Special Report Transcript Episode 20, Section 1, Time 00:20

The skeletons in the previous government’s cupboard really rattled this week. The denials of the last seven years from state presidents, cabinet ministers and generals, down to ordinary policemen exploded in their faces as the man who calls himself apartheid’s top assassin Colonel Eugene de Kock spilled the beans in an effort to save himself. We’ll give you the background of De Kock’s sensational statements tonight and how it could affect the Truth Commission process. But De Kock is not the only evil in tonight’s programme; we’re taking you to Joseph Stalin’s death camps in the former Soviet Union with the story of South Africans who died there; we probe the concepts of vigilantism and the third force and we look at the plight of victims who have come before the Truth Commission. But first, 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 fraud and this week he tried to soften the blow which awaits him by saying ‘I’m not alone in my guilt, the politicians knew what we were doing and they were happy about it. They gave us the highest decorations this country could give. They attended parties at Vlakplaas where they congratulated us.’

Notes: Max du Preez