De Kock asks for forgiveness

Apartheid police hit squad leader Eugene de Kock wants to be forgiven for blasting an ANC lawyer, Bheki Mlangeni, to smithereens with a bomb concealed in a Walkman. And he would like to meet Mlangeni’s family – his mother, Catherine Mlangeni, especially – and personally ask for forgiveness “for the pain and suffering she as a mother had to endure due to my terrible deeds”.

“…what I did in those years of madness. Your forgiveness will mean a lot to me, but it can in no way wash away the pain I have caused,” he wrote in a letter. “If you ever feel it will help you to deal with your pain and sorrow, feel free to visit me,” he wrote following an article that quoted her saying De Kock must rot in jail.

Mlangeni, 80, emphatically said De Kock should not be granted parole because he had never shown remorse and had never approached the family to ask for forgiveness.

Bheki Mlangeni was killed on February 15, 1991 at home in Soweto when a Walkman exploded in a hit that was meant for a Vlakplaas operative turned-ANC-member, Dirk Coetzee.

When told about De Kock’s wish to meet with her, Mlangeni gasped: “Why does he want to apologise for now after such a long time?

“And why does he want to do so after reading an article in The Star about how I feel about the whole parole thing? I am not so sure if he is genuine… It’s like we are forcing him to apologise. What was he waiting for all this time?”

She noted that a former minister of law and order, Adriaan Vlok, had gone as far as washing the feet of one of his victims, the Rev Frank Chikane, to show his remorse.

“The same cannot be said about De Kock. He has done nothing to show his remorse,” said Mlangeni.

The widowed pensioner said she would discuss De Kock’s letter at a family meeting on Saturday when they gathered to prepare for the commemoration of her son’s death.

Mlangeni’s widow, Seipati, said forgiveness was immaterial. “And whether the government releases him or not, it will never bring back my husband.”

In his letter, De Kock said he fully accepts that the Mlangeni family may not be able to forgive him, because with murder, “forgiveness becomes impossible.

“With that in mind, I cannot ask Ms Catherine Mlangeni for forgiveness for the death of her son, and I will have to live with that pain and regret forever.

“There is no greater punishment than to have to live with the consequences of the most terrible deed with no one to forgive you. For me, even my own death can’t compare…”

De Kock, in terms of a recent court ruling, may apply for parole after 13 years and four months in prison.

Correctional Services, however, has confirmed that De Kock’s December parole hearing was postponed indefinitely.

*Prime evil’s timeline

Eugene de Kock headed the covert security police unit based at Vlakplaas near Pretoria.

He was sentenced in October 1996 to two life sentences plus 212 years on 89 charges, including six of murder, two of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, culpable homicide, kidnapping, fraud and the illegal possession of weapons. He received amnesty for some of his crimes.

The charges related, inter alia, to the deaths of five would-be robbers in an ambush outside Nelspruit in 1992 and the murder of askari Goodwill Sikhakhane, near Greytown, KwaZulu Natal, in 1991, to prevent him from revealing police involvement in the disappearance of ANC members who were part of Operation Vula.

De Kock was also convicted of conspiring to murder Vlakplaas colleague Brian Ngqulunga and Krugersdorp security guard Japie Maponya, attempting to murder police hit squad leader Dirk Coetzee, and the culpable homicide of Bheki Mlangeni killed by a parcel bomb meant for Coetzee. - The Star

• De Kock’s letter