Eugene de Kock ‘looking for a presidential pardon’

Is one of the most notorious white police chiefs of South Africa's apartheid era, a man held responsible for liquidating dozens of black anti-apartheid activists, on the point of going free after serving barely a dozen years of his 212-year jail sentence?

South Africa's commendable willingness to confront the brutal realities of apartheid through the far-ranging hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) could face a severe test following press reports that Eugene de Kock, the former police hit squad leader nicknamed "Prime Evil", is seeking a pardon from President Jacob Zuma.

According to the South African Sunday Independent, Eugene de Kock had a three-hour secret meeting with Zuma in the high-security prison in Pretoria where he is being held. The newspaper reported that de Kock had offered to provide Zuma with inside information about others involved with government death squads, whom he complained had so far got off "scot-free".  

If the Sunday Independent's sources are correct, de Kock indicated that he would be prepared to testify before any new investigation into atrocities committed under apartheid, even offering to help locate unmarked graves in which victims were buried.     

As many South Africans were already aware, de Kock, who was sentenced in 1996, alleged in a 2007 radio interview that the country's last white leader, FW de Klerk, had known all about the activities of the police hit squads, despite professing that he had a "clear conscience" and had never been briefed directly about the activities of the assassination units. De Kock went so far as to describe the Nobel Peace Prize winner as "an unconvicted murderer".

The former president angrily rejected the allegation. Yet during his own appearance before the TRC it was noted that he became visibly disconcerted under questioning about a particularly bloody incident in which five black youths were shot dead in their beds.  

At the time, there were rumours in security service circles that de Kock's former boss at the signally mis-named Ministry of Law and Order – Adriaan Vlok, a sinister fanatic who had backed de Kock's ruthless operations all the way - was ready to accuse de Klerk of authorising those killings in return for lenient treatment by prosecutors investigating his own conduct in office.

Zuma's official spokesman has denied any knowledge of the reported prison meeting, said to have taken place last April. But sources close to de Kock say he described the presidential visit, during which a photograph was allegedly taken of the pair together,  as "two old warriors from opposing sides talking about peace and reconciliation".  

Visitors who saw him on Christmas Day say de Kock was in high spirits and seemed "confident about his future."  The Weekend Cape Argus newspaper reported that he had brusquely rebuffed a "degrading" request by his ex-boss, who has never stood trial, to wash his feet.

Hundreds of prisoners convicted of crimes during the apartheid years, including members of black resistance groups, have already applied for official pardons by President Zuma. He indicated recently that he hoped to clear the backlog by the middle of this year. Few would be surprised if de Kock's name was among those permitted to walk free. ·