Patrick van Rensburg

Patrick van Rensburg ( born December 3, 1931 in Durban ) is a South African educationist and social worker, who founded the Brigades Movement in Botswana, as well as the Foundation Education with Production, which is active in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Life

Van Rensburg was from 1956 to 1957 South African vice-consul in the Belgian Congo ( now Democratic Republic of Congo), when he resigned in protest against apartheid in South Africa. He joined the Liberal Party of South Africa, whose secretary for the province of Transvaal, he was in 1958. After the Sharpeville massacre and the ban against several opposition organizations, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he described his homeland in his book Guilty country. Seretse Khama He learned to know and put 1963 in its home Bechuanaland (now Botswana ). There he lived mainly in Serowe, where in 1964 the writer Bessie Head lived, who also came from South Africa and he was standing in numerous emergencies to the side. Van Rensburg 1963 he founded the Swaneng Hill School, which represented innovative approaches. Thus, the school building of teachers and students were established. The curriculum is in addition to the usual subjects of practical subjects such as agriculture, carpentry and typewriting. The aim is to produce important goods for society. Van Rensburg founded two other schools of this type as well as the Botswana Brigades, who saw themselves as self-help institutions to allow through mutual support and instruction, the production of goods and the provision of useful services.

1973 van Rensburg received the Botswana citizenship. In 1980 he founded the Foundation for Education with Production ( FEP) with similar goals. The Foundation spread their ideas in southern Africa and in the Caribbean. In 1981 van Rensburg with Bill Mollison and Mike Cooley received the Right Livelihood Award. Mid-1980s was van Rensburg editor of the Botswana newspaper Mmegi ( German: The Reporter). Today Mmegi is Botswana 's leading independent daily newspaper. Since 1990 van Rensburg is entitled to travel to South Africa again.

Honors

1981 Right Livelihood Award

Bibliography

  • Guilty country. Penguin, London 1962, ISBN B0000CL9AT
  • Report from Swaneng Hill. Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala 1974, ISBN 91-85214-01-9
  • The Serowe Brigades: Alternative education in Botswana. Macmillan for the Bernard van Leer Foundation, 1978, ISBN 0-333-23594-0
  • Atlas of African Affairs. Methuen, London 1962, ISBN 0-416-64770-7 (along with Andrew Boyd )

In addition, van Rensburg wrote some studies and published scientific literature for the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.

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