Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-10-24

WITNESS:   Oh, yes, yes.  Ja, interesting, you see, after that this attack by Jeffrey Wright, I appealed to the police, you know, to give me some sort of protection and they said, no, you know, we don't do that sort of thing, you will have to employ a private security firm to do it, which is ridiculous, you know.   But now down the road about a block away was a Sergeant Skinner, SAP.   And who was a sort of a policeman's policeman, you know.   He wasn't a political man at all.   But he used to - I had known him, you know, as a neighbour, but he used to drift around quite often in the evening, you know, with this great Volto(?) revolver strapped to his waist, and he used to come and say, "Well, you know, I have come to see if I can borrow some Asterisk books for my kids" and he would sit and read the Asterisk himself and hang around and drink tea, and he came from the kindness of his heart, I mean, to see if everything was okay, you know.   And I used to talk to him about this

MR DLAMINI: and he knew Jeffrey Wright.   Jeffrey Wright apparently had done some - because he was a photographer, Ray Skinner, too  you see, and he  knew Jeffrey  Wright through photography and apparently Wright used to do a certain  amount of work  for the  police as a photographer, you see.   And he certainly knew Ray Skinner.   And it occurred to me that he might be able to give some direction there.   Also, it emerged, this is once  again hearsay and I got it from journalists, that the real mover  in this assassination  thing was Jeffery Wright's girlfriend.    She was the originator of the plan.   Now, she gave evidence in his trial and it  was she who gave him the alibi, which got him off, but she might be around, you know.   Also, his wife and daughter might be around.   It is ironic, you know, I was saying just yesterday to my daughter that Jeffrey Wright's daughter was the same age as Ric Turner's daughter when all this shooting was going on and you could actually write a novel about it, it is so bizarre, and these children involved, and these dreadful events, you know.   But the daughter may be available to talk about the circle of friends in which her father moved.  Or the wife, or Ray Skinner, or somebody out there, or maybe the Scorpio people, if they are available, could give some direction there.

MR DLAMINI: Yes, thank you.   And do you have any specific request or suggestions that you would like to put to the question, by the way of conclusion?

WITNESS:   I would like something to be done for my kids, especially my son, you know.   I don't know if there is any sort of grant one can get for him, I mean he is - I know there are many people more deserving of grants, I mean, who don't even eat food, I mean, you know and who are in worse distress maybe, but he is not going to make it on his own without some sort of support, and I'm, unless the ANC gives me a pension, I won't have one, I won't be able to support him much longer, I am 71 now, you know.   And he is quite likely to end up as a hobo in the street, and one day die in the park.   You know, what else can one do for him.   He is finished.

MR DLAMINI: Thank you, Mr Chairman.   I will hand over to you now.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.   Dr Mgojo?

KHOZA MGOJO: Just I am sorry to see you like this, Mr Strachan, you used to be one of our heros when we were growing up.   One of those few whites here, around here, we adored.   Now, if we want to get in touch with Joe, how do we get in touch with Joe?

WITNESS:   I don't think it would be any point in getting in touch with him personally, but I can give you his address, he is staying at a place called Sandhurst, in Curry Road.   He has a room there.

KHOZA MGOJO: You say that your daughter, Susan, is getting shock therapy.

WITNESS:  Yes.

KHOZA MGOJO: Does she need more than that in terms of psychologists, etcetera?

WITNESS:   Yes, she has had psycho-therapy treatment, and she is relatively okay, I mean she is married, she had got a good husband.  She has got a baby and quite a comfortable house.   She can manage.   But it is my son that I worry about.

KHOZA MGOJO: What about you?   You don't need any type of treatment for trauma?

WITNESS:   No.   I don't think so. And Maggie, where is Maggie?   ---   She is teaching at Carmel College, at the moment.   She is in Durban.

KHOZA MGOJO: Is she okay, herself?

WITNESS:   I think so, yes, she is okay.  Ja, we are a tough couple.

KHOZA MGOJO: Thank you.

MR LYSTER: Mr Strachan, you have to be tough to endure what you have endured.

WITNESS:   You learn toughness in prison.

MR LYSTER: Ja.

WITNESS:   In the my first three years in prison, I spent 13 months in solitary in a cell 7 feet square, two metre square, and listening to people getting hanged, as I say, you know.   And it puts a bit of steel in one's sole.

MR LYSTER: Ja, I think that you, of course, joined that struggle very early, a very young man, much sooner than many many others.   And you must be still astonished when you think back of those days in prison, and the harassment and the assassination attempts, that with all our growing pains and our problems, we are a very different country from when you first made that statement?

WITNESS:   Oh, yes, look I mean, look, if 20 years ago you'd have told me that we would be sitting here trying to make some sense out of this, the furtive inhumane processes of the apartheid era, I would have said you are hallucinating, really, I mean, it is not possible.  I really thought we were going to slide into increasing confrontation, you know, and retribution, and until we ended up with an ongoing civil war that would make the Rhodesian war look like a minor faction fight out there in the hills there and something, and at the end of it, you know, from ... (inaudible) ...

MR LYSTER: of the economy and the society some strong man would arrive, maybe white, maybe black, and he would say, "If you want peace, follow me" and we  would have followed him.  And we would have got peace.   At what cost?   That was the scenario, one could only envisage in 1978.   You know there were - you know the triumphant propaganda that came from the ANC  mission in exile  was that, you know, the arms struggle was  slowly inexorably winning, you know, the struggle, but I didn't see much winning going on, you know.   The South African Army raided as far as it pleased.   They were all over Southern Africa, at its own choice.   You know, the populous - the security police had their will of the populous, that was the story, you know, there didn't seem to be any way out.

MR LYSTER: Any way, it is very helpful to reflect on the journey that we have made, and the journey that lies ahead.   I want to thank you very sincerely for coming today and for waiting and sharing with us.   You have made a couple of requests, we will certainly try to honour those.   And I did mention earlier that at least two of the Scorpio group have been subpoenaed and clearly we will be asking them questions about your own incidences and that of others.   Thank you very much indeed.

WITNESS:   Pleasure.   Right.