Instelling

Swiss Mission

On the 9th July 1875, two young missionaries, Ernest Creux and Paul Berthoud founded the Swiss Mission station of Valdezia in the Northern Transvaal. It was on many occasions a hard hit and tested society. The field of action was in the unhealthy Lowveld, on the Transvaal side as well as beyond the Portuguese East African border, into Mozambique. The mission has constantly developed, not only geographically, but in the nature of its work and variety of its undertakings

Its hospitals were famous for the efficiency of their work and the practical help which they rendered to patients. There are hospitals and clinics, three of the hospitals having training schools for nurses. Female missionaries were of great importance in teaching and social work. Its schools and Normal College have done outstanding work. From the scientific standpoint, writers such as H.A. Junod, H.P. Junod, A.A. Jacques and others have contributed much to Bantu studies in all its branches, especially in linguistics and social anthropology. The church has helped to foster good race relations

There is a feeling of affinity and friendship between the Reformed Church of Switzerland, including the Mission Suisse Romande and a large section of South Africans of the same religious faith. There is a strong desire for union between the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa Presbyterian/Congregational and the Tsonga Presbyterian Church (Swiss Mission in South Africa). Among the tribes of Portuguese East Africa as well in the Northern Transvaal, in Pretoria and Johannesburg, thousands of African people have been built into the fabric of a church whose standards are unusually high. Its relations with other missionary societies have been most cordial and brotherly.

The principal task of the mission was evangelisation, but another very important function was education. Schools were opened at Shiluvane, Lemana Training Institution, near Elim, and Rikatla Bible School for the Mozambicans. Some schools had an industrial and agricultural syllabus

Church organization, Shangaan literature, the Blue Croat (temperance movement), scout and guide troops, teaching patrols who were went out from the stations Into the bush, are all part of the work of the Swiss Mission.