Horst Haase

Around 50 years ago, some young German specialist workers arrived in Southern Africa and not long after they began work in the gold mining industry, mainly in the Gauteng province around Johannesburg, South Africa. This is how tow of these men, Horst Haase, and Jochen Schweitzer, who are well-educated, clever, motivated and extremely hard workers, then stayed, lived and prospered in this region. As time went by, these German men noticed terrible, unjust situations operated in their adopted country. As both were extremely grateful for the success they achieved in South Africa they decided to find ways to contribute to their community. After they spent time, effort and considerable resources they identified a unique and valuable way to improve the existing unfair situation. This is the story of the major decision these two men made, what it was, how they did it, of the results they have achieved to date, and their further aims.

Today, Johannesburg is the “largest and fastest-growing city in South Africa” (Thalle, February 2016). The city is a place which has, for decades, been known as ” iGoli, or the City of Gold” (Maps of the World, 2016, Johannesburg Geography). This is because many Johannesburg fortunes have been made from this metal. Much of Johannesburg’s success is “built on the sweat equity of black migrant workers” (Beall, Crankshaw & Parnell, 14 October, 2014). This was the place Horst and Jochen started to work when Horst, an engineer, was in his mid-30s and Jochen, a geologist, about 25 years old. Now he is in his early 70s, most of Jochen’s time is occupied in running his substantial business (personal communication, Dr. J. Swcheitzer, Februrary, 2016).

Horst is now 83 years old and officially ‘retired’ from the workplace about 14 years ago, around 2002. One of the big local problems these men observed in South Africa was a high level of crime. They saw, and deplored, the way crime exploited and hurt other members of their adopted community. These two men strongly believe in the value of good education, so, in 2004, about 2 years after Horst retired, these men made their major decision: they decided to create an educational programme which they hoped and thought would improve this problem (private communication, H. Haase, March, 2016).
Commencing in 2004, Horst developed their own innovative learning structure, which is basically an 16-lesson educational tool, and Jochen assisted. He also provided the funding. With their stated primary motivation being:

The world is in a bad shape; there is excessive intolerance,
abuse, conflict, injustice, exploitation, and selfishness. This
has been festering for so long that many individuals have
given up hope for fundamental and lasting change and they
have therefore retreated into their private lives which
unwittingly causes the established structures and procedures
with their associated poor value systems to be maintained
(About Us: HALLS, 2015).

This was their first “life-skills program”. Having created their educational product, Horst then found the way to implement this “16 lesson life skills program… which teaches self-understanding and self-empowerment”. Horst was then permitted to “introduce [this initial tool] at the maximum [security section of the] prison of Leeuwkop Correctional Centre, Gauteng, South Africa, in 2004” (Seitlhamo, 3 February, 2016).

Within the prison Horst’s and Jochen’s teaching immediately “proved highly successful” and so they were soon allowed to expand, to deliver their life-skills to inmates in other areas of this prison (HALLS’ NewCo Business Plan, 21 November, 2014), and since 2004 training courses have run continuously at Leeuwkop. Delivering their life-skills education in this prison was the first great step towards their stated objective: “To teach Life Skills to the entire population in particular at schools, since the most promising and lasting change is from the bottom up” (personal communication, Dr. J. Schweitzer, March, 2016).

Since 2009 this teaching system has been known as “HALLS, or Humanity at Last – Life skills”. That year Horst and the other 25 founding members, all Leeuwkop prison inmates, drafted the Constitution and “formalised the teaching of life skills to prisoners”. HALLS was granted non-profit status on 5 March 2010 and tax exempt status on 13 July 2010 (HALLS’ NewCo Business Plan, 21 November, 2014). The training material is presented in English and Xhosa (HALLS Organizational Profile, 2015).

These important steps confirmed Horst and Jochen’s personal “vision”, namely:
Moral regeneration of South Africa is our vision. It is a sad fact
that the attitudes of many South Africans leave something to be
desired, which tends to be difficult to reverse if entrenched. However, the success of our activities makes us believe that if
teaching is spread throughout the country, moral regeneration
can be achieved. We therefore aim to provide teaching to all
prisons, all schools, and at any organization or company
which is willing to participate. We want to make South Africa a
shining example of what can be done.

After their first successful step in 2004, further classes are provided at other prisons. Since 2011, at Krugersdorp Correctional Services, and from 2012, at Vereeniging and Boksburg, and beginning in 2013, the HALLS course was granted permission to the Johannesburg Correctional Services. This included teaching female prisoners for the first time. Soon HALLS’ graduates began to train as (?) and today there are more than 90 life skills facilitators.

In addition, from 2010 and 2011 some local communities and services, such as crisis centres, have partnered with HALLS, as well as the City of Johannesburg’s Social Cohesion Unit, via their Gateway Project. HALLS’ courses began to be taught at four schools in 2011. HALLS also teaches its own teachers, and now has been approved to teach professional SACSSP social workers within the prison service (Seitlhamo, 3 February, 2016).

Today, though HALLS, primarily funded by Jochen, still has no buildings, no land, and no income apart from other small donors, there are now over 8,500 HALLS’ graduates. More than demand for HALLS to teach their life-skills programme exceeds the current capacity to provide.