Cape Conference

The Cape Conference (CC) is a subsidiary church administrative unit of the Southern Africa Union Conference, which forms part of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

Current Territory and Statistics

The Cape Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is comprised of four regions. The Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Northern Cape provinces of the Republic of South Africa make up the Eastern, Western, and Northern regions respectively. St. Helena Island, including the islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, which are located off the western coast of Southern Africa, comprise the St. Helena Island Region. The principal headquarters office of the conference is located at 7 Heugh Road, Walmer, in Gqeberha (previously Port Elizabeth), South Africa. Two regional head office buildings are in East London and Somerset West.

The Cape Conference has the largest number of schools within the Southern Africa Union Conference territory, comprising eight primary schools and three high schools. The general trend in these schools is that the number of Adventist learners is significantly fewer than that of non-Adventist learners, making the schools missionary centers of influence. The names of the primary schools are Good Hope, Helderberg, Hillcrest, and Riverside Primary schools in Cape Town, while Ginsberg Primary School is situated in King William’s Town, Grahamstown Primary School in Grahamstown, and New Brighton Primary School in Gqeberha. The three secondary schools include Bethel High School in Butterworth, and Good Hope and Helderberg High schools in Cape Town. The Cape Conference Education Department launched textbooks that integrate faith and learning in Life Skills and Life Sciences for Grades R–7 in April 2021.¹

The Cape Conference also operates three Meals on Wheels Community Service (MOWCS) centers. MOWCS’s three regional headquarters are based in East London, Somerset West, and Upington. MOWCS provides cooked meals which are delivered from door to door and/or collected at service points, service centers for senior citizens, luncheon clubs for senior citizens, and soup kitchens. The mission of MOWCS is to play an active role in combating poverty and starvation, which threaten the livelihood of millions of South Africans. Since 1959, the Cape Conference has also owned a retirement nursing home known as Sunnyside in Plumstead, Cape Town.

In December 2024, the Cape Conference recorded a church membership of 44 847.² The three provinces that make up the territory of the Cape Conference have a population of 14,820,423, making the ratio of Adventist to non-Adventist 1:330.

Origin of Adventist Work in the Territory of the Conference

Seventh-day Adventist missionary work in Africa dates from 1887 and originated in the territory of the Cape Conference. William Hunt was the first known Seventh-day Adventist to come to South Africa. William Hunt, a mineral prospector, learned about the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, and set out to prospect the diamond fields, arriving in South Africa late in 1871.³ When William Hunt left the United States, he carried along Adventist literature and subscribed to the Review and Herald church journal to continue receiving literature.

In 1885, George J. van Druten, a businessman in Kimberley, began to take special interest in the biblical Sabbath. By then, William Hunt had been labelled as the laziest person in town since he did not work on Saturdays; instead, he sat underneath a tree in his finest clothes while reading the Bible.⁴ One day, van Druten decided to visit Hunt, who consequently taught him Bible prophecies and convinced him that Saturday was indeed the biblical Sabbath. As soon as van Druten learned that Pieter Wessels, a fellow parishioner in the Dutch Reformed Church, also took interest in the Sabbath, van Druten introduced Wessels to Hunt. When they met Hunt, they discovered with great joy that, in America, there was an organized Seventh-day Adventist Church that observed the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath.⁵

Hunt, van Druten, and Wessels collaborated to write a letter to the General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan, requesting a Dutch-speaking minister to come to South Africa to give instruction in the Bible and to baptize them. Since no Dutch-speaking minister was available at the time, D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd, along with their wives, two literature evangelists named George Burleigh and R. S. Anthony, and Corrie Mace, a Bible instructor, were asked to go to South Africa to begin missionary work.⁶

When these missionaries arrived in South Africa on July 28, 1887, C. L. Boyd and George Burleigh went to Kimberley with Pieter Wessels where Elder Boyd baptized the first converts in Africa and organized the first Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Beaconsfield SDA Church, on the continent. Robinson, Anthony, and Corrie Mace remained in Cape Town, where they began their evangelistic work.⁷ D. A. Robinson did not stay very long in Africa, and he was replaced by Pastor Ira J. Hankins in February 1888. Though their evangelistic efforts were first met with prejudice, the second Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa was organized in Cape Town on March 2, 1889. It first occupied a building known as “Somerset House,” but it’s more permanent location was the historic church building which still exists along Roeland Street. The building was sold to St. John’s Ambulance Association in 1953.

Back in Kimberley in 1887, David F. Tarr (father of Albert F. Tarr) and Albert Davies, who were farmers and transport riders from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, met Pieter Wessels, who convinced them that Saturday was the Sabbath. When they returned home to the Eastern Cape, they shared their newfound convictions with their families. Ira J. Hankins relocated to the Eastern Cape Province when A. T. Robinson arrived to take over the work in Cape Town. There, Hankins collaborated with the families of Tarr and Davies, and in 1890, the first SDA Church in the Eastern Province was organized at Rokeby Park.

Hankins continued to labor in the Eastern Cape Province, but he often reported considerable prejudice in areas such as Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, and Uitenhage. D. F. Tarr was able to find a foothold in this difficult territory when he wrote a letter to one of his brothers in Cathcart about why he became a Seventh-day Adventist, especially focusing on New Testament references about the Sabbath.⁸ The letter circulated in the neighborhood until one of Tarr’s brothers responded with a letter of his own, indicating his acceptance of the scriptural facts presented. Tarr was asked to go to Cathcart at once, and with the help of Hankins, an SDA Church congregation was formed in Cathcart.

Hankins especially remained burdened for Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, and Uitenhage. At the general meeting of the South African Mission of Seventh-day Adventists, where they organized the South African Conference on December 9, 1892, the pressing concern of establishing SDA churches in these areas of the Eastern Cape Province was raised.⁹ The meeting resolved that the best way to proceed was through literature evangelism. They believed that if the people of Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, and Uitenhage saw for themselves what the Seventh-day Adventist Church taught, it would remove their prejudices. At once, they set out to distribute literature in this part of the Eastern Cape Province, which enjoyed early success. Indeed, their efforts resulted in an open door for Herbert J. Edmed to begin street meetings and Bible work in Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth, while Hankins labored in Grahamstown.¹⁰ Their progress was, however, delayed and nearly thwarted by the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.¹¹ Nevertheless, their earnest efforts yielded the first SDA churches to be organized in Grahamstown and Uitenhage in 1901.¹²

D. F. Tarr was also instrumental in raising an SDA church in East London. Tarr and Richard Moko, a native South African Xhosa, worked in East London to introduce the Advent message.¹³ Sabbath services in East London were started at the home of Sister Porter until overcrowding necessitated the renting of a nearby meeting hall.¹⁴ In 1904, while the work in East London was still in its infancy, D. F. Tarr and G. W. Shone, working with Moko among the natives in East London, secured a site to host the annual camp meeting. They felt that if the camp meeting was held there, it would do much to “bring the message to the people of East London.”¹⁵ This camp meeting resulted in two SDA churches being established in East London.

In Langkloof, northeast of George, in the Eastern Cape Province, the beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church bore testimony to God’s immanence. An elder from the Dutch Reformed Church, currently known only as Mr. Oliver, began faithfully observing the Sabbath, having realized its importance through his personal Bible study around 1902.¹⁶ Through his influence, several other families also embraced the Sabbath. For his newfound faith, Mr. Oliver was disfellowshipped from the Dutch Reformed Church. When Mr. Oliver passed away, that group of Sabbathkeepers nearly dissipated. Providentially, B. P. De Beer became aware of this group as he passed through Langkloof on one occasion during 1916. He spent a Sabbath with the group, and he reported the matter to the conference president, who soon sent him back with Pastor D. F. Tarr to conduct meetings there beginning April 28, 1916. Several of the distinctive truths presented by De Beer and Tarr were met with opposition. Despite this hardship, these meetings resulted in 27 baptisms, leading to the Langkloof Seventh-day Adventist Church being organized in June 1916.¹⁷

Oudtshoorn, a town in the Klein Karoo area of the Western Cape Province, was reached first through the faithful witness and commitment of Rose Lavender, a nurse, and her mother, who became members of a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cape Town, but then they relocated to Oudtshoorn due to Rose’s work assignment in 1921.¹⁸ “Since they settled at Oudtshoorn, these two earnest believers [were] busy, quietly and unassumingly scattering the light of truth” sharing literature with all interested persons and opening their home for gatherings to teach Bible lessons. Pastor A. Willard Staples eventually moved to Oudtshoorn in 1924, and he began conducting evangelistic meetings.¹⁹ From there, Pastor Staples proceeded to George, a coastal city within the Western Cape Province.

While it could not be verified how the initial interest was kindled in George, it is reported that Staples arrived in George in March 1925 to conduct public evangelistic series. He secured the town hall, which was filled to the capacity of 200, with some attendees standing at the doors on the opening night.²⁰ Staples’ campaign reported 30 individuals who accepted the messages he preached, and they formed the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in George.²¹ By September of the following year, 1926, the members of the George SDA Church had already raised up a building that they used as a place of worship. During the opening service, the church building was once more filled. This can be attributed solely to the efforts of the members who extended invitations to people in the area.²² J. F. Wright and L. L. Moffitt dedicated the George SDA Church building on a Sunday afternoon of September 12, 1926.²³

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Worcester, the third largest city in the Western Cape Province, was first raised up by pastors J. J. Birkenstock and J. H. Raubenheimer, who conducted evangelistic campaigns there with the help of Sister Dixie in 1926.²⁴ They organized a company of believers who remained committed to sharing their faith. Seven years later, A. N. Ingle followed up with a second campaign that garnered more members, but it was not until 1952 when the Cape Conference placed Pastor N. Josling there as a permanent worker that the church took shape and was formally organized.²⁵

Between the city of Cape Town and Worcester lies Paarl, a city in the Western Cape Province that is nestled between the Cape Fold and Drakenstein mountain ranges. Seventh-day Adventism was first introduced here in Paarl in 1892 through a public debate about the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church between Reverend S. J. Du Toit, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, and G. D. J. Scholtz, a Seventh-day Adventist Church member.²⁶ The debates carried on for five evenings and yielded no fruitful results. Over the next several years, several literature evangelists reported literature sales in Paarl. The desire of the Cape Conference to plant an SDA Church in Paarl seemed hopeless because they were often refused meeting venues.

Finally, in 1943, Norman Jeffes succeeded in securing the town hall. Pastor J. Van Der Merwe conducted a campaign there to very interested listeners in attendance. Van Der Merwe’s work there was not without hardship, though. After having secured the town hall for only four nights per week, he and his audience were once more refused the use of the town hall for their fourth week of evangelistic meeting. However, his prophetic lessons became the talk of the town. Undeterred by the effort to thwart his plans, Van Der Merwe opted to continue the meetings in an old vacant shop. God blessed their faithful effort when the evangelistic campaign culminated with the baptism of 26 souls. The SDA Church was organized soon thereafter on October 16, 1943.²⁷

Beyond the Namaqualand territory, Brother P. J. Trytsman, who relocated from Bonnievale to settle in Vredendal, a town in the northern Olifants River Valley within the Western Cape Province, was very instrumental in increasing interest.²⁸ Trytsman initially gained the interest of 20 believers, and he offered his home for a meeting place. Pastor L. L. Moffit became the first pastor to itinerate through Vredendal holding meetings for the group of believers. However, Pastor S. G. Hiten was the first to conduct evangelistic efforts in Vredendal.²⁹ The outgrowth of Hiten’s efforts in Vredendal during the Fall of 1932 was the Seventh-day Adventist Church being organized there. Unable to find a suitable meeting site in Vredendal, these committed members built a church outside of town that was dedicated on June 25, 1932.³⁰ They maintained their desire to establish themselves in the town of Vredendal. However, they only realized the fulfilment of their desire when they dedicated a new church building in Vredendal almost two decades later, on December 2, 1950, under the able leadership and direction of brothers van Wyk and Snyman.³¹ Not satisfied that the expansive territory north of Vredendal remained unentered, the members of Vredendal were carried a burden to take the gospel forward. They appealed to the Conference to send a worker into the vast unentered territory, and they committed themselves to sponsor one of their own members, F. Human, to go with Pastor Hiten on a canvassing (literature evangelism) missionary trip to Nieuwe Rust farm, Springbok town, Port Nolloth town and seaport.³²

Early Organization Developments

The Cape Conference was organized as the first local Conference on the continent of Africa. Under the leadership of Pastor A. T. Robinson, a business session for the mission in South Africa met in the Claremont Union College building, belonging to the SDA Church, to discuss whether the mission in South Africa was strong enough to organize into a self-supporting conference.³³ On December 8, 1892, delegates met to discuss a resolution for organizing the South African Mission into a Conference.³⁴ The motion received considerable discussion since the laity felt concerned that the constitution required all tithes and offerings to be directed to the Conference. Some well-meaning members feared that organization would prevent them from supporting certain individuals for whom they felt sympathy. Ira J. Hankins alleviated the concerns of the laity by encouraging faithful and honest tithing, which would be employed to fairly meet the needs of all workers. He explained that all money received belonged to God, and that members should liberally support the Church rather than individuals. With that hurdle crossed, delegates voted to organize the South African Conference, which had five churches and 128 members at the time. The officers of the new conference were A. T. Robinson (president), I. J. Hankins (secretary) and Phebe Hellen "Nellie" Druillard (treasurer). The members of the executive committee included A. T. Robinson, Pieter Wessels, Phillip Wessels, E. B. Miller, and J. H. Tarr.³⁵

From the Cape Colony Province, as the region was known then, missionaries went beyond the borders of the province into the Natal and Transvaal provinces as well as beyond the borders of South Africa into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to the north. Soon, mission stations were set up in those areas, and the Natal-Transvaal Mission Field and the Rhodesian Mission Field were organized under the supervision of the South African Conference.

In 1901, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in general underwent major organizational developments. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists reorganized its administrative structure by establishing Union Conferences. Prior to 1901, local conferences reported directly to the General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan. This new organizational development of establishing Union Conferences led to the organizing of the South African Union Conference in 1902. The South African Union Conference was then comprised of the South African Conference, the Natal-Transvaal Mission Field, and the Rhodesian Mission Field.

Shortly thereafter, the South African Union Conference organized the Natal-Transvaal Mission Field into a self-supporting conference, and it was named the Natal-Transvaal Conference. The name, South African Conference, was no longer an accurate description for the territory. The South African Conference’s territory was now only restricted to the Cape Colony Province, and consequently the name was changed to the Cape Colony Conference. When South Africa underwent political changes in 1910 and became the Union of South Africa, the Cape Colony became known as the Cape of Good Hope Province, and subsequently the Cape Colony Conference constituency changed its name to the Cape Conference in 1916.

At times, the Cape Colony Conference was often referred to as the Cape Colony and Orange Free State Conference. When the Natal-Transvaal Conference was organized in 1902, the territory of the Free State was divided between the two Conferences in South Africa, namely, the Cape Colony and the Natal-Transvaal Conferences. However, the Cape Colony Conference took the larger share since it was stronger at the time in both membership and finances. The Orange Free State Conference was organized in 1913 to oversee the churches in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces. Due to financial constraints, the Orange Free State Conference was dissolved in 1929. The territory of the Free State was again divided between the Cape and Natal-Transvaal Conference. However, this time, the Natal-Transvaal Conference took the largest share.

Racial Division

When the first churches and conferences were organized in South Africa, no distinction was made between different racial groups. Richard Moko became the first Black South African to be converted to Seventh-day Adventism when he visited Kimberley in 1893. Richard Moko played a very crucial role in establishing the SDA Church among Black South Africans. His influence extended into all territories of South Africa since he was a school inspector and travelled frequently. Richard Moko was baptized in 1895, and he wrote the first isiXhosa tract, was granted ministerial credentials in 1897, and became the first Black South African Seventh-day Adventist pastor to be ordained in 1915.³⁶ In 1903, the Cape Colony Conference requested aid from the Foreign Mission Board to help establish a mission among the Xhosa people.³⁷ This became known as the Maranatha Mission and contributed largely to the development of the SDA Church among Black South Africans. In the following years, the Maranatha Mission underwent further changes and developments that are explained in the Southern Conference article.³⁸

The first Colored³⁹ South African who converted to Seventh-day Adventism and became a key role player in the development of the SDA Church among Colored South Africans was Daniel Christian Theunissen. Theunissen was a farm worker who was employed by the Wessels family. where he first became acquainted with Seventh-day Adventism. He moved to Cape Town in 1892, started working for Pastor A. T. Robinson, and became friends with his son, Dores Robinson. It was here that he accepted the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and he was baptized the following year, in 1893.⁴⁰ Theunissen became a fervent lay preacher, and the fruit of his labors resulted in the first organized SDA Church for Colored South Africans, and it was built on York Street, Salt River, in 1918.

During the executive committee meetings of September 8–9, 1930, the Cape Conference approved an action from the South African Union Conference to separate churches along racial lines. The Cape Conference then formed the Cape Field which administered the work among South African Coloreds from 1933 to 1959. The Cape Field continued to develop on its own trajectory, as explained in the Good Hope Conference article.⁴¹ For the next 76 years, the Cape Conference’s membership only consisted of White people.

Further Organizational Developments

The Great Depression of the 1930s had a significant impact on the SDA work in South Africa. This financial difficulty caused the General Conference to reduce its financial assistance to the South African Union Conference by more than 40 percent.⁴² This resulted in the Black Mission Fields, namely Tranvaal-Delgoa and Kaffirland to be merged to form the South African Mission Field, while the Cape and Natal-Transvaal Conferences were merged to form the South African Conference. As financial conditions improved and it seemed logical to divide the territories, the business session of the South African Conference reinstated the Cape and Natal-Transvaal Conferences to their former states on January 17, 1936.⁴³

Annual camps hosted by the Missionary Volunteers Department of the Cape Conference became a highlight for the youth of the Church. Burdened with the excessive expenditures each time such a camp was planned, the Cape Conference desired to establish their own camp site. Describing it as a “dream come true,” the Conference was able to purchase a 10-acre camp site along the Hartenbos River during 1951 for £1,000.⁴⁴ A church building, dormitory rooms, and a dining hall were erected on the premises. The camp site became known as the Hartenbos River Resort, and it still continues to host annual camp meetings and congresses.

Since 1930, the Cape Conference had oversight of the missionary work in South-West Africa (Namibia). When the Orange Free State Conference was dissolved in 1929, the Cape Conference inherited its Churches in the Northern Cape Province, including Kimberley and Upington. For the next several years, the resident pastor from Upington, along with Cape Conference officers, made itinerant visits to South-West Africa to care for the few isolated believers. In 1954, the South-West Africa Mission Field was organized, which relieved the Cape Conference of its oversight responsibilities in that territory.

National Recognition

In 1968, the Beaconsfield Seventh-day Adventist Church, the first in Africa, received governmental recognition as a National Historical Monument. A sub-committee was appointed to restore the church building and place articles of historic interest in the church.⁴⁵ The Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Kimberley received a bronze plaque from the National Monuments Commissions to be attached to the church building towards the end of 1968.⁴⁶ This historic event was celebrated on February 14, 1970, when the Kimberley SDA Church met for Sabbath worship in the historic church building.⁴⁷ The occasion was graced by representatives from the General Conference, Trans-Africa Division, South African Union, and the Cape Conferences.

On May 14, 2025, the Beaconsfield SDA Church was dedicated as a Seventh-day Adventist Heritage site, with representatives present from the Ellen G. White Estate, the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, the Southern Africa Union Conference, as well as the Cape Conference.

The New Cape Conference

By the 1970s, three local Conferences were operational in the Cape provinces, each serving the three predominant races of South Africa. The Cape Conference served the White race, the Good Hope Conference served the South African Colored race, and the Cape Field (which was organized into the Southern Conference in 1984) served the Black race. Racial tensions were high in South Africa at the time, with several political activist events taking place. This caught the attention of global political leaders who consequently imposed several sanctions against South Africa over several years.

To address the racial divide in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa, a South African Union Conference Inter-Union Standing Committee was organized in 1975 to discuss the matter at the Union Conference level. Two Union Conferences were operating in South Africa at the time—the South African Union Conference, which catered for Whites, Coloreds, and Indians, and the Southern Union Conference, which catered to Blacks. This move was followed by a subsequent action “by the Cape Conference to set up a study group to discuss closer cooperation between itself and the Good Hope Conference.”⁴⁸ This, in turn, resulted in the setting up of a merger committee by the Cape Conference in 1979 to explore the possibility of merging with the Good Hope Conference.⁴⁹

Over the next several years, significant steps were taken towards a racially united Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa. Among the major steps in this direction included the migration and merging of the theological seminary program from Good Hope College to Helderberg College in 1974. The South African Union Conference and the Southern Union Conference later merged to organize the Southern African Union Conference in 1991 following appeals from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for them to unite. The Southern African Union Conference, in turn, began working with its local Conferences towards uniting them.

Several discussions took place over the following years. At the 1994 Cape Conference constituency session, a motion to merge the Cape Conference with the Good Hope Conference and the Southern Conference was overwhelmingly defeated.⁵⁰ While the Cape Conference rejected the motion to merge, it remained open to further discussion and modifications to the proposed plan for merging. A special session was called the following year in 1995 to reconsider the proposed merger.⁵¹ This time, the proposed merger enjoyed significant support from the Cape Conference with a historic majority in favor of merging. That majority was only 70 percent, however, while the constitution of the Cape Conference required a 75 percent majority to reorganize. The Good Hope Conference and the Southern Conference proceeded to merge in 1997 forming the Southern Hope Conference.

In 2005 the Cape Conference Session once more voted in favor of merging with the Southern Hope Conference but lacked the required percentage for the action to be constitutional. Consequently, the Southern African Union Conference Session, proceeded to act on a General Conference policy, “B 65 05 Territorial Adjustments or Resizing of Territories,” which summarily permitted the Southern Africa Union Conference to implement the required merger at a constituent meeting where full representation could be possible. A special session was called between the Cape Conference and the Southern Hope Conference on March 19, 2006, which resolved to restructure the conferences in the Cape provinces and formed the current Cape Conference which included all three racial groups under the same conference.⁵²

Future outlook

The strenuous economic impact brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the already financially strained condition of the Cape Conference. In recent years, the Conference has been able to absorb very few of the theology graduates residing in its territory. The Cape Conference is exploring two models to mitigate these challenges, including allowing local churches to assist in paying the stipend of a qualified pastor through the Conference and allowing a platform for bi-vocational ministry, in which one who is employed elsewhere having ministerial qualifications is permitted to enter the pastoral ministry without receiving financial support from the church.⁵³

The Cape Conference was the first local Conference organized on the continent of Africa and remains the largest conference in terms of geographic area on the continent, besides the areas in the Middle East North Africa Union Mission territory, covering an extensive geographic area of 671,317 km². Such a vast territory presented missional and organizational challenges to the administration of the conference as well as the implementation of missionary strategies. As such, there remains an imperative need for the conference to reconsider territorial adjustments and resizing its territory into smaller units. A possible territorial resizing could see the Cape Conference being reorganized into two local conferences and one local mission. The Eastern and Western Cape provinces could be reorganized into two local conferences while the Northern Cape Province could be organized into a local mission field under the administrative care of the Southern Africa Union Conference whose headquarters are significantly closer to that territory than that of the Cape Conference headquarters.

List of Presidents

South African Conference: A. T. Robinson (1892–1898); W. S. Hyatt (1898–1902).

Cape Colony Conference: E. A. Ingle (1902–1904); I. J. Hankins (1904–1908); W. S. Hyatt (1908–1913); H. J. Edmed (1913–1916).

Cape Conference: W. D. MacLay (1916–1917); U. Bender (1917–1918); O. K. Butler (1919–1921); J. W. MacNeil (1921–1922); G. R. E. McNay (1922–1923); U. Bender (1923–1925); J. F. Wright (1925–1926); L. L. Moffit (1926–1933).

South African Conference: L. L. Moffit (1933–1934); A. F. Tarr (1934–1935); A. N. Ingle (1935–1936).

Cape Conference: W. H. Hurlow (1937–1940); E. D. Hanson (1940–1946); J. E. Symons (1947–1950); A. W. Staples (1950–1954); J. B. Cooks (1954–1960); D. M. Baird (1961–1968); F. Campbell (1968–1970); A. E. Birch (1970–1978); P. P. van Eck (1978–1983); I. C. Blake (1983–1986); H. D. Strydom (1987–1993); D. F. Allen (1993–1996); G. H. Bainbridge (1996–1997); G. Baxen (1997–2001); F. Louw (2001–2005); L. M. Mbaza (2006–2012); P. R. Gelderbloem (2012–2015); L. M. Mbaza (2015–2018); J. D. Papu (2018–2021); D. P. Potgieter (Interim) (2021–2022); X. Lefume (2022–2024); T. M. Nyingwashe (2024–present).

Sources

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Notes

1. Cape Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, “Report of the Cape Conference Fifth Constituency Meeting 2018 – 2021 Triennium,” (Gqeberha, South Africa: Cape Conference, 18 – 21 March 2022), 158.↩

2. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, 2025 Annual Statistics Report (Advanced Release) (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2025), 14.↩

3. L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa, 1886 – 1920” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 1.↩

4. Virgil E. Robinson, Third Angel Over Africa (Unpublished Manuscript), 5.↩

5. Antonio Pantalone, “An Appraisal of the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996), 46-47.↩

6. Ibid., 48.↩

7. Swanepoel, “Origins and Early History,” 12.↩

8. Ira J. Hankins, “South Africa,” ARH, February 4, 1890, 75.↩

9. A. T. Robinson and N. H. Druillard, “General Meeting of Seventh-day Adventists of South Africa,” ARH, January 17, 1893, 44.↩

10. W. S. Hyatt, “South Africa,” ARH, December 12, 1899, 809.↩

11. Herbert J. Edmed, “Africa,” ARH, November 4, 1902, 18.↩

12. Herbert J. Edmed, “South Africa: Uitenhage,” ARH, October 8, 1901, 658.↩

13. D. F. Tarr, “East London,” South African Missionary, May 1903, 25.↩

14. D. F. Tarr, “East London,” South African Missionary, November 1904, 4.↩

15. I. J. Hankins, “The East London Camp-Meeting,” South African Missionary, December 1904, 1.↩

16. D. F. Tarr and B. P. De Beer, “The Work at Langkloof,” South African Missionary, June 12, 1916, 2.↩

17. Herbert J. Edmed, “The Distant Hills,” South African Missionary, June 19, 1916, 2.↩

18. H. Elffers, “What Home Missionary Work May Accomplish,” African Division Outlook, August 15, 1921, 4.↩

19. A. Willard Staples, “Oudtshoorn,” African Division Outlook, September 1, 1924, 5.↩

20. A. Willard Staples, “Starting an Effort at George,” African Division Outlook, March 15, 1925, 3.↩

21. J. F. Wright, “The Effort at George,” African Division Outlook, April 15, 1925, 4.↩

22. P. W. Willmore, “Speeding Onward,” African Division Outlook, September 1, 1926, 5.↩

23. L. L. Moffitt, “A Visit from Our Union President,” African Division Outlook, October 1, 1926, 6.↩

24. J. F. Wright, “Report of Cape Conference Session,” African Division Outlook, February 15, 1926, 9.↩

25. N. Josling, “Die Poging op Worcester,” South African Union Lantern, July 15, 1952, 4.↩

26. J. Van Der Merwe, “Paarl Effort,” Southern African Division Outlook, August 1, 1943, 1.↩

27. E. D. Hanson, “Organisation of the Paarl Church,” Southern African Division Outlook, November 15, 1943, 4.↩

28. L. L. Moffit, “From Cape Town to Port Elizabeth,” African Division Outlook, July 15, 1927, 7.↩

29. L. L. Moffit, “With Our Evangelists,” Southern African Division Outlook, April 1, 1932, 8.↩

30. S. G. Hiten, “Vredendal,” Southern African Division Outlook, August 1, 1932, 11.↩

31. A. W. Staples, “Vredendal,” South African Union Lantern, January 15, 1951, 7.↩

32. S. G. Hiten, “First Trip into Namaqualand,” Southern African Division Outlook, April 1, 1933, 3.↩

33. Asa T. Robinson, “Brief Sketch of the Work in South Africa,” ARH, May 16, 1893, 310.↩

34. Robinson and Druillard, “General Meeting of Seventh-day Adventists of South Africa,” 44.↩

35. Swanepoel, “Origins and Early History,” 27.↩

36. Clifford Nhlapo, Tears of the Black Pulpit (Wandsbeck, South Africa: Reach Publishers, 2010), 13.↩

37. Swanepoel, “Origins and Early History,” 125.↩

38. Grant Lottering, “Southern Conference,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, February 16, 2022, accessed April 14, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9JDK.↩

39. The term “Colored” or “Coloured” reflects the acceptable practice in South Africa to refer to the South African people of mixed race as “Coloured people.” The depiction “Coloured people” is also preferred in South Africa today.↩

40. Swanepoel, Origins and Early History, 126.↩

41. Grant Lottering, "Good Hope Conference," Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, August 03, 2021, accessed April 14, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=IGXI.↩

42. Pantalone, “Mission in South Africa,” 65.↩

43. Antonio Pantalone, “The Afrikaansse Konferensie (1968 – 1974) and its significance for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (PhD dissertation, University of Durban Westville, 1990), 90.↩

44. A. W. Staples, “A Youth Camp Site At Last,” South African Union Lantern, September 15, 1951, 3.↩

45. D. M. Baird, “Beaconsfield Church,” South African Union Lantern, March 1, 1968, 5.↩

46. A. O. Coetzee, “First Adventist Church Building Declared a National Monument,” South African Union Lantern, June 1, 1969, 5.↩

47. “Kimberley Congregation Meets in Historic Church,” South African Union Lantern, May 1, 1970, 7.↩

48. Gerald T. Du Preez, “A History of the Organizational Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Amonst the Coloured Community in South Africa, 1887-1997,” (PhD dissertation, University of the Western Cape, 2010), 259.↩

49. Ibid., 289.↩

50. Ibid., 291.↩

51. Ibid., 292.↩

52. Eric Webster, “Troubled Waters in South Africa,” Spectrum Magazine, Spring 2006, 8, https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/Spectrum/2006_Vol_34/22253274.READER_011.pdf.↩

53. Cape Conference, “Report 2018–2021 Triennium,” 79.↩