Speaking Truth To Power

In The Lost Boys of Bird Island, former cop Mark Minnie and journalist Chris Steyn expose how three prominent National Party cabinet ministers were complicit in the rape and possible murder of vulnerable black children

BIG MISTAKE

I’m into my fourth week at the Riot Squad in Soweto and there is no sign of hostilities subsiding. In fact, things are getting progressively worse.

Needless to say, unnecessary action on the part of many cops has ultimately led to further incitement of an already tense situation. The liquor store ambush is a particularly glaring example.

On one night shift, I’m instructed to perform duty in a Land Rover. This vehicle is not armour-proofed. No problem; my area of work is in a supposed green zone. They assign a young constable as my partner. He introduces himself as Etienne Schmidt – a nice lad from Pretoria, about twenty years old.

Etienne volunteers to do the driving, which is fine by me.

After two hours of driving, Etienne says he’s tired, so I take over the wheel. We don’t radio this switch in drivers through to control. Once Etienne is over his tiredness, I’ll hand the wheel back to him. It’s been a quiet night so far.

We’re three hours into our shift when radio control instructs us to proceed to a residential area not far from base camp. Someone has called in what appears to be an illegal gathering of people.

By now this area is well known to us. It’s generally free of violence simply because it’s so close to our base. We’re there within minutes and head to the given address, a block of flats. We see nothing unusual; there’s not a soul in sight. In fact, the night is eerily still.

I bring the vehicle to a standstill. The noise of the diesel engine turning over is the only sound to be heard. And then the unmistakable crack of rifle fire breaks the deathly silence.