The Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society, commonly known as SPRO-CAS or Spro-cas, was a South African Christian research and social-action project active from 1969 to 1973. It was jointly sponsored by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the Christian Institute of Southern Africa and directed by educator and publisher Peter Ralph Randall.
The project arose from A Message to the People of South Africa, an ecumenical statement issued in 1968 that challenged the theological foundations of apartheid and argued that Christian loyalty could not be subordinated to race or nationalism. SPRO-CAS brought together approximately 150 academics, clergy, lawyers, educators, economists and other participants in six commissions examining the church, economics, education, law, politics and society.
The first phase, subsequently known as SPRO-CAS I, conducted research and published reports analysing the principal institutions of apartheid society. Its findings moved beyond appeals for improved race relations and called for a fundamental redistribution of political power and economic resources.
A second phase, SPRO-CAS II (formally the Special Project for Christian Action in Society) operated during 1972 and 1973. It attempted to translate the earlier research into action and was divided into black-led community programmes and a white conscientisation programme. The Black Community Programmes, initially associated with SPRO-CAS II, became an important organisational expression of the Black Consciousness Movement under figures including Bennie Khoapa and Steve Biko.
SPRO-CAS also contributed to the establishment of Ravan Press, which was initially created to publish project reports and later became a major oppositional publishing house. The project completed its formal work in 1973, but its community programmes, publishing initiatives and methods of Christian social analysis continued through the Christian Institute, the Black Community Programmes, Ravan Press and other organisations.
Adrianus van Selms (22 January 1906 – 30 April 1984) was a Dutch theologian, Old Testament scholar, Semitic philologist, biblical archaeologist and minister who spent most of his academic career in South Africa. He joined the University of Pretoria in 1938, becoming professor and head of its Department of Semitic Languages in 1948. He held the chair until his retirement in 1971 and also taught biblical archaeology in the theological faculty of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (NHK) from 1938 to 1962.
Van Selms published widely on the Hebrew Bible, the languages and cultures of the ancient Near East, Ugaritic, the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical archaeology, Christian doctrine and Islam in South Africa. His study of early Muslim religious texts written in Arabic script but largely in Afrikaans became an important contribution to the history of written Afrikaans.
He was also a critic of racial segregation within the NHK. He contributed to the 1960 anti-apartheid theological collection Vertraagde Aksie (Delayed Action), opposed the racial exclusion contained in Article III of the church's constitution, resigned from its theological faculty in 1962 and severed his membership of the denomination in 1967.
Cedric Radcliffe Mayson (16 July 1927 – 23 May 2015) was a British-born South African Methodist minister, theologian, author and anti-apartheid activist. After moving to South Africa in 1953, he served Methodist congregations in Natal, the Transkei and the Transvaal for approximately twenty years. His experience in both black and white congregations contributed to his rejection of apartheid and increasing involvement in Christian opposition to the South African government.
Mayson joined the staff of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa in the 1970s and became editor of its journal, Pro Veritate. Under his editorship the journal adopted an increasingly explicit opposition to racism, state repression and the theological defence of apartheid. When the government outlawed the Christian Institute in October 1977, Mayson was placed under a five-year banning order along with Beyers Naudé, Theo Kotze, Brian Brown and other Institute figures.
Mayson subsequently became involved in clandestine support for the African National Congress (ANC). He used light aircraft to help activists leave South Africa for Botswana and participated in an unsuccessful plan to fly Steve Biko to Gaborone for discussions with ANC leaders. He was arrested in November 1981, detained for fifteen months and charged with high treason and offences under security legislation. After a judge excluded a confession obtained during his detention and granted him bail, Mayson left South Africa through Lesotho in 1983 and entered exile in Britain.
In exile he worked through the ANC's religious structures and helped develop relationships between the liberation movement and Christian churches in Britain and Europe. After receiving indemnity in 1991, he returned to South Africa and worked with the South African Council of Churches and the ANC's Commission for Religious Affairs. His books included A Certain Sound: The Struggle for Liberation in South Africa and Why Africa Matters.
Theo Kotze (19 May 1920 – 5 July 2003) was a South African Methodist minister, theologian and anti-apartheid activist. After serving Methodist congregations in Natal and Cape Town, he became chaplain to political prisoners on Robben Island in 1966. His chaplaincy was curtailed after prison authorities discovered that he was using prayers, hymns, sermons and pastoral conversations to convey information between prisoners and their families.
Kotze joined the Christian Institute of Southern Africa at its establishment in 1963. At the request of its national director, Beyers Naudé, he left the Sea Point Methodist Church in 1968 and became the Institute's regional director for the Cape and Namibia. He developed its Cape office into an interracial meeting place, educational centre and source of practical support for political detainees, banned people and their families. The office published information about detention, torture and state repression and supported the White Conscientisation Programme associated with the Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society.
When the South African government outlawed the Christian Institute on 19 October 1977, Kotze was placed under a five-year banning order. In July 1978 he escaped from South Africa in the boot of a diplomatic vehicle and entered exile. He subsequently worked as a minister, lecturer and anti-apartheid advocate in the Netherlands, the United States and Britain. Kotze and his wife returned to South Africa in 1993. In 2008 he was posthumously appointed a Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab in Silver for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid.