Special Hearings — Mandela United Football Club Hearings — 1997-11-26

PETER JOHN STOREY: Well, what had happened was that I'd had a discussion with the Reverend Paul Verryn in October as a result of his reporting to me that there were rumours circulating that he was engaged in homosexual activities with some of the residents of the mission house. That was in late October.  We had a discussion then about how we should respond to those rumours.
 It was in mid-November that, as part a report to me on how things were progressing in the house, he indicated that a Miss Xoliswa Falati had come to live in the house. And he reported an improvement in discipline and cleanliness, and also that he felt less vulnerable, more protected from rumours because there was now an adult woman in the house.

MR VALLY: Won't you please go to the events that took place in - what you call mid-December 1988, more specifically the 29th of December 1988 - that's on page 2.

PETER JOHN STOREY: This of course was information that came to me after the fact - the abduction,  is that what you're referring to?

MR VALLY: That's correct.

PETER JOHN STOREY: Yes.  To my knowledge - and this is of course based on reports, I wasn't present, but that is when the abduction took place of Kenny KKgase, Thabiso and Pelo and Stompie.  We were never sure quite what the role of Katiza  was, we know that he was taken, but we were not sure that this was against his will.  Xoliswa was present and co-operated with the abduction and she had earlier threatened the boys with real discipline from the football team.

MR VALLY: After the boys were taken from the house, the Methodist Manse, can you tell us what happened?  What was your role, what was the community's role, and can you relate what you've recorded in this regard?

PETER JOHN STOREY: Well, I think these things have a way of starting small, and initially I think there was a hope that this might be a misunderstanding.  Local people in the community felt they could deal with this, this was not something that necessarily would have to go further, and so I am not very clear at all about all the things that happened in response to the abduction in those first few days, except that I was told by Mr Aubrey Mokoena that he had gone to visit Mrs - then known as Mrs Mandela - on the 4th of January.
 That he had enquired about the abduction, and that's the first knowledge I have of somebody actually directly responding to the abduction by going to the Mandela house.  He was told then by her, and this is what he told me, that the young people were not at her home.  
 On the 6th of January I was told that Doctor Motlana visited the house, and that this time Mrs Mandela acknowledged that the children were there, but she refused to give him access when he asked to examine them.  Those are just some of the initial community responses to the abduction that I know of.  Do you want me to go further into - ?

MR VALLY: Bishop, I just want to check something with you, I'm told that you have prepared a statement which you actually want to read out. I'm not sure if you've given us a copy of this statement?

PETER JOHN STOREY: No, there are some things I'd like to say, sir, and I would ask the opportunity later to ...[inaudible].

MR VALLY: That's fine, we can go through your recollection of what happened.  Let's go to the 7th of January, this was the date when Kenny Kgase arrived at the Central Methodist Church. Can you briefly tell us what happened?

PETER JOHN STOREY: Well, again this is - I have to emphasise - I as yet did not know about this abduction, so this is what was reported to me, but that David Ching, one of the staff members of the Central Methodist Mission telephoned Reverend Paul Verryn to say that Kenny Kgase - now Kenny Kgase had a link with the Central Methodist Mission, he was a semi-staff member there and did some work there and earned a little bit of money that way -  that he had arrived in a bad physical state, and Paul apparently went to meet with him and his first question to Paul Verryn was: "Where is Stompie"?  And then he told Paul that he was very traumatised and one of the things which he blurted out was: "We are being trained to kill".  Paul Verryn then met with his Superintendent Minister, the Reverend Otto Mbambula, who indicated that he had been engaged with the Reverend Sizwe Mbabane in some discussions with community leaders since the 2nd of January about this issue.
 Paul then took Kenny Kgase to the doctor because of his head injuries. He was x-rayed and it seemed that no serious damage was diagnosed, although he was still having trouble with his eyesight and there were other problems.  Kenny was then taken to Mr Geoff Budlander, a lawyer and he made a statement, and Mr Budlander placed very strong conditions on how that statement might ever be used.
 And then on Monday the 9th, I was told of the situation and began to enter into the dialogue about how we could handle it.  And I first got a full report from the Reverend Paul Verryn as to what he knew and what he could tell me about Kenny's return and the report that Kenny had made.  And then on the 11th of January I was called by the Reverend Frank Chikane, who said that the community was deeply concerned about what would happen, and a Crisis Committee was taking up the matter with Mrs Mandela, and would be seeing her that morning.  
 And he was asking that the church and the community leaders co-operate very closely in this matter.  And I agreed with that. I recognised the sensitivity of it all and it was quite clear that we would need to work with and through community leaders to try and obtain the release of these youths.

MR VALLY: Bishop, let me just stop you for a minute there.  The Crisis Committee and other people that you referred to earlier in the paragraph, Mr Aubrey Mokoena, Sister Bernard Ncube, Mr Sydney Mufamadi ...[intervention]

PETER JOHN STOREY: I don't who the full Crisis Committee were - I know who  I dealt with - and it was like a bit of a movable feast because they came and they went. Mr Chikane, for instance, was there for a time and then he had to go overseas.  So he participated in negotiations and then he wasn't there any longer, but the people who were involved with me, in discussions with me and reporting to me on what they had done and what had happened when they'd gone to see Mrs Mandela, etc. were: Mr Chikane, Reverend Beyers Naude, Sister Bernard Ncube, Mr Sydney Mufamadi, Mr Aubrey Mokoena, Mr Stuart Ngwenya.  I may have left out a name or two but those were the people I dealt with, I think, most consistently over the period.

MR VALLY: Please go on..

PETER JOHN STOREY: Do you wish me to go into Thursday the 12th?

MR VALLY: Yes, I'd like you to raise the issue of the negotiations the Crisis Team had about this issue when it tried to determine what had happened to the children who had been taken from the Manse and the response of the Madikizela-Mandela household.