Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1999-04-15

MR MAZAHAM: It is just that I didn't want that inference to be drawn on that failure to make a statement.  In so far as the business and economic considerations are concerned, I submit and I am going to ask Mr Moringer to amplify a little further, that the regrettable thing throughout his trial and throughout the subsequent developments were repeated press reports and a continuous hounding both by local and international press, as to Mr Moringer's involvement financially, with the Ciskei Air Factory which had to close and secondly, with regard to what he will now lead evidence on, with relation to a lottery that he had attempted to set up for purposes of the Police in Transkei.  As a result of that, I think inadvertently and incorrectly, Mr Moringer has been associated with the victim as having had some business considerations as opposed to political.  Mr Moringer, can you please tell this Commission what exactly led to the involvement of the lottery which you were attempting to set up in the Transkei and which is alluded to in quite strong measure, in the annexures to this bundle of documents?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: Okay, until the 12th of April 1991, I did not have any business interests in the Transkei and thereafter, I did not have any business interests, any negotiations with anybody in the Transkei, to set up business there.  My business was in Johannesburg.  However, when I had to go to the Transkei and abandon my business here after the Police arrived at my house, I was sitting in the Transkei in a house, not doing anything because I couldn't pursue my business in Johannesburg, and I was basically sitting in the Transkei doing nothing.  After a while, I decided while I am there, I might as well get involved and set something up because the whole transition in South Africa, and not forget, we are talking late 1991, that the whole transition in South Africa is going to take time and the way the situation was, there was no chance for me going back to South Africa or Johannesburg before the new government was in place.  I was looking in Umtata where I was based to set up and do something constructive to make money for myself, because I didn't have any income at the time and try to do some business.  This is when, I think it must have been 1992, the idea with the lottery came up.  That idea with the lottery and the consequent attempt to set up the business, was a result of my being in exile in the Transkei and not as a result of a business deal against an abduction.

MR MAZAHAM: If I can remember correctly, the concept of this lotto system originated in Europe and you tried to implement it in Transkei, to the extent that the legislature even enacted a Bill which would legalise the lottery for the purposes envisaged, is that correct?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: There was already contrary to the legislature in South Africa, if I recall correctly, I think all the independent States at the time, the TBVC States, had a legislation which would allow local lotteries.  Transkei definitely had one and they had at that time already a very small scratch card type lottery going.  My suggestion was to set up a lottery and set up the lottery where the major benefit of the lottery goes to the Police Pension Fund or Police Funds, it was to the benefit of the Police.  It was an application for a licence but not an application to have the laws changed in the Transkei, the laws allowed that already.

MR MAZAHAM: But what is significant is that any references to any such possible derivation of economic benefit, came some time after this particular offence, the kidnapping?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: At the time there was never any discussions, never any offers whatsoever, and the only business after was developed, because physically I had to be in Umtata and I needed to do something.  That most probably was a year after the actual incident.

MR MAZAHAM: What I also think is going to be material, and I don't want a clouded image, is the reference to your initial trial in the Witwatersrand local division before Judge Zuhrman.  Very briefly please, if you could explain how the charge came to be laid against you because reference is made in press releases again from time to time, always casting you as a - and I regret to say it, con artist businessman.  What exactly was it that led to that initial charge which you stood trial for in 1990?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: The initial charge was a result of financing my aircraft business with the Finrand which was the dual currency at the time in South Africa.  You could get approval from the Reserve bank to utilise Finrand for investment, which could bring depending on the actual rate of exchange between the commercial rand and the Finrand, you could basically get about 30 percent better exchange rate.

MR MAZAHAM: Sorry Mr Moringer, I don't want to go into the whole Finrand transaction, what I actually was trying to get to was as a result of what complaint, because on the actual finances, there was never an investigation until a report was filed which led to the investigation.  How did the original report against you, come to be filed with the Office of the Attorney General?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: Well, sorry, I am not hundred percent with the question, but if I understood you correctly, you want to know why the investigation consequent to the trial, where it initiated from?

MR MAZAHAM: It seems that we are at cross-purposes, if I can lead you to an extent.  Did your former wife have any role to play in what subsequently transpired in the criminal proceedings?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry is this the same lady who was your girlfriend at the time - oh, no, this was afterwards?  So you were married?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: I was married for six months in 1988 to an Austrian journalist.  She didn't like it in South Africa and tried to convince me to go back to Europe and seeing that she wasn't very successful in convincing me giving everything up here, she thought that by creating unnecessary hassles for me, I am going to pack up and go.  Unfortunately at the time I got married, I was not aware that she was certified schizophrenic which I only found out afterwards.  Then seeing that I wasn't going, she sent anonymous letters to nearly every business partner, any institution I was dealing with, accusing me of Exchange Control contravention.  That caused the investigation.

MR MAZAHAM: Was any report filed with the Harms Commission?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: Yes, also with the Harms Commission, sorry.

MR MAZAHAM: And that is what directly then led to the actual investigation?  However, I can place on record, because I was the Attorney of record at the time, that there was an acquittal in the strongest terms, as I said at the close of the State's case, it wasn't even required that we open our defence.  As a result, many press reports appeared alluding to these transgressions and unfortunately, with a failure to actually appreciate what the facts were, is that a correct assessment, Mr Moringer?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: I think that is a correct assessment, and also I think it was always my policy and still is, that if a newspaper writes something, I am not going to write to them to correct it.

MR MAZAHAM: I would like to just clarify the aspect of your current wife's role at the time of the incident. Crystal Surringer was not your wife?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: Correct.

MR MAZAHAM: When did you marry her?

RAYNER MARIA MORINGER: I think we married about two and a half years ago.

MR MAZAHAM: At the time of the incident, was she at all aware of precisely the nature of the event that was taking place?