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

CHAIRPERSON: Boraine?

DR BORAINE: Bishop Verryn, I have no questions. I have one comment. And it's really passing on some information which you may have heard, but which I'm not sure if you were still in the hall last night. We met until very late, and I think you had to leave before that.
 Towards the very end of Mr Cebekhulu's evidence, he indicated ...[intervention]

CHAIRPERSON: Can TV help, I mean, that thing is causing - it's sabotaging your other colleagues, the radio colleagues, I think.

DR BORAINE: I was saying that at the very end of Mr Cebekhulu's evidence, he - sitting where you are sitting now, offered a public apology to yourself.  Bearing in mind the crudity and the extent of the allegations, particularly by him, I thought that you should know that, because it may, with the welter of evidence, not ever be reported publicly, and I hope that the comments made - not only by him, but several who have appeared before us, who denied previous allegations, will at least be some measure of comfort and support to you.

PAUL VERRYN: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Yasmin?

YASMINE SOOKA: Bishop Verryn, you know at the evidence in her trial, Mrs Falati actually said that, before she had known about the Stompie incident, you yourself had discussed these allegations with her in September or October of that year, can you confirm that you did, and perhaps you could just tell me some of your own reasons for doing that, if you did.

PAUL VERRYN: Yes, I did, and the reason for it - and I've tried to be as open as I possibly can.  Frank Chikane spoke to me about allegations of this nature, and I have spoken openly about the allegations at all times because I felt I needed to confront what people are saying about me.  So I spoke to my Bishop. I left Frank Chikane and went straight to my Bishop and told him: "This is what is being said, you need to be aware of it".

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  I have already said at the beginning, Paul, our hearts go out to you and very many people found your two addresses to the two people very deeply moving. Thank you very, very much.  You make us proud that there is this faith. Thank you for your ministry, and I'm sure God is going to use you powerfully at this time of transition when we need all of this healing.  And God uses the wounded healer, because you will have plumbed the depths of anguish, and you will be able to accompany people as they walk through their particular valley. Thank you very, very much indeed.  And I hope, I mean, now, you, your family, your church, but especially all of the people surrounding you, will know that they can be proud of you. Thank you.
It is possible actually to maybe give somebody a clap. 
[Applause]

CHAIRPERSON: Please settle. Order!  We now call Bishop Peter Storey.  Bishop Peter Storey?

PETER JOHN STOREY: Yes, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much for coming. We know that you are at the present time on sabbatical in the United States, but you that have been very generous to break into that in order to be here.
 I myself just want to attest to the outstanding role that you played in the time of our struggle when I was General Secretary of the SACC and you were Deputy President, and then President, at some of the most difficult times when we were chucked out at gunpoint from Gazankhulu or something like that.  But thank you very, very much for coming.  I presume you will be speaking in English.  Would you please stand?

YASMINE SOOKA: Will you state your full names for the record please?

PETER JOHN STOREY: Peter John Storey.

PETER JOHN STOREY: (sworn in)

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, you may be seated.

CHAIRPERSON: Hanif?

MR VALLY: Thank you, Archbishop.
 Bishop Storey, you have prepared a memorandum setting out the account of events relating to the abduction of youths from the Orlando West Mission house on the 29th of December 1988, is that correct?

PETER JOHN STOREY: That is correct,sir, it is something I made at the time.

MR VALLY: If you could just briefly give us the circumstances of the notes you've made here.  Were they made immediately after the events, were they made a month or two later, when exactly were they made?

PETER JOHN STOREY: You'll see that the memo sort of falls into two parts. Rhere's a portion of 14 pages which consists of a record I kept at the time. Then there is a further section beginning with page 1 and it is entitled
"Further Record based on Diary Rough Notes and Press Reports".
And what happened, sir, was that when I was invited to come here I thought it would important to go back over that period and fill in from the point of ...[intervention]

CHAIRPERSON: Excuse me, we haven't got that, I don't know whether there're additional pages?

DR BORAINE: We've only got the 14-page one.

MR VALLY: I'm advised that there was a new file given to you recently and it should be in there.   I've now been advised that you don't have that, I will arrange for copies to be made, it's not too material right now.  What I'm trying to do is establish from Bishop Storey the background to the memo he took. I'll arrange for someone to make copies of it right now.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MR VALLY: It has been given to the legal teams, though.
 I'm sorry Bishop Storey, if you could just continue.

PETER JOHN STOREY: What I was saying, sir, was that the first 14 pages were contemporaneous notes and the second section, which has just been the subject of your discussion, I put together from my diary, from rough notes, and press reports, just to refresh my own mind prior to coming to this Commission.

MR VALLY: So, when you say these were contemporaneous notes, you had your rough notes, you had your diary and then - did you do it on a nightly basis that you noted everything and recorded everything?

PETER JOHN STOREY: I brought it up to date - this was a crisis which covered quite a period of time - and I brought it up to date every second day or so at the time.

MR VALLY: Thank you, Bishop.  Now, I want to go through this memo with you.  There are portions which I think it will not be necessary for us to traverse and there will be other sections where we would like quite a bit of detail.  If I could ask you to try and focus on the issues regarding the abduction from the children from the Manse, the subsequent disappearance of Mr Stompie Sepei, the various negotiations that community leaders had regarding the youths.
 If you don't mind, I'm not so interested in the internal church workings regarding this issue.  If you could start off with - before I go on with that, I just want to point out something to you.  If you turn to the second page of your memo, at the top of the second page it says:
"Mid-December 1988"
Do you see that?

PETER JOHN STOREY: Ja.

MR VALLY: Now, then you have 28th of January, 29th of January and 31st of January.

PETER JOHN STOREY: Those should read December, and they have been corrected by hand in my copy.

MR VALLY: Thank you, so I think we should just note that those dates should all read "December".  Bishop Storey, can you start off on your first page where you have set out the sub-heading
"Mid-November 1988"?
And, please, you're welcome to summarise from your notes.  Please go ahead and read it out but you're welcome to summarise it.