John Jasper Walsh, Rest in Peace
John Jasper Walsh – 17 February 1945 – 12 September 2024
Family and friends of Jasper Walsh gathered on September 18 to say an emotional goodbye to a man who had served the archdiocese of Cape Town and a number of other organisations for many years. He died at the age of 79 on September 12.
The Requiem Mass, celebrated by Fr Roger Hickley, took place at St Bernard’s church in Newlands, Cape Town, where Jasper had served as an altar boy on the day of the church’s consecration 70 years ago, married his wife Margie, and presented his three children for baptism.
Born on February 17, 1945, Jasper lived a full life of faith in action. He was first and foremost a family man, but had the gift of forming enduring friendships, drawing his life’s energy from working alongside people on the margins, and seeking to understand the injustices and hardships which define life for many in our country.
In paying tribute to his father, Richard Walsh said: “Dad had chosen to trust that his life would mean something beyond his death, and in doing so he lived his life in a way that it would mean something to many for generations to come. All of us present here today as well as the many, living and deceased not here, who he has positively affected directly and indirectly, are proof that dad’s life has meaning well beyond his death. In so many ways, great, small or even unnoticed, dad left a little of himself in us and therefore we collectively make up the biography of his life.”
Jasper’s first major experience of a life lived in service came when he took the difficult decision to stand for parliament as a member of the opposition, the Progressive Federal Party. While he abhorred the apartheid system and recognised the illegitimacy of the government of the day, he believed he could make a difference from within. He took up his seat in 1986, a time of violence as the struggle against apartheid was reaching boiling point.
Jasper wrote about this experience: “Most of my activities were in the black townships where my main concern was to monitor and expose forced removals of black South Africans to the rural ‘homelands’. At that time the government still hung on to the absurd belief that black South Africans had no place in the Western Cape. I was witness to gross political violence by the police and the army, especially during the State of Emergency. Political gatherings were forbidden but I spent many Saturdays attending struggle funerals in the townships which often masked political gatherings. I vividly recall attending Mass in my home parish after these funerals and feeling that I was in another world.”
At the time the press was free to publish things said in parliament, so opposition MPs took advantage of this to expose police brutality. Jasper and others were involved in initiating the Unrest Monitoring and Action Committee.
He also played what he called “a small part” in the CODESA negotiations for a democratic South Africa. Richard Walsh remembers sharing with his father the great celebration of freedom that took place on the Grand Parade in Cape Town when Nelson Mandela was released and presented to a euphoric crowd.
In January 1998 the next challenge presented itself and Jasper took over from Peter Templeton as director of Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) in Cape Town. CWD was a unique organisation, formed by visionaries and pioneers determined to break the grip of poverty that apartheid had imposed on Cape Flats and township communities. It was an NGO with a multitude of projects that supported people on the margins of all walks of life.
Jasper inherited the leadership of an organisation that had grown tremendously and was the largest of its kind operating in Cape Town. The focus for his years from 1998 to 2005 was to create a structure that could encompass everything CWD had come to mean to people, be they beneficiaries, donors or fellow Catholics concerned about poverty.
Overseas funding was becoming more elusive, reporting requirements more stringent, and the monitoring and evaluation of impact very technical. Systems needed to be put in place to keep up with this. As staff numbers grew so did the need for more systematic management, formation and accountability. This phase of an organisation, going from the early years of pioneering new concepts — in this case in an environment of political turmoil — to navigating calmer, but in other ways more complex, waters is very challenging.
Jasper wrote about this: “Most of my time was devoted to interpersonal and organisational issues, followed a close second by fundraising. All of this kept me from working at the grassroots level which is what I really wanted to do. Knowing that I was enabling such work to take place was some consolation.”
Despite the personal toll the work took on him, Jasper’s loyalty to CWD saw him return briefly many years later as a caretaker between directors. He also served on several boards, including Leap Schools, the Goedgedacht Forum and the Home Choice Trust, and as chair of the board at Springfield Convent School, having started his schooling there at the age of four.
Not content to sit quietly, after retirement Jasper completed a Master’s degree in Theology at St Augustine’s in Johannesburg, focusing on the writings of US Catholic activist Dorothy Day. A favourite quote from her work was the following: “Let it be said that I found God through His poor and in a moment of joy I turned to Him. I have said, somewhat flippantly, that the mass of bourgeois, smug Christians who denied Christ in His poor made me turn to communism, and that it was the communists and working with them that made me turn to God.”
Her work appealed to Jasper because she spoke about walking on the two feet of love of God and love of neighbour. Peter Walsh, also paying tribute to his father, reflected on the many ways that Jasper had lived out these two commandments: to love God and your neighbour. This example of a father living out his faith in everyday life and loving his family unconditionally, no matter the circumstances, had left an indelible mark on him.
In his tribute Richard Walsh shared: “His spirit will be forever present in our lives and lives to come. It’s now up to us to live what he has shared with us. The warm welcome, the lack of judgment, sense of service to those on the margins, the friendly glance or greeting, compassion rather than pity, acceptance of others and commitment to fairness to all. He has handed this over to us and in continuing his legacy his soul resides in us.”
Jasper is survived by his devoted wife and partner in all he achieved, Margie, his three children, Peter, Richard and Kerry, and their families. At the Requiem Mass prayers were read for him by his seven granddaughters. “He loved and was loved”.
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