The ‘boy’ in the bomber
SOME time ago I read an article about how one of the survivors of the Worcester bomb blasts on Christmas Eve in 1996 had been solicited for forgiveness by the youngest perpetrator of the terrorist group. While admiring the generosity of spirit of the survivor, I wondered about the wounded soul of the perpetrator I had met during the hunt for the perpetrators back then.
The boy I met then was the adopted son of Jan Voetbal, a devout member of the Israel Vision Sect, whose farm was in the Wilgersboskloof region of the Moordenaars Karoo. During investigations on the perpetrators’ farm, I was struck by the fact that each room had an A3-size Bible opened at some scripture in the Old Testament which spoke of the status of the Israelites and detailed laws and customs which excluded others. The bibles were beautifully scripted with the opening verses of each chapter calligraphed.
We found weapons of indiscriminate terror there in the sun-scorched black rock outcrops in Wilgersboskloof. What struck me about the place was that 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 inculcated.
Armed with this knowledge, the team and I withdrew from the farm to question Voetbal’s adopted son and another accomplice at a place outside Worcester. During the session, I gave him 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 with something to the effect: “Meneer, maar u is dan net so ’n mens soos ek. Vertel my meer oor waarvandaan jy kom.” (“Mister, you are then a person just like me. Tell me more about where you come from.”)
I obliged and humanised my history, as well as those of those affected by the Worcester bomb blast. What struck me was that this 18-year-old “boy” listened attentively like an overawed child who had not had a civil conversation with person of my ancestry before. In that single moment, everything he had been taught by the Israel Vision sect about “mud animals” evaporated in a simple human conversation. I went to interrogate
an “enemy” and found a boy inside.
The team eventually caught Voetbal, Koper Myburgh and Cliffie Barnard who, together with the “boy”, were imprisoned. As for the adopted son I met that day, it seems that it was the “boy” I had met in 1996 who asked one of the survivors, Mama Olga Macingwane, for forgiveness in prison in 2009. But, in these words after that visit, I finally heard the birth of a man: “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