Notorious apartheid police commander ‘Prime Evil’ testifies at South African hearing on killings

Key Points:

• Eugene de Kock, a notorious apartheid police commander known as "Prime Evil," testified at an inquiry into the 1985 killing of the Cradock Four activists, denying involvement but revealing police had photos of 6,000 anti-apartheid activists marked for tracking and potential killing.
• The Cradock Four—Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto—were abducted and killed by police, with their bodies found burned; previous inquiries during apartheid were suspected cover-ups, and the implicated officers were never prosecuted.
• De Kock testified that a fellow officer sought his help to cover up the killings by interfering with ballistics evidence; de Kock himself was convicted in 1996 for multiple crimes during apartheid and released on parole in 2015.
• The renewed inquiry into the Cradock Four case follows pressure from victims' families and is part of a broader effort by South African authorities to reopen investigations into apartheid-era atrocities, including deaths of prominent anti-apartheid figures.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa has also ordered an inquiry into whether post-apartheid governments deliberately obstructed investigations and prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes.