iThemba Labantu

Towards the end of the 19th century the Cape Colonial Government was looking for farmers who would be able to cultivate the barren sand of the Cape Flats and grow much needed vegetables for the fast-growing City of Cape Town. It had come to their attention that the Constantia wine farmers were very impressed with the hardworking German immigrants that were working on their farms. So, the Minister of Crown Lands of the Cape Colony, John X Merriman, decided to “import” more of these Germans who began to settle on the barren Cape Flats.

Under very difficult circumstances they started the farming community of Philippi and later New Eisleben – the area on which iThemba Labantu is located.

During the Apartheid era New Eisleben was declared a so-called black area, which meant that the descendants of the German immigrants had to vacate their farms and small holdings – and their beloved church at the corner of New Eisleben and Sheffield Roads.

Over the following years many thousands of impoverished black South Africans from the Eastern Cape settled in Philippi hoping to find work and a better life near the big city. However, this became true only in a few cases, and most of the people stayed poor in a big squatter community which grew continuously.

In order to alleviate their plight a little, the three sister Churches-- Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Cape and the Moravian Church-- formed the LCC (Lutheran Coordinating Committee) and took ownership of the church property in New Eisleben in the early 1990s. Pastor Silke Moolman sourced funding from Bread for the World in Germany and established the first community centre, which was then rented out to different NGOs like Philani and iLitha Labantu, the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) and the adjacent Rasta Community of Marcus Garvey. Pastor Moolman was followed by Barbara Schmidt, hailing from Pretoria, who – being a teacher – offered programs to the children of the area. She also named the Centre: Lutheran Community Centre Themba Labantu (sic). The next two directors were Pastor Maho (ELCSA) and Pastor Dinge (Moravian Church) who each stayed for only a year.

In 2003 Pastor Otto Kohlstock became the new director of the centre. Sent by the Berlin Mission to South Africa in 1985 and having worked in previously disadvantaged communities for many years, he proved to be well equipped for the work in an informal settlement. He visited the people of Philippi to find out what their needs were. Soon it became clear that a new entity/organisation needed to be established to tackle the numerous problems being reported: hunger, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and crime etc. So, he founded the NGO iThemba Labantu Lutheran Community Centre which to this day tries to alleviate the plight of the people in Philippi and surrounding townships.

The very first intervention was a soup kitchen which offered free meals to the hungry, especially children. This was followed by programs for HIV positive woman (and a few men). In those days HIV/AIDS was still a taboo topic and in numerous workshops people with HIV and their family members were trained on how to deal with stigmatization by community members and how to deal with the deterioration of health that can accompany living with HIV. A professional actor was engaged who used dramatical productions to explore various themes of marginalization that tended to accompany living with HIV (rejection within the family, being treated as an outcast, the resort to traditional healers or even witchcraft, and the promises of healing etc.) After their final performance the actors proudly and openly disclosed their status on stage: I am N.N. and I am HIV positive. From that day on iThemba Labantu became a Centre of Hope for people who had suffered so much. In an income generating project 50-60 women and a few men had the opportunity to earn their living by making bead work

products – a skill that was taught to them by MaDumi, a lady from Khayelitsha. They mainly produced Christmas tree decorations for the markets in Germany, but also AIDS ribbons for the Church of Sweden. In those days there, as there was no access to AIDS medication, some members of the centre started to become very ill and the first one, sadly, to pass away was Viwe. As it was very difficult or even impossible to look after terminally ill patients in a shack with no running water and many occupants, it became apparent to us that it would be necessary to start an AIDS hospice at the centre. We bought 10 secondhand beds and took the first patients in who were very happy to be in a safe place where they received good care and love for their last days, weeks or even months. Soon we realized two things: 1. It is impossible to care for terminally ill patients with volunteers. Even though they are highly motivated and dedicated, volunteers need to be trained and paid for their hard work. 2. We need a proper building with adequate facilities like bathrooms etc. We approached the Health Department of the Western Cape and they came to our rescue: For the following 13 years the Department paid for the running costs of our Care Centre, which included the salaries of 20 staff. The funds for a new building were raised by Dr Margarete Doppler and her husband Dr Klaus Doppler from Munich, who from the start supported Pastor Kohlstock and the newly established NGO iThemba Labantu. (Margarete and Klaus founded an association of friends called Themba Labantu Hoffnung für die Menschen e.V. which has become and still is the main funder of iThemba Labantu and without whom our Centre would not be what it is today)

In 2007 we were able to officially open our beautiful state of the art clinic. Since the government supplied us with antiretrovirals our work changed from being a hospice for the dying to a centre of hope for the living. Due to the medication and good care the patients received at iThemba Labantu Care Centre very seldom we had to mourn one of our patients who had become like a family member to us, especially because they also took part in our worship services on Fridays. We admitted hundreds of patients to our step-down facility and always rejoiced with them when they were discharged after being stabilized.

After 13 years of continuous care for AIDS patients the Health Department decided to rather put all the funds into the HIV/AIDS department of the newly built hospital in Mitchells Plain only a few km away from us and to discontinue funding our care centre.

What to do with our beautiful building?

The only logical consideration would be a primary school since we already had a pre-school. Over the years we transported our kids to different schools in Mitchells Plain after graduation from our pre-school but it would be advantageous to the kids if they could continue their schooling on our campus. So we transformed our care centre into a school which was officially opened in 2016. Mr Octavius Colquhoun became the first principal and has been at the helm of the school ever since. In the meantime, the first learners are in grade 7 and by now will stay with us up to grade 9.

Vocational Training

Having realized that youth unemployment is unacceptably high in South Africa we wanted to contribute to getting young people into work so that they are able to support themselves and their families. Our friends in Munich raised funds to erect a building to house two training workshops and offices. This building was officially opened in 2009 by the deputy minister of Tourism, Joyce Mabudafhase, who during the years of Apartheid had been a political prisoner and was regularly visited in prison by Pastor Otto. Since the inception of the vocational training hundreds of young men and women from Philippi and other townships have graduated from our motor mechanics and plumbing/solar installation courses and have either found work in those or related industries or are self-employed and use the skills they have acquired at iThemba Labantu to make a living. (One graduate even found a job in the USA based on the certificate issued by us). It always makes us very happy when former students visit us to tell us that the training they received from us has changed their lives completely.

In September 2023 we were able to expand our vocational training department by adding a culinary school. Our students get the opportunity to do in-service training at different restaurants over weekends and some of them have already been offered jobs.

From very humble beginnings iThemba Labantu has developed into a fully-fledged educational centre which is home to 600 children every day. 250 are learners of our pre- and primary schools and the rest come in the afternoons to take part in our after-school activities like sport, drama, dance, music (marimba, drums, brass, piano and guitar), girls club, boys club and library.

Our social worker, Sophia Zittel, who joined us in 2005 has over the years initiated all these programs and still makes sure that everything runs smoothly.

There are many ways to get involved with iThemba Labantu, from volunteering and donating to attending our events and spreading the word. Join our community today to make a difference.

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