In a period as bloody and violent as the twentieth century, it takes concerted effort to earn the nickname “Prime Evil”. But, with his involvement in the killing and maiming of black activists in South African apartheid, that is how Eugene de Kock came to be known in the aftermath of white rule.
So it came as a surprise to many on Friday when it was announced that de Kock, the former commander of the apartheid government’s infamous Vlakplaas unit – a police squad responsible for unimaginable horrors – was to be granted parole.
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