The power of forgiveness

SOME time ago, I read an article how a survivor of the Worcester bomb blasts on Christmas Eve in 1996 had been solicited for forgiveness by one the terrorist group’s youngest perpetrators.

While admiring the generosity of spirit of the survivor in question, I wondered about the wounded soul of the perpetrator, whom I had met during the hunt for the perpetrators.

The boy I met then was the “son” of Jan Voetbal, a devout member of the Israel Vision Sect, whose farm was in the Wilgersboskloof region of the Moordenaars Karoo.

During the team’s investigations on the perpetrators farm, I was struck each room had an A3-sized Bible opened at some scripture in the Old Testament which spoke of the chosen status of the Israelites and detailed laws and customs which excluded others.

These Bibles were beautifully scripted, with the opening verses of each chapter calligraphed in what appeared to be medieval script.

Its content defiled the beauty of its form. We found other weapons of indiscriminate terror there in the sun-scorched black rock outcrops in Wilgersboskloof.

What struck me about the place was its almost absolute isolation hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town, without phones, television or radio, was ideal ground within which the religious ideology of the Israel Vision sect could be taught without distracting alternative influences.

Armed with this knowledge, the team withdrew from the farm to question Jan Voetbal’s “son” and another accomplice at a place outside Worcester.

During the session, I gave the son something to eat which, despite his initial discomfort at me being one of the “mud animals” of his Israel Vision teachings, he ravenously devoured.

After a while of strategic silence on my part, he broke the silence: “Meneer, maar U is dan net so ’n mens soos ek. Vertel my meer oor waarvandaan jy kom.” (Sir, but you are also a human like me. Tell me more about where you come from.)

I obliged and humanised my history, as well as that of those affected by the Worcester bomb blast. What struck me was this 18-year-old “boy” listened attentively like an overawed child who had not had a civil conversation with person of my historical ancestry before.

In that moment, everything he had been taught by the Israel Vision sect about “mud animals” evaporated in a simple human conversation far removed from my objective to clinically interrogate a perpetrator. I went to interrogate an “enemy” and found a boy inside.

The team eventually caught Jan Voetbal and Cliffie Barnard who, together with the boy, were imprisoned for a long time. As for the “son” of Jan Voetbal, it seems it was the boy I met in Worcester in 1996 who asked one of the survivors, Mama Olga Macingwaqne, for forgiveness in prison in 2009.

And, that boy became a man. After that visit, he said the following about her: “I did not expect her to forgive me, but the love in her heart imparted grace and forgiveness which resulted in freedom beyond understanding.” JEREMY VEAREY Mowbray