Eugene Alexander de Kock (born 29 January 1949) is a former

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South A ...

colonel, torturer, and assassin, active under the

apartheid government Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. Nicknamed "Prime Evil" by the press, De Kock was the commanding officer of C10, a

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

unit of the SAP that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered numerous anti-apartheid activists from the 1980s to the early 1990s. C10's victims included members of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

. Following South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, De Kock disclosed the full scope of C10's crimes while testifying before the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

. In 1996, he was tried and convicted on eighty-nine charges and sentenced to 212 years in prison. Since beginning his sentence, De Kock has accused several members of the apartheid government, including former State President F. W. de Klerk, of permitting C10's activities. In 2015, he was granted parole, and is currently released .

Early life and service

Eugene Alexander de Kock was born to Lourens Vosloo de Kock, a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a ''magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

and personal friend to former prime minister

John Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; also known as John Vorster; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983) was a South African apartheid politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state presiden ...

. 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 The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, ...

, indoctrinated the boys in Afrikaner nationalist ideology and taught them "strict

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...

" as they grew up. De Kock developed a long-time ambition of becoming an officer. In 1967, after completing high school, he performed his year-long national service in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

at the Army Gymnasium. During this time, he and the rest of the Gymnasium's six companies were deployed to

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to th ...

's border with

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

to confront militant ANC incursions. De Kock graduated from the Gymnasium as an infantry soldier in the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...

. However, he decided not to attend the officers college in

Saldanha Bay Saldanha Bay ( af, Saldanhabaai) is a natural harbour on the south-western coast of South Africa. The town that developed on the northern shore of the bay, also called Saldanha, was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay Local ...

because of a

stutter Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

, and declined to pursue a B. Mil degree. He joined the

's uniform branch in the Eastern Cape. De Kock underwent off-duty training at Pretoria's Baviaanspoort Prison with members of the Security Police under Captain de Swart, in what later was to become the SAP's

Special Task Force Special Task Force may refer to: * Special Task Force (SAPS), a South African Counter-Terrorist force * Special Task Force (Sri Lanka), Sri Lankan Police Counter-Terrorist force * Special Task Force (India) In India, a Special Task Force (STF) i ...

. In 1976, instead of accepting an invitation to train new Special Task Force members, De Kock reported to the Police College for an officers' course and was promoted from

warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mo ...

to lieutenant. In May 1978, De Kock was transferred to

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola ( Portuguese colony before ...

and joined the security branch in Oshakati. In 1979, he co-founded

Koevoet Koevoet (, meaning ''crowbar'', also known as Operation K or SWAPOL-COIN) was the counterinsurgency branch of the South West African Police (SWAPOL). Its formations included white South African police officers, usually seconded from the South ...

, an SAP

unit tasked with combating the

People's Liberation Army of Namibia The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the Sou ...

(PLAN) during the

South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...

. Koevoet was regarded as a highly effective unit, but committed atrocities against civilians and other human rights violations. Its successes in tracking and killing PLAN guerrillas prompted the SAP to consider setting up a similar division in South Africa.

Vlakplaas

In 1983, the SAP transferred De Kock to C10, a counter-insurgency unit headquartered at a farm called Vlakplaas, located west of Pretoria. De Kock, who had established a reputation for commitment during his tours in Rhodesia and Namibia, was promoted as the unit's commanding officer two years later. Under his leadership, C10—later known as C1—became a

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

which hunted down and killed millitant opponents of the National Party and the apartheid system.

TRC testimony

De Kock first became prominent during his testimony in the

in 1998, during which he made multiple revelations relating to ANC deaths. De Kock has been interviewed a number of times by psychologist

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (born 15 February 1955) is the Research Chair in Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She graduated from Fort Hare University with a bachelor's degree and an Hono ...

, who ended up releasing a book, ''

A Human Being Died That Night ''A Human Being Died That Night'' is a 2003 book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The book is Gobodo-Madikizela's account of her interviews with state-sanctioned mass murderer Eugene De Kock from the time of apartheid in South Africa. These inte ...

'', 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, De Kock was sentenced to two

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

s plus 212 years in prison for crimes against humanity. The eighty-nine charges included six counts of murder, as well as

conspiracy to murder Conspiracy to murder is a statutory offence defined by the intent to commit murder. England and Wales The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and retained as ...

, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of a firearm, and fraud. De Kock served his sentence in the C Max section of the

Pretoria Central Prison Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane ...

Imprisonment

In a local radio interview in July 2007, De Kock claimed that former president

FW de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk (, , 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996 in the democratic government. As South A ...

's hands were "soaked in blood" and that de Klerk had ordered political killings and other crimes during the anti-apartheid conflict. These claims were in response to de Klerk's then-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 A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

from President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-apart ...

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 veracity of the report. 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 sincerity as he had never before shown

remorse Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a pers ...

. In February, De Kock met Marcia Khoza in his prison, confessing that he had personally executed her mother, Portia Shabangu, in an ambush in 1989; Khoza would not forgive him, because he had scarcely shown remorse during his TRC hearing. In September 2014, De Kock met the Mamas, the family of another of his victims. Candice Mama, daughter of the late Glenack Masilo Mama, did forgive De Kock, even going as far as to express in countless interviews support for his bid for parole.

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 further said that De Kock had expressed remorse for his crimes and had co-operated with authorities to recover the remains of a number of his victims. De Kock was nevertheless to remain on parole for the rest of his life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Kock, Eugene 1949 births South African prisoners and detainees Living people Afrikaner people Police officers convicted of crimes against humanity South African people of Dutch descent South African people convicted of crimes against humanity Prisoners and detainees of South Africa South African police officers convicted of crimes Politicide perpetrators People who testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa) Torturers