10 May 1915 - 7 September 2004
Beyers Naude was born in Roodepoort in the then Transvaal on 10 May 1915. He was named after Christiaan Frederick Beyers, a Boer general who was close to his father Jozua Franchoise Naude. In 1921, his family moved to Graaff-Reinet in the Cape.
He matriculated in 1931. He then enrolled at the University of Stellenbosch where he received a Masters degree in languages. He graduated from the Stellenbosch School of Theology in 1939. In 1940 he was appointed Assistant-Minister at the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in Wellington Cape Town. The same year he married Ilse Weder, the daughter of a Moravian missionary.
For the next twenty years Beyers Naude ministered to various congregations throughout the country and he was attached to the political philosophy of the National Party. However the Sharpeville Massacre had Naude reassessing his views. In 1961 Naude became acting moderator of the Southern Transvaal Dutch Reformed Church synod. In April of the same year he was appointed moderator. He was a founder member of the Christian Institute, an ecumenical organisation, to unite Christians of all ethnic groups, denominations and languages in South Africa. Naude was also the editor of the Christian Institute's publication Pro Veritate.
In October 1963 Naude resigned as moderator and left his congregation, Aasvoelkop, to take up the position of Director of the Christian Institute.
As a result of this move, Naude lost his status as a minister of DRC. In the same year Naude caused much controversy when he resigned from the Broederbond after 22 years of membership. In March 1965 his induction as an elder of the Parkhurst DRC congregation caused bitter controversy. In the same month he was forcibly removed from the DRC building in Belgravia, Johannesburg, where he had been invited to address a youth meeting. In May the same year the security police raided his Christian Institute offices.
In 1967 Beyers Naude and Professor A.S. Geyser were awarded R10,000 in damages for being labeled 'communist fellow travelers' by Pretoria conservative Professor A.P. Punt.
In 1972 he traveled to Europe and was asked to preach at Westminister Abbey in London, the first Afrikaans theologian to be so honoured. He then went to West Germany for talks with church leaders there. In September 1972 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Theology by the Amsterdam's Free University for 'exceptional merit for the development of theological science'.
In 1973 Naude refused to give evidence to the Schlebusch Commission, a parliamentary Commission which had been established to investigate the Christian Institute, the University Christian Movement, the National Union of South African students and the Institute of Race Relations. In 1973 Naude was involved in a court case as a Director of Ravan Press for publishing a portion of a speech by a banned person.
In 1974 Naude received an honorary doctorate of Law from University of Witwatersrand. He was also honoured with the Reinhold Niebuhr Award for 'steadfast and self-sacrificing services in South Africa for justice and peace'. His passport, taken from him for some time, was returned so that he could travel and receive the award at a ceremony in Chicago in the United States. On his return it was confiscated again. In December 1975 Naude was refused a passport to travel to London to address the Royal Institute of International affairs, and the text of the speech had to be read out. In October Beyers was fined R50 or one month imprisonment for refusing to testify before the Schlebush Commission. He was arrested on the 28 October 1976 for refusing to pay the fine. After one night in jail the dominee of his church, Dr. Jan van Rooyen, paid the amount and he was released. In 0ctober 1977, during a general government clampdown, Naude was banned for five years.
Beyers Naude was awarded a prize for reconciliation and development from the Swedish Free Church and an award from the Bruno Kreisky Foundation in recognition of his 'untiring work in race relations'. In February 1980 Naude broke away from the DRC and was admitted to the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) in Africa. In 1982 his banning orders were renewed for a further three years. In 1982 banning orders were eased, however he was still restricted to the Johannesburg magisterial district and could not attend political meetings, address students, teach and communicate with all banned people. In June 1983 Naude was awarded an honorary Dlitt degree from the University of Cape Town. In September 1984, after a petition, his ban was lifted.
In 1985 he succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu as the secretary-general of the SA Council of Churches.
In 1987, Naude was part of an Afrikaner delegation which met the ANC in Dakar, Senegal. He was a member of the ANC negotiating team which met the government at Groote Schuur in 1990.
Naude has been honoured both in South Africa and abroad, receiving honorary doctorates, human rights awards and other accolades.
In 2001 he received the freedom of the city of Johannesburg. In 2004, Naude was given the highest award of the ATKV (Afrikaans Language and Culture Association) for nation-building, for not only questioning the apartheid system, but standing by his convictions to contribute to the new South Africa.
He is survived by his wife Ilse, four children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.