. Originally the windows were normal, but were changed to non-opaque so that they could eat together without being caught violating race laws.

  3. In 1992 the first kingdom hall was built in Soweto. White witnesses came in order to help building this as well as several other halls.
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  LouBelle

  Hi I'm from South Africa and visited bethel when it was being constructed. I must have been about 8 or 10 at that time so it was probably around 1986 or so. The brothers worked together - black and white.

  We did have lunch in the dining hall - I honestly do not recall any windows seperating dining halls - but that may have been due to seating.

  As for the kindgom hall in soweto - yes white brothers and sisters did go help as well as going into other rural/black areas. We also used to go preach in black rural areas and I went on those preaching missions.

  At the Assemblies there was a divide - the black brothers sat on one side of the stadium and would listen to the discourse in isiZulu, Xhosa and white brothers would sit on the other side. However this wasn't hard and fast and many times if black witnesses wanted to listen to the discourse in english they would come over. There were seperate pools for baptisms.

  I'll see if I can find out more information for you.
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  InquiryMan

  Thanks a lot for your information. It seems that for some ex-witnesses, even factual information is hard to accept due to an ingrained scepticism to all information published by the Watchtower society... However, I do discern between doctrinal and "propaganda" statements and more sober accounts....
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  InquiryMan

  Lou Belle: I was hoping that you were going to answer... :-) Happy Easter to you! I have been to South Africa once, it was a wonderful country, we stayed at the Limpopo province close to Botswana, but visitied Pretoria and Johannesburg as well.
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  LouBelle

  And to you! Ah you didin't make it to the golden mile....Durban - on the east coast- Kwa Zulu Natal province has it all: beaches, sun, mountains, country, cities - awesome place.

  It is a wonderful country, unfortunatley it is now being riddled with so much blantent horrific crime and corruption that even us that were once optimistic are looking to foreign shores - I just can't get to those foreign shores.

  If I get any more info I'll pass it on.
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  InquiryMan

  We only had ten days, so did not have time for it then.. It is sad with all the crime, corruption and poor leadership going on... It started so nice with mandela and the way the transition was made with emphasis on forgiveness and moving on inspired a whole world... But alas, as it often happens, it is destroyed by less good people...

  I really appreciate that you pass on the information.