White Cleric Succeeds Tutu as Bishop of Johannesburg

Anglican Church officials, bypassing more well-known candidates, Monday elected low-key white clergyman Duncan Buchanan to succeed Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu as bishop of Johannesburg.

Buchanan, the 51-year-old dean of Johannesburg, said he was surprised to be chosen. He was named at a secret gathering of Johannesburg’s clergy Monday night.

Asked whether his style will differ from Tutu’s, Buchanan said: “It’s difficult to say. I’m not Bishop Tutu. I would hope I’d try to be myself.”

He said it is inevitable that he will speak out against apartheid laws requiring racial separation, since this has been the stance of the Anglican church in South Africa for the last 30 years.

Tutu to Move Up Sept. 7

Buchanan’s selection was announced by Philip Russell, the retiring archbishop of Cape Town. Tutu, who angered many of the church’s white members by calling for Western economic sanctions against the white-led government, succeeds Russell as archbishop and head of the 2-million strong South African Anglican Church on Sept. 7.

The election of Buchanan was considered a surprise. Before the election, the Rev. Simeon Nkoane, assistant bishop of Johannesburg, had been considered most likely to succeed Tutu. Another black, the Rev. Winston Ndungane, and Bishop David Russel, a white, were also considered likely contenders.

Church officials dismissed suggestions that Buchanan was a compromise choice. Buchanan has little public recognition outside the church but officials said he is widely known and respected within the church.

80% of Church Is Black

About 80% of the church’s membership is black. It is the nation’s fourth largest church after the Methodist, Dutch Reformed and Roman Catholic churches.

Anglican Church spokesman Michael Corke said Buchanan served as dean of Johannesburg’s Anglican cathedral for 10 weeks after 10 years as head of St. Paul’s Theological College in Grahamstown in eastern Cape province.

Asked about his attitude toward sanctions, Buchanan said: “The system of apartheid and this government leave us with very few alternatives. But I don’t think anybody wants sanctions. It is a question of how change can be achieved.”

Tutu, recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and Johannesburg’s first black bishop, was in Japan on a visit when the selection of Buchanan was announced.

Meanwhile, Swedish-born Annica van Gylswyk, an official in the dissident Black Sash women’s movement, was ordered by government officials to leave South Africa by Friday after being detained for 46 days.

Van Gylswyk, a South African resident for 30 years, was freed last Thursday and ordered out within eight days.

“While I was being interrogated, I was told, ‘This country doesn’t need you here,’ “she said.

Van Gylswyk, 55, said she will leave for Sweden, along with her husband and grown children.

In Pretoria, government information officials reporting on political violence that has plagued the country for 23 months said “a virtually unrest-free day” occurred in the 24 hours ending at dawn Monday.

‘Encouraging Decline’

The Bureau for Information, the only official mouthpiece under a state of emergency imposed June 12, said the “encouraging decline” in violence during the last week indicates that emergency rule is restoring “peace and stability.”

According to government figures, political and racial violence has left 223 people dead since the emergency was declared, giving wide-ranging powers of detention to police and placing restrictions on the media. Independent monitoring groups have estimated that between 4,000 and 8,000 people have been held without charge under the emergency.

In Soweto, the sprawling black township outside Johannesburg, black high school students Monday boycotted classes a third day to protest government deployment of troops at schoolyards in the ghetto.

Officials said fewer pupils stayed away Monday after about 15,000 left 10 schools empty last Thursday and Friday.