Eugene de Kock

Early life and service

Eugene Alexander de Kock was born to Lourens Vosloo de Kock, a magistrate and personal friend to former prime minister John Vorster. Vosloo (Vossie) de Kock, Eugene's brother, later described him as a "quiet" boy who "wasn't a violent person." He also recounted how their father, a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, indoctrinated the boys in Afrikaner nationalist ideology and taught them "strict Afrikaans" as they grew up.

De Kock developed a long-time ambition of becoming an officer. After finishing school, he did his 12 months national service in Pretoria at the Army Gymnasium in 1967 and left as a fully qualified infantry soldier in the South African Defence Force, but he decided not to attend the officers college in Saldanha Bay because of a stutter, and decided not to do his B. Mil degree. In 1968 De Kock joint the South African Police's uniform branch in the Eastern Cape. Eugene de Kock already had been doing training (off duty) in Pretoria at the Baviaanspoort Prison grounds with members of the Security Police under Captain de Swart (de Kock was still in the uniform branch) in what later was to become the South African Police Special Task Force. De Kock had not been rejected to join the Special Task Force's first training session because of poor eyesight, as he had been invited to join, being one of the unofficial small group that initially started the group, later becoming the S.A. Police Special Task Force. He already did his first 5 parachute static line jumps and went for live fire exercises every Saturday. The same day the request came for volunteers to train new Special Task Force members, de Kock was instructed to report to the S.A. Police College for an Officers course to be promoted from Warrant Officer to Lieutenant, 1976, and made the choice to do the officers course.

De Kok was transferred to South West Africa (now Namibia). In May 1978 he joined the security branch in Oshikati. Operation Koevoet was initiated on 1 January 1979 and De Kock was one of the eight founding members.

During the time doing his national service in the Army Gymnasium in 1967, the whole Army Gymnasium, a full six companies, had been deployed against the Rhodesian/Botswana border with the first incursions of the ANC MK-members into the Wankie and Sipolilo areas in Rhodesia in a counter insurgency and border control action and exercise.

During the latter stages of the Rhodesian Bush War, de Kock was deployed to Rhodesia to defend it against incursions by the black nationalist forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. In 1979, de Kock co-founded Koevoet, an SAP counter insurgency unit tasked with combating SWAPO guerillas in South-West Africa during the South African Border War. Koevoet became notorious for its high kill rate and for its atrocities against local Namibian people.

Vlakplaas

In 1983, the SAP transferred de Kock to C10, a counter-insurgency unit headquartered at a farm called Vlakplaas, located 20 kilometres west of Pretoria. De Kock, who had established a reputation for bravery and commitment during his tours in Rhodesia and Namibia, was promoted as the unit's commanding officer two years later. Under de Kock's leadership, C10—later known as C1—became a death squad which hunted down and killed opponents of the National Party and the apartheid system.

TRC testimony

De Kock first became prominent during his testimony in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), during which he made multiple revelations relating to ANC deaths.

De Kock has been interviewed a number of times by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, who ended up releasing a book, A Human Being Died That Night, about her interviews with de Kock, her time on the TRC, and what causes a moral person to become a killer.

Trial, conviction, and sentencing

Upon being convicted on 30 October 1996, Eugene de Kock was sentenced to 2 life sentences plus 212 years in prison for crimes against humanity. The eighty-nine charges included six counts of murder, as well as conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud. De Kock served his sentence in the C Max section of the Pretoria Central Prison.

Imprisonment

In a local radio interview in July 2007, de Kock claimed that former president FW de Klerk had hands "soaked in blood" and had ordered political killings and other crimes during the anti-apartheid conflict. This was in response to de Klerk's recent statements that he had a "clear conscience" regarding his time in office.

The Sunday Independent reported in January 2010 that de Kock was seeking a presidential pardon from President Jacob Zuma in exchange for more information about the apartheid government's death squads, and that a three-hour meeting between Zuma and the incarcerated de Kock took place in April 2009. A spokesman for Zuma denied the claims.

In 2012, de Kock made several pleas for forgiveness to the relatives of his victims. In January, he wrote a letter to the family of Bheki Mlangeni, apologising for killing the ANC attorney in a 1991 bomb attack; Mlangeni's mother, Catherine, doubted de Kock's sentiments due to his prior lack of remorse. In February, de Kock had a meeting in prison with Marcia Khoza, confessing that he had personally executed her mother, Portia Shabangu, in an ambush in 1989. Khoza denied forgiving him because he hardly showed remorse during his TRC hearing. In September 2014, de Kock had a meeting with another one of his victims' families, the Mama family. Candice Mama (daughter of Glenack Masilo Mama) forgave De Kock, even going as far as supporting his parole in countless interviews.

Parole

Justice Minister Michael Masutha announced on 30 January 2015 that de Kock had been granted parole. At the press conference, it was announced that the date of his release would not be made public. Masutha went on to say that he had expressed remorse at his crimes and had cooperated with authorities to recover the remains of a number of his victims.

In April 2015 footage from Arlanda Airport dated shortly after the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was shot to death re-emerged. The blurry images appear to show a man similar to Eugene de Kock, which is noteworthy since he himself claimed the South African security services were involved in the murder. His lawyer has strongly denied that de Kock was in Sweden during that event, or that he has ever visited Sweden. South African spy Craig Williamson was however present in Stockholm at the time of the murder, possibly to surveil an ANC conference held in Stockholm.