A chilling but crucial read
THE Lost Boys of Bird Island is a compelling yet depressing read. The publication of this important book achieves several objectives. The first, and perhaps most important, is the shocking revelations it gives of how some apartheid government cabinet ministers took young boys from Port Elizabeth to Bird Island where they were sexually abused.
The depraved manner in which the boys were treated is captured in chilling details.
These are men who were drunk on power and knew they would get away with committing heinous crimes.
While John Wiley and the fixer “Uncle” Dave Allen eventually took their own lives in shame, Magnus Malan, the then powerful minister of defence, responsible for the deaths of thousands, died without being brought to answer for these crimes.
We should not be surprised, because he was never held to account for the murder, mayhem and destruction he committed in the name of apartheid.
The Lost Boys of Bird Island also provides a rare insight into the violence that was prevalent in some parts of white South Africa.
Co-author Mark Minnie provides a chilling account of how, as a teenager, he was raped by twin brothers of a girl who was his first love.
He lived with the secret and went on to investigate and expose the violation of young boys by Malan and Co.
Minnie was found dead days after the book was published.
The big question that comes to mind as the reader goes through the 200-page book is why, at the time, no one said or did anything about the boys’ plight.
It is also disappointing that some newspaper editors at the time, who were given leads and invested in resources to investigate the story, chickened out when it came to publishing.
The other major query the book gives rise to is whether a free and democratic South Africa would seek justice for the boys, whose childhood was violently ripped away from. Better late…
This is a crucially important book. It is proper to acknowledge and praise the bravery and tenacity displayed by Chris Steyn and Minnie.
These authors had to withstand all kinds of threats, intimidation and obfuscation. All of it in an attempt to stop them from publishing the horrendous details of crimes against South African children.
The story took years to put together, for good reason.
The authors were up against some of the most ruthless and sophisticated government machinery at the time. And they forged ahead with the quest to tell the truth and did so at great personal expense.
The publishers put together two authors who had approached and investigated the story from different angles.
While the details of the narratives make for gripping reading, the reader can sense the difficulty the publishers had in melding Steyn and Minnie’s stories. This part could possibly have been done better. Good editing would have joined the two narratives into one compelling read, without playing ping-pong with the reader.
The book should come with a warning for sensitive readers, but it is compelling reading, if only to better understand what was one of the world’s most evil systems – apartheid. It produced beasts dressed in suits who preyed on and destroyed innocent lives.