MY “tour” of the Durban townships started off with a conversation in the offices of police public relations officer Captain Winston Heunis at the CR Swart Square police station.
There were five of us from the media — the crime reporter and a photographer from the Daily News, a reporter from Die Vaderland, and photographer Puri Devjee and myself representing this newspaper. Dominating the conversation was Port Natal CID chief Brigadier John van der Westhuizen.
It was strange, said the Brigadier, that (Catholic archbishop of Durban, the Most Reverend Denis) Hurley, had not been present at the funeral of one of the victims of Saturday’s beach bomb atrocity.
The archbishop normally made his presence felt in the townships, the Brigadier said. “But here one of his own flock was involved,and he wasn’t there.”
Archbishop Hurley, he said, did not worship God — he worshipped himself.
“Can I quote you on that?” I asked.
“What are you going to quote me?” the Brigadier asked in turn. “Do you know what the Bible says? Do you know what the First Commandment is?”
I declined to answer.
“Okay, do you know what the Q’uran says?”
No, I didn’t. I was not a Muslim, I told him.
“I can tell you what the Bible and the Q’uran say... It is a sin to lie. Do you know what your book says?”
Yes, I could quote the Gita to him, I said.
“Doesn’t your book say it is a sin to lie?”
It wasn’t as simple as that, I said. Hinduism did not share the concept of ‘sin’ with Islam and Christianity.
“Are you telling me your book says it is not a sin to lie?” he asked.
It’s not so simple, I repeated. (There was of course no time to explain to him the concept of Karma and reincarnation which Hindus subscribe to.)
“No wonder you fellows are such ...[fn]fucking[/fn] liars!” he exclaimed. “Is that why you tell so many lies?” he asked the Daily News crime reporter.
The Daily News reporter smiled and shrugged.
The Brigadier made it clear however that he thought the Daily News was the best paper going. “At least they try to carry the facts,” he said, unlike other newspapers.
What did he think of Post?
“No, that paper is a rag. It’s a, a tabloid.”
The paper was in fact broadsheet, he was told. Die Vaderland was a tabloid.
He had not read Die Vaderland for a number of years, he replied.
During the course of the discussion, coffee was brought in for the Brigadier. Would he like sugar?
“Yes of course. I like my coffee like my women... hot and sweet,” he quipped.
I noticed he took milk in his coffee...
