South Africa: 1978-1986
Scarboro missioner Fr. Jack McIver spent the last years of his missionary life serving the church in South Africa during the apartheid years. He went there in 1978 at the invitation of the Bishop of Eshowe Diocese, Zululand (KwaZulu-Natal), to share his expertise in cooperatives and credit unions, an expertise honed during his early years teaching at the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Fr. McIver worked tirelessly to promote the cooperative movement among the farmers of Zululand. At the time of his death in 1986 he had succeeded in establishing 12 credit unions recognized by the South African government, as well as the Zulu Agricultural and Credit Union Central Co-operative and Training Centre in the Eshowe Diocese, which still functions today. Fr. McIver is buried in South Africa.