Calling Eugene de Kock a "cold-blooded mass murderer" may give him unintended status of a maverick criminal who acted alone driven by personal ambition and demons. It makes him a Moses Sithole or any other individual criminal. It opens a barn door for all other perpetrators to escape scot free. And Eugene de Kock was NOT a lone killer. Eugene de Kock was a regular colonel in the Special Branch Police. He was part of the executive arm of the Apartheid government - the police. He functioned within a police force with a budget, authorizations and approvals. And an organogram. He did not act like a lose Canon. He defied no laws. He acted within his legal mandate as given to him by the Apartheid government and the Commissioner of Police and he Cabinet Security Ciuncil. He did not act alone. He acted with a team of hundreds of dedicated police officers, black and white. They had a clear mandate to protect the Apartheid state and they had clear guidelines when to kill or when not to kill. That's why they sought a sworn affidavit before "verwydering van die samelewing" any black activist. He reported his activities regularly to his seniors. He was debriefed regularly by senior officers - who held more responsibility than him. But our approach to "his crimes" was individual-centered and it made every real killer out there walk free. Is it our African way of thinking at fault here? How did it come about that we mishandled the case of Eugene de Kock? How did we not know that even booking out a police vehicle in the then SAP was an organizational matter involving registers, authorizations and approvals, and petrol requisitions? And therefore it involved more than 50 people? This is the same mistake that the TRC made. They saw Eugene de Kock as a deranged individual. This mistake cost the TRC a lot. They mistook a tree for the entire forest. And the entire forest of generals, constables, typists, politicians and rank and file police escaped scrutiny and accountability in the TRC. Even Eugene de Kock laments this oversight, this unintentional mistake. But his complaints fell on deaf ears. We had already given him names, Prime Evil, and that was enough. We didn't look elsewhere. Eugene de Kock seeing this has more than once since 1994 called himself a scapegoat and rightfully so. He was not a sniper. He worked with a team of dedicated operatives and senior officers and politicians and written directive circulated widely in the Apartheid police to giv Eugene and his team unreserved cooperation. Did the TRC reveal this? Did they give names of who were in his team? Today our focus is to "catch" someone in the ANC who allowed this to happen. It's the same mistake but now dressed in other robes. We must remove and control our emotions and do the detached business of cold thinking and analyzing the de Kock story in all its full context. @PresidencyZA @SpokespersonRSA