Plessis, Malcolm du

Author & Composer

b Durban, S Africa 1956, to an English-speaking mother and an Afrikaans-speaking father. Members of the du Plessis family were prominent in the early 20th-c years of Pentecostalism in the USA, but in 1976 Malcolm was converted ‘by accident’ as he tried to counsel a Christian friend ‘out of his faith’! As a late 20th-c member of the global clan, Malcolm has worked with ‘Worship Together’, Promise Keepers and the Maranatha Singers, and at various times with Graham Kendrick and Steve McEwan (qv). But as the founder of ‘Friends First’, one of his most significant moments came in 1986, when he launched their song ‘We see a new Africa’. He sees this as prophetic of the imminent ending of apartheid, demonstrating how black, brown and white Christians can belong and work together. He has continued in that witnessing, reconciling and song-writing ministry. No.201.