Apartheid assassin wins inquest funding battle

The South Afrian taxpayer will have to foot the bill for litigation between the police and apartheid assassin Eugene de Kock after their decision to refuse him legal funding for the Cradock Four inquest was reviewed and set aside by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria). According to News24, De Kock, dubbed ‘Prime Evil’, is set to testify in the inquest probing the deaths of anti-apartheid activists Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, who were abducted and murdered by security police in June 1985 in the Eastern Cape. After being subpoenaed to appear before the inquest, De Kock, who was the commander of a notorious Vlakplaas death squad that carried out the torture and executions of anti-apartheid activists, applied to SAPS for legal funding. His first request in September 2024 was declined, which prompted him to approach the High Court to have the police decision set aside. In court papers, police accepted that the decision to refuse financial assistance should be reviewed and set aside because it was supposedly predicated on the assumption that De Kock had been directly implicated in the deaths of the Cradock Four. This assumption was based on a factual inaccuracy when a state advocate told his attorney he would be implicated. By agreement beween De Kock and SAPS, Judge Harshila Kooverjie issued a court order setting the decision aside and ordering that the application for legal funding be reconsidered.

However, at the end of April, the second application was also denied, and De Kock returned to court to continue his fight. De Kock argued that while his first application was denied funding because of allegations that he overstepped his powers and authority, his second application was declined because he was considered a witness and not an accused or suspect. He added that he had no control over the witnesses who come to testify and that they may implicate him with ‘fabricated versions’ to ‘save themselves’. Police, opposing the second application, said De Kock was not entitled to legal assistance paid for by police on the ‘speculative possibility’ that his status as a witness may change, according to News24. Police argued that National Instruction 1 of 2017 makes a distinction between police officers (or former) who are charged with criminal offences and those who are subpoenaed to give evidence as witnesses at formal inquests. In a judgment dated 20 May, Judge Colleen Collis reviewed and set aside SAPS’ second decision to refuse legal funding for De Kock. The court ordered SAPS to pay the ‘necessary and reasonable costs’ of De Kock’s legal representation for the inquest, which includes expenses incurred by his attorney and counsel. The court also ordered costs against the respondents. In 1999, De Kock was granted amnesty in respect of defeating the ends of justice related to the Cradock Four murders. While he reportedly knew about the killings, he was not personally responsible for them, according to the Foundation for Human Rights.

Full News24 report