Adriaan Vlok, feared South African Apartheid-era security minister, dies at 85

8 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Former South African Security Minister Adriaan Vlok, confessedly responsible for crimes during the Apartheid era, has died this Sunday at the age of 85 after a brief illness, a family spokesman confirmed.

Vlok received an amnesty in 1999 after pleading guilty to orchestrating an attack on the National Ecclesiastical Council and the Cosatu union, as well as the attempted assassination of Reverend Frank Chikane, the council’s general secretary.

The former minister died at the Unitas hospital in the town of Centurion, Guateng province, as confirmed by family spokesman Peet Bothma to News24.

During his tenure at the head of the Ministry of Security, from 1986 to 1991, Vlok oversaw brutal police repression in the era of segregation. He was responsible for the arrest of at least 30,000 people, including 15,000 who were simultaneously imprisoned during the declaration of a state of emergency for protests during the last years of Apartheid.

Vlok also administered the national security law that, in 1988, led to the outlawing of nearly twenty anti-segregation organizations and, as a member of the State Security Council, was involved in multiple targeted assassination operations against activists. .

In fact, in an interview with the ‘Mail and Guardian’, Vlok admitted to signing congratulatory letters to the officers later accused of carrying out these executions and used words such as “eliminate” to encourage police repression against political dissidents. However, he assured that he did not have exact knowledge of the details of these operations.

Vlok ended his testimony before the Reconciliation Commission by apologizing for his actions.