Alet van Rensburg
The new civilian caretakers of Vlakplaas – former base of the notorious police C-10 hit squad – are interested in buying the farm from the government and turning it into a rehabilitation centre for “lost souls”.
The old farmhouse on Vlakplaas is now filled with Louis and Lucia Smit’s furniture. They’ve turned it into a comfortable and friendly home. While we are talking in the lounge, one of their five dogs lies snoring next to the sofa.
“When we were planning to move to Pretoria from Louis Trichardt, we decided we didn’t want to live in the city,” Louis Smit explains. “So when a friend told us about this beautiful farm, we came to see for ourselves.”
The couple immediately fell in love with the place, without knowing that it had once been under the command of Eugene de Kock.
“It was only shortly before we moved to the farm that we recognised it as Vlakplaas from visual material shown on TV.”
Getting permission to move there was no easy task. Louis Smit first tried to buy or rent the farm, but he says this couldn’t happen because court cases were still in progress.
It was only after he told the Department of Public Works, which regained control of the farm at the end of 1995 when the police decided to close it down, that it was becoming neglected and had been stripped by robbers that the Smits weregiven permission to live there as caretakers.
Most of the windows were broken, wires had been cut, wall plugs had been ripped out and the taps had been broken. In two years, the Smits have fixed all the damage.
“We’re still working on the garden. It still isn’t as beautiful as it used to be,” says Lucia Smit.
The couple, who are born-again Christians, say they intend to turn Vlakplaas’s “darkness into light”.
They want to buy the farm and turn it into a haven for people in spiritual need.
They see their role as one of reconciliation. “There has been so much pain, but we aren’t here to judge.”
Louis Smit says he would like to meet De Kock, who is serving a life sentence for crimes, including murder, committed during his career as a policeman.
“De Kock’s locker is still here. His name is still there. Our son is sleeping in his former office. We would like to tell him about our plans.”
The Smits have already had many visitors, including members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee has paid more than one visit and other policemen who were stationed there have come to share their memories with the Smits.
This week, the farm was once again a hive of activity. In the lapa next to the farmhouse, relatives and friends of former askari Brian Ngqulunga – including his wife, Tholakele Ngqulunga – were enjoying cold drinks provided by the Smits.
They had come to fetch his remains to rebury him in Soshanguve. They were exhausted and hot after standing at the hillside grave watching Ngqulunga’s remains being exhumed by funeral parlour employees.
Ngqulunga, a police constable, was murdered by Vlakplaas operatives in July 1990 after he threatened to expose their involvement in the murder of African National Congress lawyer Griffiths Mxenge.
It took almost two hours before the cement block covering the grave was moved. Ngqulunga’s remains were buried in a heavy metal coffin which had to be prised open.
Louis Smit and his bulldog observed the exhumation from a distance. “We’ve heard all the stories about Vlakplaas; now we have dedicated the farm to God,” he said.
The Smits don’t know if their dream will materialise. There has been talk that South Africa’s version of Disney World could be built in the area, which could mean that Vlakplaas will be submerged beneath water.