adminCape Town — More than a year after he was released from jail, apartheid-era death squad leader Eugene de Kock was spotted at the Franschhoek Literary Festival. The former South African police colonel was spotted both Friday and Saturday at the festival.
On Saturday morning, while Judge Dennis Davis asked Alex Eliseev, Anemari Jansen, who wrote a book about De Kock and Jacques Steenkamp about the challenges facing investigators when piecing a case together, the former policeman was in the crowd.
One journalist said De Kock appeared to have been trying to blend into the crowd.
“He looked like he didn’t want anyone to recognise him at all. Once he was spotted, he told us that one of the conditions of his parole was not to speak to the media,” he said.
He was seen walking around the three day conference with Jansen earlier in the day.
A resident in the area said she had spotted him in the green room [where participants and media collected tags] on Friday, but had not approached him.
News of his weekend jaunt were met with shock and disgust, with South Africans questioning why he had been let out to attend the conference.
There was a small flurry of activity on Twitter. Most tweets vilify him but some call on readers to let things be. — Sapa
Online Reporter