Centenary of the Salvation Army in South Africa (1883 – 1983).
The “Army of the Helping Hand” celbrated the arrival at the southern tip of Africa of a tiny task force, which sought by a combination of militant evagelism and practical compassion to fulfil the injunction of its founder, William Booth, to “win Africa for Christ”. The intrepid “army of three”, which landed at Cape Town docks on 24 February 1883, consisted of Major and Mrs Framcis Simmonds and their lassie lieutenant, Alice Teager.

After opening fire in the Cape Town Drill Hall, the Army spread through the Cape Colony like a wildfire, opening bridgeheads in the Eastern Cape and in Natal. Army “cavalry forts” trundled north by ox-wagon in true South African fashion, and salvationist blue-jackets even carried the message to St. Helena Island. Work amongst the indigenous races of Southersn Africa began i 1887 and it was from tis country that similar work in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mocambique and South-West Africa was opened up.

Several “firsts” stand to the credit of South African salvationists, not least that of the commencement of spiritual work amongst prisoners in this country, as well as the setting up of relief work amongst troops on the field of battle, as was the case at Estcourt during the Anglo-Boer War, when the Army ministered to Boer and Brit alike.

In the Centenary Year (1983), the “Army withour guns” carried on its fight through 39 social, medical and educative centres, and its soldiers, “saved to serve”, exist for others through 250 places of worship, as the living embodiment of “Christianity with its sleeves rolled up”.

Entering its second century, the SA seeks the grace of God and the goodwill of the peoples of South Africa, that the statement “where there is need, there is the Salvation Army” may ring true indeed.

(Source: Brochure inside the cover)