Next week the world will gain insight into the mind and motives of South Africa’s most accomplished assassin as he enters the dock, writes Eddie Koch
Colonel Eugene de Kock, the man billed as South Africa’s most accomplished assassin, will round off one of the country’s most extraordinary murder cases when he goes into the dock next week to explain how he and secret police agents under his command carried out many of the old government’s most notorious dirty tricks campaigns.
The former commander of the South African police’s counter insurgency unit based at Vlakplaas was found guilty this month in the Pretoria Supreme Court of six murders, two conspiracies to murder and more than 80 counts of gunrunning and fraud: a mix of political and criminal felonies that is probably unprecedented in South African legal history.
But a series of investigations into the activities of the hit squads that operated out of Vlakplaas and a network of satellite bases around the country in the 1980s and early 1990s show that the acts which the colonel has been convicted of are just a small portion of the bombings, murders, assaults and assassinations carried out by the unit.
De Kock is expected to begin his testimony in mitigation of sentence next week with an account of a career in the South African Police that spanned some of the violent and traumatic periods of this country’s history.
His life story will begin with experiences during the bush war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),include the unconventional campaigns that were used against Swapo guerrillas in South West Africa (now Namibia), and explain how these methods were then turned against opponents of apartheid inside the country.
Although the current trial deals primarily with the colonel’s criminal activities, it is believed he will turn the attention of the court and the public to the full spectrum of his unit’s activities. De Kock’s motive will be to convince the court that he and his colleagues were driven by a mix of right- wing doctrine, stress sustained during counter- insurgency operations, and instructions from above.
His appearance in the dock, which is attracting local and international media excitement, is likely to provide unique insight into the psychological make-up of the people who resorted to extreme human rights abuses in order to extend the dying days of apartheid. After De Kock, who has seldom given interviews to journalists, has told his life story, a psychologist and criminologist will present their insights into the mind of a man at the centre of some of the country’s most tumultuous events.
It is believed De Kock realises his only chance to obtain some kind of reprieve or a reduced sentence is to give the court a full and frank account of his past. He is thus expected to name more than 10 police generals and at least two former cabinet members — most likely ex-police ministers Adriaan Vlok and Hernus Kriel — as the men who gave the Vlakplaas unit its orders.
Scores of further trials involving political leaders and security force officers are also likely to result from the testimony that he will give to the court next week.