Remembering Rev Dr Sam Buti

Residents of Alexandra will pound the township’s streets on 10 September in a memorial walk for the late icon, the Rev Dr Sam Buti.

The Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa, Alexandra branch, situated on the corner of 5th Avenue and Rev Sam Buti Street, is organising the Rev Dr Sam Buti Walk in commemoration of the late icon.

The walk, which costs R50 for adults and R20 for under 12s, will start at the church and will end up at the Altrec Sports Ground in the Eastbank section of Alexandra.

The walk’s director and church spokesperson, elder Harvey Phalatse of the City of Johannesburg, said the 7km walk is to honour and pay homage to the amazing influence Buti had, and which he so unselfishly bestowed on the church and community of Alexandra.

Phalatse said the fun walk would be a tribute from the church and community that he so loved and served tirelessly for close to five decades. “This project is two-fold, we wish to honour the legacy of this hero of the people whose name and story should never be forgotten, and we also want to utilise the opportunity to raise funds for our building project as we renovate the church that Buti preached in and conducted weddings and funerals for the people of Alexandra for years,” said Phalatse at the launch of the fun walk in the presence of the wife of the late icon, Mary Buti.

“We hope to galvanise the community to participate and remember Buti.”

The walk is the brainchild of Lerato Tlhakwana, a Sunday school teacher at the church, and Phalatse commended Tlhakwana and other members of the school for what he said was ‘valuing their history and appreciating where they come from and the journey walked by their forebearers’.

Buti died in 2010 and was buried in the township he loved which he described as ‘not merely a backyard of Sandton or its labour pool but a jewel which I hope will always be remembered as a black triumph over apartheid’.