Marie Sukers — Raised by God from poverty to purpose (Part 1)

No longer a voice in Parliament, former ACDP MP Marie Sukers has started an organisation called Voice to Parliament to “fight for Christian democracy in South Africa”. During a recent interview I found out more about her remarkable life story. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series.

[Read Part 2] [Read Part 3]

“You know, I think if it was not for Christ, I would definitely not be here today. Christianity and my personal relationship with the Lord have been the sustaining grace that has kept me.” So said Marie Sukers, 52, wife, mother, outspoken Christian justice activist, successful businesswoman and former parliamentarian, at the outset of our conversation.

Marie and her two sisters grew up on a farm in the Boland region of the Western Cape during the apartheid era. She never knew her father, who she said “left when I was very, very young” after “a very abusive relationship” with her mother who was sold to him when she was just 11-years-old.

Despite her broken background, her stolen childhood, and hard life working on the farm “where we had to address the owner as ‘Baas'”, her mother, Magdaleen Rex, was a woman who lived and raised her daughters according to her strong convictions of “right and wrong” and who demanded respect for herself and for others under very difficult social and economic conditions.

“In her house you had to rise early, work hard and stand your ground when the situation called for it! You had to speak the truth no matter how costly,” said Marie.

“I come from deep poverty. But I never felt I was poor. My mother never raised me with that understanding. I never felt that I was less than,” she said. One of her mother’s frequently-repeated sayings was: “Poverty is not an excuse”. It was not an excuse for a dirty house or for having a bad character.

“She certainly shaped the value system that I have,” said Marie. “But she was not a churchgoing Christian by any means. She was a bit of a maverick, I would say. She believed in God and she taught me how to pray from a young age. But she felt church was a place for people to be hypocritical. So she had a different way of living, but a very strong sense of who she was and she died that way as well.”

The Children’s Bible

So what were the defining moments in Marie’s relationship with Jesus? She recalls that before she started going to school, an aunt, who was a Pentecostal Sunday school teacher, sent her a set of books — Volume 1 to Volume 12 of The Children’s Bible.

“I started following the pictures in the books. And to this day, I still don’t know how I started reading, but by the time I went to school I could already read,” said Marie.

She said that those Bible story books that she started reading at such a tender age made a deep and lasting impact on her. “Those books, through the Old Testament — the stories of the kings, the Gospel of Jesus, and ending with Revelation, shaped my worldview. It influenced how I raised my children and how I think about politics.”

Reading itself marked her life. Reflecting on her childhood as a young Coloured farm girl, she said: “White children went to school with a bus and we walked to school. Their schools had beautiful tennis courts. I desired that. But our school had none of that. But I believed that I was very clever because I could read. And I still read a lot of books to this day.”

Encounter with Jesus

At the age of 13 Marie had a major encounter with Jesus — and once again reading played a part. “I was reading a novel, A Man of Nazareth by Ernst W Mayr. At the end of the book, the writer describes a scene at the crucifixion. The man, Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, stands at the foot of the cross. And he looks up and he asks: ‘Is there no one for Christ?’ That question. that night, became real to me.

“Is there no one for Christ? Up until that time I had not made a solid commitment to Christ because the question was never asked of me. I lived on a farm where no church was held ever. We didn’t have any active church services or outreaches. So, that evening, when I read that question, I just prayed a simple prayer to say that I wanted to be for Christ. I wanted to stand for Christ. And it shaped my life.”

Marie said that in high school she was part of what was called “the last push”, in terms of the political struggle in the final years of apartheid. Coloured schooling in the Western Cape was severely disrupted by protests and boycotts and Marie had to make big choices.

“When my school life was interrupted in Grade 11, I had to ask myself: “What am I going to do? How do I develop myself into a place of economic independence?” In our communities, when there is a social or an economic crisis that interrupts school life, it has an economic bearing on you. There’s a lot of generational pain due to the broken schooling as a result of political instability. And I really did not want to be a statistic. I didn’t want to be just another Coloured woman who did not make it.

“One of the things that my mother imparted to me through her example was the will to make it — to succeed, to get out of circumstances — regardless of what happens.”

Time of decision

Reflecting on her time of decision when no exams were taking place at school because of disruptions and her education was on the line, she said: “At that moment, I had absolutely nothing to fall back on. My mother had been chased away from the farm after living there for nearly 40 years. She was putting up a shanty in the middle of Khayelitsha. For me, the moment of decision was made easier because of my relationship with the Lord.

“Instead of falling pregnant or becoming a victim of the bad things that happen to young women in our communities when you’re faced with crises and limited possibilities, I was able to turn to God. I prayed and fasted for three days, seeking God’s direction because we were homeless.

“And out of that I applied to Rhema Bible Training Centre,” she said.

“Rhema became the resumption of my education.” said Marie. She said the two years she spent there, immersing herself in studying the Bible, equipped her to understand her place in the world and to take personal responsibility for her growth and development in the approaching new democratic era.

“It’s not that Bible school or Bible studies said: ‘You need to take ownership of your own life.’ There’s no Bible course that would say that. It was just a result of the Word of God starting to take root in my life. It becomes this self-realisation of God in me, and because of God in me, I can — without having reliance on any system or any person.”

To be continued

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