Eugene de Kock, the first man of evil, killed black people for South Africa’s white apartheid regime

Eugene de Kock.

Or “prime evil”. Which in Norwegian can become “the first man of evil”.

He got the nickname from his colleagues in the special department in the police, but he probably liked it himself.

He was decorated for his job as head of the state’s own death squad. He had a license to mutilate, assassinate, torture, kill.

He was to keep the black majority out of power, so discord between them, ensure the privileges of the white minority. For the future.

I was not racist, de Kock explained. I was an anti-communist, a patriot and a soldier.

Then, in the spring of 1994, he was put in charge.

It was the rotten system that allowed him to carry out his actions. The same system helped him to hide the crime

— Willem van der Merwe, judge

Lost all privilege

30 years ago, the world’s most reviled political system was sent to the scrap heap.

Today, the name is used to label the intolerable.

Apartheid.

Afrikaans for separate, a political ideology and system of racial segregation practiced in South Africa between 1948 and 1994.

Mandela, Mandela, the people shouted. In April 1994, the people elected liberation hero Nelson Mandela as president in the country’s first free elections. A black vote was worth as much as a white one.

Eugene de Kock was stripped of privilege; high position, good salary, wide powers, spacious home, good family life. He was locked up.

Characterized by Calvinist Christianity

He was born into a prominent Boer family – the Boers are the descendants of the Dutch migrants who settled in the very south of Africa.

His father, the judge, was a friend of John Vorster, the Minister of Justice who was responsible for the Rivonia trial where Nelson Mandel was sentenced to life in prison, and who in the years 1966–1978 was Prime Minister.

The father was also a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, a secret Calvinist brotherhood for the country’s political elite.

The son, Eugene de Kock, chose a career in uniform. First the army green, then the police blue. In 1978 he came to South-West Africa, belonging to a brutally skilled special force.

Mission: Crush those who fight for freedom and independence, justice and equality.

In 1990, South West Africa became the independent nation of Namibia.

Lord of life and death

Eugene de Kock was so successful in the field that the police decided to set up a similar department in South Africa.

In 1983 he came to the farm Vlakplaas. Here the boar son became master of life and death. He rose to the rank of colonel in the police. He was awarded the Order of the Silver Cross – for courage.

From Vlakplaas, de Kock orchestrated a secret death squad that hunted the opposition, branded as terrorists and enemies of the state.

They sent letter bombs, they carried out terrorist actions to sow discord, they blew up cars, they turned people against their own people, they kidnapped, they tortured, they carried out assassinations, at home and abroad, such as against Khotso House in 1988, which housed SACC, the South African Council of Churches, which was active in the fight against apartheid.

But most of all they liquidated. Those murders, and those murders. Like they put a captive man over a pit filled with explosives, then let the charge go off.

Everything to cow those who wanted blacks and whites to be worth as much.

Around 25,000 people were killed in political violence in South Africa in the years 1960–1994.

Eugene de Kock was one of two state-employed murderers who had to serve time.

Would rather heal the nation’s wounds

In the spring of 30 years ago, South Africa’s new leadership chose an out-of-the-ordinary settlement.

Those responsible from the apartheid years did not expect a Nuremberg Tribunal. No ministers or generals were held accountable for crimes against humanity.

Mandela’s unity government established a truth and reconciliation commission to uncover as much as possible of the country’s dark history.

One would be tempted to unite the divided nation. The commission was mandated to grant amnesty to anyone who came forward and told what crimes they had been involved in. There was no need to show remorse.

With Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the peace prize winner, in the sting, the commission was supposed to heal the nation’s wounds.

Eugene de Kock’s status was changed from secret hero to public enemy.

Justice is vindicated by me, a colonel, becoming a lonely demon to explain all the evil of the old regime

— Eugene de Kock

“I, a colonel, become a lonely demon”

He began to tell, in televised commission hearings, he committed numerous bestial acts and murders, he answered yes to the question “were you the most effective killer in the police”:

“I do not deny that I am guilty of the crimes I am charged with, many of them are public. But we at Vlakplaas, and in the other secret departments, are not the most guilty. That honor goes to those who gathered us and made us murderers.”

Eugene de Kock called the ministers and generals who applauded the results from Vlakplaas, who decorated de Kock for his efforts. Who would hold on to white power.

“Justice is vindicated by me, a colonel, becoming a lonely demon to explain all the evil of the old regime”.

Said Eugene de Kock. Said the licensed killer, adjusting his glasses.

He looks like a teacher, a librarian, wrote the journalists, not like a murderer.

The president got away

He owed Pieter Willem Botha for blessing the work done at Vlakplaas, such as the bombing of the church council in 1988.

The politician who was Prime Minister of South Africa in 1978-1984 and President of the Republic in 1984-1989, denied everything and escaped.

But de Kock named the superiors who had to quickly ask for amnesty. The colonel became a national lie detector.

Among those who were pardoned was Minister of Justice Adriaan Vlok.

Don’t escape completely

Just like the leading leaders of the apartheid state, de Kock also appealed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be granted amnesty, which he received, in abundance.

But he was not forgiven for everything.

In the end, the court found it impossible to send Eugene de Kock back to society, as a completely free man.

In 1996, he was sentenced to two life sentences in prison, for a total of 212 years, guilty of six murders that were not politically motivated, as well as a dozen other charges.

Judge Willem van der Merwe criticized the racial segregation system for creating “an atmosphere” in which de Kock could operate freely:

“It was the rotten system that allowed him to carry out his actions. The same system helped him to cover up the crime.”

Found remains of murder victim

In 2013, Eugene de Kock was locked out of his cell.

But not for pending freedom. He had said he was willing to work together with a team of investigators spread around the country. They searched for missing persons, men and women who had disappeared during the apartheid years.

Between the persons de Kock had killed, and shoveled down.

The convicted murderer identified plots, together with the leader of the investigators, a former anti-apartheid activist.

Together they found Phemelo Moses Nteheland in 2014. He was an askari; an ANC fighter, trained in Angola, whom de Kock and his specialists had taken care of, taken to Vlakplaas – and tortured to become a double agent.

The Archbishop spoke warmly of reconciliation

Prison officers returned to Eugene de Kock’s cell in 2015. Again he was locked out of prison.

He was set free, on probation.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha put it this way:

“De Kock is released ‘out of consideration for nation-building and reconciliation’ – and because he has expressed remorse for his own crimes and helped the authorities find more of the victims.”

The decision drew praise and praise. The head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu welcomed the state-authorized killer out:

“As a human being, I have unique abilities to reconcile, to forgive, to move on and to love again. Although many may not welcome de Kock back to society with open arms, we must collectively – as a nation and as a people – take credit for the fact that we allowed him to return.”

Although many may not welcome de Kock back to society with open arms, we collectively – as a nation and as a people – must take credit for the fact that we allowed him to return

— Desmond Tutu, Archbishop

Received a generous salary from the state

Two years later, Eugene de Kock was observed at a private nursing home in the capital, Pretoria. There, his presence provoked such strong reactions in the nursing staff that he chose to leave.

In 2021, it came out one day, in a hearing to the corruption commission, that the ANC government spent 200,000 rand a month on Eugene de Kock, and had been doing so since he was towed free in 2015. One rand is today 59 øre.

40,000 went to “salary”, the rest to secure household expenses.

On 29 May, South Africans go to the polls. They will elect parliament and the president. Perhaps 75-year-old Eugene de Kock will appear. To vote.

Sources: The Sowetan, Times, The Guardian, SABC, Independent, New York Times, Huffington Post

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South Africa

• From the creation of South Africa in 1910, the country pursued a strict policy of racial segregation.
• From 1948, the white minority government tightened racial segregation and oppression, the policy was named apartheid.
• The apartheid period was officially abolished with South Africa’s first free democratic elections in April 1994.
• The liberation movement African National Congress (ANC) has won every election since.
• Election of a new parliament and president on 29 May.

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