Sidney Jackson with his wife Johanna

Sidney Jackson was a missionary from South Africa. He was in close contact with William Branham and he believed the Message that came forth from Brother Branham’s ministry. Already in 1921 he was converted in a Pentecostal meeting and he became a well-received evangelist and pastor in the Apostolic Faith Mission. He was close friends with ministers like Justus duPlessis, his brother David duPlessis and many other “veterans” amongst the Pentecostal believers. Later on Sidney Jackson stepped out of the Apostolic Faith Mission and in 1958 he went over, along with many others like the evangelist Lukas de Beer, to the Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC).

In 1964, while staying in the USA, Sidney Jackson and his wife Johanna were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. After they went back to South Africa in that same year, Sidney Jackson was strongly opposed by several people on the truth of the water baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The principle of the Bible school of the Apostolic Faith Mission, came to him with various pastors and evangelists. Sidney Jackson spoke to them for more than two hours, expounding the Biblical water baptism. After that, many believers came to his house, desiring to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sidney Smith was mayor of Durban and in 1951 he accompanied William Branham during his first visit to South Africa. He was the man who called Brother Branham on the phone in his hotel room and told him to look out of his window. Seven big trucks, loaded full of crutches, wheel- chairs and sticks, that the people had left on the meeting grounds after the service the day before, were driving through the streets of Durban. The native people of South Africa were walking behind the trucks, singing “Only Believe”. (See also the book: “William Branham, a prophet visits South Africa”). Years later Sidney Smith also contacted Brother Sidney Jackson, around 1969, and was baptized by him in true Christian baptism.

Brother Sidney was a very spiritual man and the Lord worked through him with many signs and wonders. The Lord also often spoke to him about people. During the time of William Branham’s first visit to South Africa, the Lord told Brother Branham to stay in Johannesburg for two more weeks, then to take a rest on Jackson’s farm and then from there to go on to Durban to stay there for a month. However, the national organizational committee had other plans and Brother Branham was pulled unwillingly out of the perfect will of the Lord. Although South Africa saw its greatest religious meetings during the services with Brother Branham, the deviant travel scheme threw a shadow over the visit. The Lord spoke to Sidney Jackson in a dream and told him precisely what had gone wrong with the travel scheme and how Brother Branham was out of the perfect will of God. This happened before they had ever personally met.

A part of the gathering in Durban, South Africa with William Branham in 1951

William Branham talks about Sidney Jackson and his wife on the 23rd of August, 1964, on the tape “Questions and Answers”, saying:

“Well, why did Brother Jackson and his wife stand out to me? Because he was a hunter? Nope. Because I’ve got many fine hunter friends down there. But why did he stand out? And why? If you only knew the secret behind this all. But I don’t tell people all the secrets that I know. Well, why was it at the same hour that the Lord said, “Contact Sidney Jackson in South Africa,” the Lord spoke to Sidney Jackson to come here? Sunday a week he was baptized, him and his wife, in the Name of Jesus Christ, right here in the shadowing time. See, predestinated to the cause... See?”