The boys and Bird Island
Daily Maverick’s Marianne Thamm worked with Mark Minnie and Chris Steyn editing their explosive book, ‘The Lost Boys of Bird Island’. Her last contact with the now-deceased Minnie was a light-hearted WhatsApp exchange last week
Author feared for life
Former policeman Mark Minnie, co-author with investigative journalist Chris Steyn of The Lost Boys of Bird Island ,a shocking exposé of an official cover-up of a paedophile ring involving at least three National Party cabinet ministers, was found dead this week.
Minnie, who lived in China where he was a teacher, was in South Africa for the launch of the book he co-authored with Steyn, the journalist who first investigated the rumours of a paedophile ring involving three NP cabinet ministers and the suicides of two of those implicated.
He was also in South Africa conducting further investigations in Port Elizabeth – the city where the paedophile ring operated back in the 1980s.
According to the book, the ring would abduct or pay young street children, fly them in military helicopters to Bird Island where PE businessman Dave Allen had a guano concession. There the boys would be abused.
Minnie came to the case when one of the victims had been injured when a gun allegedly inserted into his anus had been fired.
Minnie was the first to interview the victim who had been secreted to a whites only hospital in the city.
Minnie – a former undercover narcotics agent – and Steyn had not met until preparations for the publication for the book began last year.
Minnie was found dead with an apparent gunshot wound to the head on a smallholding near Port Elizabeth on Tuesday morning.
The former cop had been visiting a friend. In May last year, Minnie wrote to me in an e-mail that he was working on a second book about his life after leaving the South African Police.
Daily Maverick understands that several more victims of the alleged ring have come forward since the publication of the book this month.
The ring included former minister of defence Magnus Malan, the second most powerful man in the apartheid government, environmental affairs minister John Wiley and Allen.
Daily Maverick can also reveal that further investigation was also being conducted into a “state-sanctioned” unit which might have been used to perform “staged suicides” during the apartheid years.
In May last year, Minnie wrote in an e-mail to Chris Steyn and me that a former contact who had been employed by the Rhodesian police before joining the SA security services, had “handed me certain documents which was sufficient to convince me to leave the country”.
Both Allen and Wiley died – from apparent suicides – shortly after Minnie had arrested Allen for the possession of child pornography in the mid- 1980s. Minnie told me, and also wrote, that Allen had “sung like a canary” after his arrest.
Allen “killed” himself before he was due to appear in court. Shortly afterwards Wiley was found dead from an apparent suicide in his Noordhoek home.
My dealings with Minnie came about when he submitted a raw manuscript to his publishers.
Reading the manuscript I realised I had worked with Steyn at the Cape Times in the 1980s. She had been investigating the Allen, Wiley, Malan paedophile allegations.
Steyn’s stories later appeared in the newspaper, but severely watered down.
I connected Minnie with Steyn, who both began to compare notes. Steyn is devastated by Minnie’s death and was en route to Port Elizabeth at the time of writing.
In one of his earlier e-mails to the publisher, Chris and me, Minnie wrote: “I have a wonderful job in China. Teach 12 hrs per week, and the rest of the time I’m free. This is when my mind works overtime, pondering on the project which all of us are involved in.”
Minnie also found several other surviving victims of police abuse during the course of his return to this investigation which had haunted him for much of his adult life.
During my meeting with him in Cape Town last year he told me he feared for his life and that the book would stir a hornet’s nest.
He also said those who had done the bidding of the former government were still around and had never been called to account.
At the weekend the Rapport newspaper confirmed that former State President PW Botha had, in March 1987, personally called for Minnie’s docket relating to Malan, Wiley and Allen to be removed from Minnie’s office in Port Elizabeth.
A retired colonel, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed the removal of the docket to Rapport writer, Herman Jansen.
He said PW Botha had ordered Brigadier Ernie Schnetler, then the divisional commissioner in Port Elizabeth, to get the docket onto his desk at 7.30 the following morning.
My last communication with Minnie was last week when he asked my advice about a journalist who had wanted to interview him.
When I reminded him the WhatsApp was from me and that it might not have shown up on the message he replied “my phone does show your name”, to which I replied “you’re are a good cop :)”
Minnie responded with a laughing emoji.
At the time of writing police were still at the scene of Minnie’s death on the smallholding. For now, a statement has been issued that no “foul play” is suspected.
Minnie is survived by a son and a daughter.
This is an ongoing story. —
Daily Maverick
‘statesanctioned’ unit might have been used to perform ‘staged suicides’
More victims of the alleged ring have come forward since the printing of the book