Ryan Poulson

Vlakplaas and Eugene de Kock

The period of Apartheid in South Africa will go down as one of the most tragic political

events in world history. The word, Apartheid, is translated from the dutch meaning

‘seperateness.’ The system, lasting from 1948 to 1994, transplanted over 3 million

non-europeans (natives) to remote villages where they suffered from poverty and oppression.

The main goal of Apartheid was to uphold and protect white’s political and economic power in

the region. Thus, the movement was motivated by feelings of fear and self-interest. The effects

of Apartheid are still felt to this day with it being a classic example of modern racism in the late

twentieth-century.

Ironically, the more government officials tried to ​separate​ the races, the more they

clashed​ together. This clashing further plunged natives into deeper poverty and unjust treatment.

With more resistance came more aggression. Events such as the Sharpeville massacre and the

shooting at Uitenhage left hundreds of non-white protesters dead on the streets. As more

non-whites rose up in defiance, government officials instituted death squads to end the

insurgency once and for all. These institutions were so dark that they drew comparisons with

Hitler and Stalins’ evil regimes. Who was the ring-leader of these squads, where did it originate,

and what were some of the stories that have been revealed? These questions I hope to answer

throughout this paper.

The beginning of the death squads in South Africa can be traced back to 1969. As

mentioned before, there was not simply one united group of assassins; Rather, there were
multiple. A few of these include the Bureau of State Security, Military Intelligence, the Security

Police, Vlakplaas, South African Medical Services, and the Civil Cooperation Bureau.1 Perhaps

the most infamous group out of all of them was Vlakplaas. Vlakplaas is a remote 100 acre farm

situated in the Skurweberg mountains in a suburb of Pretoria; “It was hidden from the public eye

but close enough for helicopter access by generals and other high-ranking officials.”2 Vlakplaas

had to be secretly tucked because it was the closest thing to the German concentration camp of

Auschwitz. Executions, tortures, and sinister plans occurred on this farm under the leadership of

Eugene De Knock-- the infamous “killing machine” during the Apartheid period.

Vlakplaas had a reputation for fearlessness; Plans would be carried out with exactness.

Vlakplaas’ symbol became the honey badger and it’s motto was: ‘Invisible. Invincible.” The

honey badger is one of the world's most fearless creatures; It’s jaws can crack through the shell

of a tortoise. Like the honey badger, Vlakplaas operatives did not shrink when duty called.3

One of the main purposes of Vlakplaas was to “turn” captured soldiers into policemen for

the National Party. Black soldiers who had been members of liberation movements such as the

African National Congress (ANC), would be “captured by Vlakplaas operatives, tortured (if

needed) and ‘turned’ into askaris who would then be sent back [to their native bases] and carry

out murder and atrocities against their own people.”4 This technique was extremely effective as it

allowed Vlakplaas to plan the killing, while the previous allies carried it out.

1
​Robin Binckes, ​Vlakplaas: Apartheid Death Squads: 1979-1994, ​(England: Pen and Sword Military, 2018): 80.
2
Ibid., 189.
3
Ibid., 692.
4
Ibid.
 The torture methods used by Vlakplaas operatives was extremely degrading. One of the

most common methods involved what’s called the “helicopter treatment”. Current caretaker of

Vlakplaas, Louis Smit, describes the procedure:

Here they would do the helicopter by suspending their victim from the hook, either

upside down or right way up, bend their legs under them and put a wooden stick behind

the knees, cover their heads with

an inner car tube and hit them as

they slowly turned. Then just

before they passed out they would

take a burning stick and shove it

up their anus.

If the victim did not cooperate with the Vlakplaas officials, they would be burned to

death. By the entertainment area, there were several braai (barbeque). It took over seven hours

for a body to completely burn and turn to ash-- “the last parts to go are the buttocks and flanks.”

After the burning would take place, the ashes would then be disposed of in the Hennops river.5

All of these atrocities were under the direction of Eugene de Kock.

Born in 1949 in South Africa, De Kock described his childhood as very difficult years.

His father was a “staunch Afrikaner nationalist who was strongly “anticommunist.”6 He was also

5
Ibid., 165.
6
​Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, ​A Human Being Died That Night,​ (Boston: Mariner Books, 2004): 20.
a member of the Broederbond, a secret society of Afrikaners who believed in white Afrikaner

supremacy. As with many notorious murderers, De Kock was the subject of emotional abuse as a

child. De Kock called his father “the proverbial hard man” who drank too much; The emotional

abuse was not only directed at himself-- but to his mother as well.

Combined with this emotional abuse, De Kock also suffered from a severe stuttering

problem. This was a source of extreme embarrassment and shame growing up. In discussing his

childhood in a recent interview, Author Pumlo Gobodo comments that “[De Kock] was clearly

uncomfortable speaking at length about [that distressing] time. In trying to move on from the

current subject, De Kock stated “there is still a lot of trauma there,”-- “There’s ​a lot​ of trauma

there.”7 His abusive parents and stuttering problem no doubt led De Kock into mental

isolation.These became pivotal years as De Kock grew into adolescence.

In his early adult years, De Kock aspired to be a policeman. He filled a position in

Namibia as a security officer before being transferred to Vlakplaas. In Vlakplaas, De Kock was

promoted to commanding officer over the counter-insurgency unit named C-1. De Kock was a

very talented officer and was known to go above and beyond when it came to killing missions.

One common technique De Kock employed was to cut the ears off his victims when

interrogating them. A Colleague of De Kock’s called him “a hard man. . . a soldier. Killing was

his job. He felt nothing for his victims. He was a cold-blooded terror.”8 One of the most

distinguishing characteristics of De Kock was his willingness to lead fearlessly. According to

Gobodo, “De Kock never issued orders behind an office desk; Rather, he went out ​with​ his men

7
Ibid., 56.
8
Ibid., 654.
on many murderous operations. He had been the center of chaos, the blood, the bodies, and the

killing.”9

Because C-1 was a covert operations group, the South African government took a

laissez-faire approach to De Kocks crew. As long as the country's political goals were met, that’s

all that mattered. The ​only ​rule that the government emphasized was the “Eleventh

Commandment”: “Thou shalt not be found out.”10 Because of the millions in secret funds being

given to him, De Kock was allowed to be creative in his goals. It was during his time at

Vlakplaas when De Kock performed his most murderous goals.

While there are hundreds of stories at Vlakplaas that have yet to be told, I want to address

three of the most menacing events that happened. The first one centers around the deaths of

Harold Sefola, Jackson Maake, and Andrew Makupe. After being suspected of working with the

ANC, each of these men were questioned by Vlakplaas authorities. In the interrogation, a sharp

knife was thrust into Sefola’s nostrils, while Maake was hooked up to electrodes. Expecting

sudden death, Sefola made one last plea: “May I sing ‘God Bless Africa” before you kill me?

One day the ANC will govern and democracy will be the end for the Boers!”11As the three men

sang, they were each electrocuted. After the killing, Vlakplaas authorities loaded the dead bodies

into a minibus and subsequently blew it up with a landmine.12

The second event revolves around the death of a man named Tiso. It had come to De

Kock’s attention that Tiso and another member of the ANC were stealing weapons and

ammunition for the ANC. De Kock had planned to intercept the robbery attempt and end his life.

9
Ibid., 18.
10
Ibid., 63​.
11
Ibid., 1352.
12
Ibid., 1352.
After kidnapping Tiso, two Vlakplaas operatives alternatively beat him and forced him to take

swigs of beer. After refusing to answer any questions, Tiso was transported to a mine where he

thought they were going to release him. When Tiso exited the car, he was shot three times in the

chest. After this, they stripped him naked, placed him a sitting-up position and laid explosives on

his lap. After the explosives went off, the operatives returned to the site where they gathered

together bits of body parts and tissue into a pile. To completely destroy all the evidence, the parts

were blown up multiple times.13

The third and final story is probably the most infamous. It depicts the brutality and

sinister plans De Kock arranged. The

goal was to kill the former commander

of Vlakplaas, Dirk Coetzee, on account

of his revealing the secret operations of

Vlakplaas. De Kock was infuriated on

his betrayal and swore revenge. After

brainstorming the best way to kill

Coetzee, Sergeant Bellingham suggested placing a bomb into a tape of Neil Diamond--one of

Coetzee’s favorite bands. The idea was that Coetzee would unknowingly place the tape into the

cassette player, push play, and blow himself to smithereens.14 To ensure the effectiveness of the

bomb, De Kock ordered a pig head to use it as a bomb test. They gathered on the banks of the

Hennops river and triggered the bomb… “The pig’s head disintegrated into fragments of flesh

and bone splinters.”15 Pictured above is the Hennops river where the pig head was blown up.

13
Ibid., 1676.
14
Ibid., 1520.
15
Ibid.
 After shipping the package to Dirk Coetzee, he was immediately skeptical of the

packages contents. He stated: “I’m not taking this parcel. It’s a bomb. I’m damn sure it’s a

bomb.”16 After forgetting about the package, it was left in Malengeni Stanley’s post office box

for three days. When Stanley retrieved the package he went home, tore open the package, placed

the tape into the cassette player, and the room “exploded into a ball of fire.”17 While this story

did not result in Vlakplaas’ main goal, it demonstrates the secret and deadly nature of the death

squad.

The topics of Vlakplaas and Eugene De Kock have been tightly under wraps for the last few

decades. Articles and books on the topic have only recently been published and interrogated. The

aforementioned stories are only three of the hundreds of accounts that may never become public

knowledge. With hearing of the few accounts, one can be sure that under the leadership of

Eugene De Kock, murders and tortures at Vlakplaas were performed with zero regard for human

life. Today, Vlakplaas is a peaceful farm; Many citizens pass the area without any knowledge of

what occurred there. According to one source, Vlakplaas is in the process of becoming a center

for healing, where research into plants and medicine will be conducted. Until that transformation

takes place, Vlakplaas will continue to be the death capital of South Africa.

16
Ibid., 1538.
17
Ibid., 1557
 Bibliography

​ ngland:
Binckes, Robin. ​Vlakplaas: Apartheid Death Squads: 1979-1994 (History of Terror). E
Pen and Sword Military, 2018.

Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. ​A Human Being Died That Night​. Boston: Mariner Books, 2004.