Vlakplaas

So much has been said about Vlakplaas, so much has been written about the place and this is the very first thing that a tangible thing that we can say we have discovered on Vlakplaas, Brian Ngqulunga’s remains, which were exhumed today.

... crucial aspects such as who was the man who pulled the trigger. Van Rensburg, Du Plessis, Erasmus and Roth all insist that it was a Sgt Roy Otto of Vlakplaas. Dirk Coetzee denies this and Sgt Otto has since committed suicide. The former Vlakplaas boss says the murder was committed in November, ...

PW Botha knew about Vlakplaas and its evil mission. Cabinet ministers Louis le Grange and Adriaan Vlok knew. Police commissioners Johan Coetzee and Johan van der Merwe knew, in fact it was their idea. The last National Party president, FW de Klerk says he did not know. When he appeared before the ...

the ANC underground in Botswana. But the SADF raid was by no means as surgical as the SADF claimed. In his recent court case the former commander of Vlakplaas, Eugene de Kock testified that the commandoes involved in the raid were not able to bring back any evidence that those they killed had in ...

Eugene de Kock rejected it. I was actually living on Vlakplaas. Williamson didn’t know I was living on Vlakplaas at that time. As soon as he left, Eugene called me and said the guy has just been here and asked me to kill you. And he told him that if he wanted to kill me he should do it. But ...

... the man who was called ‘Prime Evil’ by his own colleagues. During his seven year reign of terror as commander of the police death squad at Vlakplaas, Eugene Alexander de Kock killed, bombed and tortured with conviction and enthusiasm. He has already been convicted for multiple murder and ...

[Vlakplaas placed Cape Town on the map] // He was accompanied to Cape Town by this Vlakplaas colleague, Constable Thapelo Mbelo and two askaris. Shortly after their arrival in Cape Town their first high profile operation in collaboration with Cape Town security police took place, the killing of the ...

... of the whore.’ These were the words security policeman Dirk Coetzee used exactly seven years ago to describe his role as the commander of the Vlakplaas death squad. And this week Coetzee and two of his colleagues told their horror stories to the nation. They were in the heart of the whore. ...

... and he landed on his head. The brain injury he suffered could not be explained away. Colonel Nick van Rensburg called in the expertise of the then Vlakplaas commander, Dirk ...

... Fourie would like to see him explain his government’s education policy to the TRC. // We’re trying to bring Vlok forward or Malan forward about Vlakplaas and about a range of different specific killings. But one of the most dampening/damning effects of education was the apartheid regime, PW ...

Wouter Mentz cries easily. He was the one applicant who showed signs of emotional distress while testifying. After being part of the murder of fellow Vlakplaas policeman, Brian Ngqulunga he was ordered to attend the funeral. I simply couldn’t bring myself to attend the funeral, it was too much ...

from again. Today we know they were abducted from Port Elizabeth airport by Eastern Cape security branch supported by a contingent of policemen from ...

... you’re a cop who takes orders and execute them without asking questions; then you’re a good cop. // You obviously heard of your colleagues at Vlakplaas who were involved in killing people as well. // Yes, that came to my attention also. // How did that advance the cause? // I don’t think ...

Former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee was supposed to testify this week, but he was prevented by legal technicalities. This is what he would have told the Commission. // Nick van Rensburg and his men poisoned him upon release, poisoned him and apparently he did not add enough poison according to ...

Joe Mamasela, self-confessed political serial killer was one of the Vlakplaas askaris who participated in this operation. // It was brutal; it was what in Afrikaans people call ‘broekskeur.’ It was terrible. // Were they tortured? // They were tortured severely. They were savaged; they were ...

... story of the brutal execution of nine people and the elaborate lies fabricated by the state. A story of the men who never took prisoners, the Vlakplaas death squad. Last week in Durban a mother asked the Truth Commission why was my child mowed down in a hay of bullets on that night in June ...

It is a shame that men responsible for the uncovering the Vlakplaas horrors will probably spend time in jail, because of the apparent administrative incompetence of the Amnesty Committee, or is it being done to punish Coetzee? Well, that was tonight’s programme. Watch this space for new ...

... the last time the embattled nationalist government used the strategy of cross-border raids. The forthcoming amnesty hearings, especially those of Vlakplaas policemen, may give us a clearer picture of who did what, where despite the fact that the Truth Commission can’t indemnify people for ...

can be little doubt that it would stir up high emotions if these murderers were to walk free. Now that De Kock is in a maximum security cell another Vlakplaas policeman is stepping into his shoes as prime evil number two, as apartheid’s second most effective assassin. Warrant officer Joe ...

... with a pistol. I looked away because I could not handle it. I cannot remember exactly how it happened, but it was arranged that he’d be buried at Vlakplaas and his entire family was there and De Kock gave instruction that everyone was to attend the funeral. I simply couldn’t bring myself to ...