A rather unlikely witness gave evidence at the Eugene de Kock trial this week, writes Jan Taljaard
AS the prosecution this week trotted out its star witness in the case against former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, Judge Richard Goldstone’s “Mr Q” turned out to be an incongruously boyish policeman with an itchy trigger finger.
While testifying before the Goldstone Commission, Kobus “Chappies” Klopper was part of a witness protection programme in which he was known as “Q”. When he took the stand on Wednesday afternoon, his exceptionally youthful looks belied his testimony as he talked of callous murder and drinking at roadside pubs on the way to a killing.
Stretching his youthful appearance to further limits of incongruity were the mannerisms and remarks. “Jis, edelagbare (Jeez, your honour) I can’t really remember all that well, but …,” he would earnestly reply to questions. There were none of the shifty-eyed responses and blank stares of other witnesses.
Instead, like a bright schoolboy at a quiz show Klopper sucked on his lower lip, eagerly awaiting the next
Even when relating how he and De Kock took two secretaries along on a joyride to the place where they were planning to ambush and kill five would-be “robbers”, Klopper managed to convey the inordinate pride that youth has in mechanical performance. “It was a Volkswagen Jetta, your honour,” he replied to a question on what kind of car he was driving. Then, after a smallpause: “Sixteen valves …”
His youthful enthusiasm must have impressed others during his career. He testified that he was promoted to the rank of major last year, after joining the police just 10 years ago.
In 1987 he became a member of the Security Branch in Soweto and two years later he was asked by De Kock to join “the C10 team at Vlakplaas”.
It was during this time that Klopper was involved in the Nelspruit shooting — an incident in which “bank robbers” were allegedly lured into a trap by police informer Ben van Zyl and then mowed down in cold blood, without any warning.
Van Zyl earlier testified that R20 000 was afterwards paid out to a fictitious informer, and the money was divided among Vlakplaas members after he had received his cut.
Klopper told the court that he, De Kock and two female administrative assistants, Jessie van Vuuren and Kobie le Roux, left for Nelspruit the day before the shooting. “We basically stopped at all the hotels along the way to drink something. No, we did not drink cold
“I knew there was to be an operation in which robbers were to be killed. There was not going to be an attempt to arrest them,” he added.
At the Drum Rock Hotel outside Nelspruit, he joined other members of the C10 unit and the Pretoria Murder and Robbery squad in their rooms.
After dinner, he and De Kock accompanied Van Vuuren and Le Roux to the Malelane Lodge Hotel, where they both registered rooms under false names. De Kock used the name of Lourens Vosloo de Wet and Klopper that of Martin Reynecke. Klopper said the rooms were paid for by using a credit card issued under the De Wet alias.
Klopper said he and De Kock did not stay on at the hotel but returned to where the others were awaiting them at the Drum Rock Hotel. He explained that false identification was sometimes used as cover during
“Why was it necessary to have cover for this operation?” prosecutor Anton Ackerman asked.
“Jeez, your honour, I don’t know,” Klopper replied.
The first Vlakplaas member and confidant of De Kock to take the stand, Klopper also started to lift the veil of secrecy that has surrounded Vlakplaas operations.
He said the original C10 unit consisted of “about 25 white and 75 black members. Many of these black members were former ANC and Apla (Azanian People’s Liberation Army) cadres who were ‘rehabilitated’ to assist the police in tracking down others who had infiltrated the country. These turned cadres were called Askaris.”
A team, typically consisting of 15 Askaris, three black policeman and two white members would be deployed in an area such as Soweto to try to find infiltrators.