Special Hearings — Mandela United Football Club Hearings — 1997-11-24

BISHOP STOREY: On Wednesday the 1st of February, Paul Verryn and myself visited Stompie's mother in Parys, in that morning, and it became clear to us, once we met with her, that nobody had actually told her of the events surrounding her son, and we had to be the people who broke the news to her of the abduction and of the treatment, which we understood, Stompie had received, and of his disappearance, and we indicated that while we could not give up hope, the outlook was very grim.  And she spoke of her faith in God and the way that God had looked after Stompie in the past, and I asked her if she wished to work through our lawyers or her lawyers to bring pressure to bear for news of Stompie, and she indicated she would do this.
 Then that afternoon I released a second statement, because up to now we had not, in fact, referred to the assaults in any press statement.  We were trying to be, we tried to hold this thing as tight as we could, but I heard that Mrs Mandela had now given a television interview attacking the church, attacking the South African Council of Churches for, quote,
"Covering up events with the football team for the sake of overseas funding."
We have, I saw a copy of that later, and there is a lot more detail to the attacks that she made.  I found myself seeing all sorts of journalists about this, and I then went to see Beyers Naude to find out whether the Crisis Team had made any further progress.  We were becoming extremely frustrated.
 At ten o' clock I visited Mr Dominee Naude that night.  He had come back from overseas and was once more part of this Committee, and he related that on three occasions between Monday of this week, that's Monday the 30th of January and Wednesday the 1st, Winnie Mandela had agreed to meet the Crisis Committee and had cancelled at the last moment.  They had given her an ultimatum that unless she was willing to meet them plus myself on the Thursday, they would have to report to the community that they'd failed to make any headway with her.  I expressed concern that I had not been consulted about being included in the ultimatum, and asked what they hoped to achieve, and Beyers said that they would demand that she must express the willingness to hand over the football team and its affairs and its future to the Crisis Committee, and she must also agree to negotiate a solution with myself at a press conference where we would all together face the press by Friday with an agreed statement.
 I indicated I didn't believe that that would be achieved by Friday because of unanswered questions about Stompie, and Dominee Naude said we are not mandated to do the work of the church, that's up to me.  And then he gave me a copy of the NBC interview that Mrs Mandela had had and copies of press releases by certain civic associations supporting the actions of the community meeting, affirming Paul Verryn and the church, and these press releases were now in the hands of the New Nation and the Weekly Mail, and he said the Crisis Committee was attempting to block their publication for the sake of not hurting progress in negotiations with Mrs Mandela.

MR VALLY: Bishop Storey, ... (intervention).

BISHOP STOREY: Yes.

MR VALLY: ... at this point what was your response to this?  Initially you wanted to bring a court application, a habeas corpus application for Mr Seipei's release.  Now press information was being blocked, what was your response?

BISHOP STOREY: I realised that there were two things running here.  There was an attempt to find out the truth about Stompie and, possibly, still save his life.  We didn't know at that point, we suspected, I guess none of us had the courage to actually face the truth, the likelihood was 90% that he was dead, but that he could be somewhere, and the need for this truth to come out.  On the other hand, there was a political agenda running here.  There were people with deep political concerns and fears.  I was aware of that.  I'm not a politician myself, but it was quite clear to me that the Crisis Committee was involved in damage control, as well as trying to get to the bottom of this.
 And when damage control, politically, took the upper hand, then they would move in a certain way and when the moral essence of assault and possible murder took the upper hand, then they would move in another way.  I think they were really in a deep dilemma.  I don't think I'm being critical when I say this, I think it was a reality of the time, and that frustrated me deeply.

MR VALLY: Please go on.

BISHOP STOREY: Well, then I looked at the video, and I don't know if you want me to go through all of that?

MR VALLY: Very briefly on the video, but thereafter?

BISHOP STOREY: Well, it seemed to me that in this, that nobody now was safe from accusations by Mrs Mandela of some kind of plot and involvement against her or her husband.  She said, she denied the existence of a football team, she denied that there had been any abduction, she said that the children at her house were the same kind of children that were looked after at Paul Verryn's house, she doesn't know their identity, they don't know of any football club, she expressed surprise that Bishop Tutu, who was overseas at the time, had said that she had talked about the football team, because he knows that she has no need of bodyguards, she launched into an attack on Paul Verryn,
"Tragedy is the issue of Paul Verryn who has a medical problem, which needs to be addressed by responsible leaders.  Since October '88 I came across the problem which is psychological problem."
I took these words down verbatim from the NBC tape.
"I don't understand how a man of his standing and a Christian continues to sodomise black children.  There is clear evidence that he's fallen victim to a medical problem that he should have addressed quietly with his doctors.  He brutalises these youths who are with him. Because one youth would not give in to his sexual advances that's how this arose.  It is all known in church circles and those who have been working with him.  He is supposed to have been transferred from Roodepoort because of this problem.  He is continuing with his activities with the full knowledge of some of the top members of the church.  My responsibility as a mother is to draw attention to this problem.  The youths in my premises didn't abduct any children.  It came about when a woman who was staying with Paul Verryn told me about this child and he was later fetched.  There is a gigantic cover-up by the church.
 Xoliswa brought the boys, especially the traumatised child, because she panicked when he said ...", quote,
"The only way to deal with this White man is to kill him."
 "The focus should have been on Paul Verryn and the SACC.  The SACC are worried about their image, because, when people discover that Paul Verryn is not very well, their overseas funding will be affected.  This is a problem of the church rather than any football team.  We thought we were assisting the church in a problem and their only interest is covering their image."
These are some of the things that were said by Mrs Mandela on that tape.  
 Later in that day I had further consultations with our lawyers and that we should, perhaps, try not to be too negative about the proposed meeting that Dominee Naude had spoken about, but that I must go into that meeting ready to confront Mrs Mandela with all the evidence that we had, especially in relation to the actions and things said by the football team around the removal of Stompie.  
 Ja, I don't know how much detail you are wanting, sir, that's why, I'd be grateful if you led me a little bit.

MR VALLY: Sure, you are doing fine.  I think we are coming close to the end.  There isn't much left.  I would appreciate it if you'd just follow this through.

BISHOP STOREY: I beg your pardon?

MR VALLY: You can carry on right through the statement.  There's only about two pages left.