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Without saying a word, a smiling Winnie Madikizela-Mandela hugged Reverend Paul Verryn, the man she had accused of sexually abusing five boys, and left.
That was 12 years after she had accused Verryn of sexually abusing the boys, three of whom were abducted from his Soweto home in 1988 by members of the Mandela United Football Club, Madikizela-Mandela’s bodyguards.
Verryn’s home was located three blocks away from Madikizela-Mandela’s house in Orlando West.
At the time, Verryn, a Methodist church minister, provided refuge for the boys during the brutal police violence in the never-ending state of emergency in the late 1980s.
Moeketsi “Stompie” Seipei, Kenny Kgase, Pelo Mekgwe and Thabiso Mono were abducted from Verryn’s home on December 29, 1988.
Seipei (14) died after he was badly assaulted at Madikizela-Mandela’s home – a controversy that continues to cast a shadow on her legacy, although she was never charged in connection with his murder.
Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault, but her six-year jail sentence, was, on appeal, reduced to a fine and a suspended sentence. The coach of the Mandela United Football Club, Jerry Richardson, was sentenced to death for slitting the throat of the teen whom they suspected of being a police informer.
Verryn said the sexual assault allegations from Madikizela-Mandela – whom he had never met and which has marked his life for the past 30 years – left him more traumatised than hurt. He also said he has never spoken to any members of the Mandela family about the allegations.
It was only at the Cosatu union federation congress in 2000 that he met Madikizela-Mandela for the first time.
“She came out [of the congress] and to me. Without saying a word, she gave me a huge hug. She was smiling and very warm,” Verryn said.
That was their last interaction.
Verryn said Madikizela-Mandela never apologised to him for what she had said, but he bore her no ill will.
He said he forgave Madikizela-Mandela a long time ago.
“Even at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission I said I forgive her. I’ve been praying to God for her fulfilment, like I do with everybody. I don’t hold any grudges,” he said.
Verryn said he did not want his life and his space to be “preoccupied with hatred”. Instead, he praised Madikizela-Mandela for having the “most formidable personality”, and for not being afraid to stand up against people violating others’ human rights.
He also said she demonstrated enormous compassion for those in need.
“She was a powerful leader,” he said.
Verryn moved to Soweto from Roodepoort in December 1987. Before moving to Johannesburg, Verryn was an activist who chaired an independent committee that supported families of anti-apartheid leaders in prison in the Eastern Cape, and he continued his work in Soweto.
Verryn said that although he would see Madikizela-Mandela in crowds before the events that led to Seipei’s death, he had never personally met or spoken to her.
Verryn said he was on holiday when the boys were abducted, and he was told what had happened when he returned. Shortly after Seipei’s killing, members of his Soweto community asked him to leave the area, and he returned a week later.
Verryn can still be found in Soweto, at the Jabavu Community Centre where he looks after 120 foreign nationals and 30 orphaned children.
Now a bishop at the Methodist Church in Soweto, he said he was not sure whether he would be able to attend Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral next week because he had other commitments.
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