Murdered in Cape Town

By Michael Henderson

Author of "Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate"

columnist for spiritrestoration.org

The lives of two beautiful young women, murdered in Cape Town ten years ago, one American, one South African, are today exerting a wide influence in South Africa and further afield. Foundations in their name are benefiting the poorer and less favoured sections of society. All because of the open-hearted, forgiving spirit of members of their families.

Lyndi Fourie died on 30 December, 1993 in a hail of AK 47 gunfire in what became known as the Heidelberg Tavern Massacre. She was discussing the new year with university friends. She had often wept at the inequality, injustices and discrimination against blacks and was looking forward to the first “free and fair” elections. Her killers were members of the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) who wanted “whites” to suffer as “blacks” had suffered under apartheid.

Amy Biehl died on 25 August earlier the same year, beaten and stabbed to death by young blacks shouting anti-white slogans. She was a Fullbright Scholar attached to the University of Cape Town and had gone there to support the black majority’s struggle for freedom. Two days before she was due to leave the country she had given a lift to African friends and ran into a mob in Guguletu. Her friends tried to protect her, saying she was a “comrade”, but to no avail.

In both cases the killers applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which had the authority to grant amnesty for crimes committed during the anti-apartheid struggle. The killers of Lyndi appeared before the commission. They acknowledged their involvement but did not say who their commander was who had ordered them to shoot.

At the hearing Lyndi’s mother, Ginn Fourie, sent a note to the killers saying that she forgave them whatever the verdict. At the end they asked to meet with her. She said publicly, “I do forgive you because my High Commander demonstrated to me how to do that, forgiving his killers.” They told her that they would take the message of forgiveness to their community and to their graves. They were granted amnesty.

In 2002 she had the chance to meet Letlapa Mphahlele, the former commander of the liberation army who had personally ordered the massacre and to express to him her forgiveness. He invited her to his village homecoming ceremony where his role in the armed struggle was being celebrated and asked her to speak. She apologized there for the shame and humiliation which her British ancestors had brought on his people through colonialism and apartheid. At the conclusion he urged his people to follow her example: “Thank you that you’ve come to show us the war is over.” On 30 December last year, ten years after her daughter’s death Ginn and Letlapa together launched the Lyndi Fourie Foundation which is devoted to empowering rural people, re-skilling former combatants and devising strategies to eliminate discrimination.

As a result of forgiveness Ginn and her daughter’s killer have become friends, instead of enemies. Letlapa says that in forgiving him she has restored his humanity: Her own pain at the loss of her daughter has lessened. Now they speak together at public occasions. Ginn has taken early retirement from her work at the University of Cape Town to devote herself to an understanding of the “other” in South Africa.

When Peter and Linda Biehl in California learned of the death of their daughter, they quickly thought as Ginn had done, of the words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” They decided to set up an Amy Biehl Foundation to further their daughter’s aims in the South Africa. Over the years it has been responsible for some thirty programmes benefiting the townships. The four youths convicted of the murder of Amy, after serving five years in prison, applied to the TRC for amnesty – a decision that was supported by Peter and Linda. At the hearing the mother of one of the murderers was wearing an Amy Biehl Foundation T-shirt. Linda went over and hugged her, a gesture which the chairman Archbishop Tutu said sent electric shocks down your spine.

Peter has died but last time I spoke to him he told me of a break-in at the bakery, one of the Foundation’s programmes where the brand name is “Amy’s bread – the bread of hope and peace.” Two of the men who murdered Amy were now working with the Foundation, he said, and had immediately offered to ride as security on the bread vans. Linda said recently that Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni were like her own kids: “I’ve grown fond of these boys. I tend to think there’s a little bit of Amy’s spirit in them. The Foundation is all about preventing crime among youth.”

I have met Ginn Fourie and Linda Biehl, the brave mothers of the two girls. Though their lives will never be the same again after what happened ten years ago and nothing can compensate them for the loss of their daughters, they have drawn purpose and forged a future out of tragedy and enriched the lives of thousands. In an unfair world love is triumphing over hatred.

Amy Biehl wrote in the Cape Times two months before she died, “The most important vehicle of reconciliation is open and honest dialogue.” And Ginn Fourie prayed at Lyndi’s funeral, “Thank you for our only daughter. May healing come through her death to each person she touched – especially those who murdered her.”