JOHANNESBURG (AP) – The South African government Friday granted parole to Eugene de Kock, the head of a covert unit for the apartheid state responsible for dozens of deaths, saying it is in the interest of national reconciliation. But those who knew de Kock’s victims are struggling to accept his release.
Eddie Makue, who worked for the South African Council of Churches when de Kock bombed its headquarters in 1988 injuring 19 people, is ambivalent about the announcement that de Kock has been granted parole.
“It’s mixed feelings, which is something we’ve gotten used to as South Africans,” Makue told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Makue, now a member of South Africa’s parliament, said he accepted Justice Minister Michael Masutha’s reasons for granting de Kock parole but struggled to accept the harm de Kock and his unit had inflicted on their prisoners.
“We have seen what devastation it has caused to them and we find it difficult to understand that he got off,” he said, adding that his faith compelled him to believe that de Kock had changed.