Vlakplaas farm, apartheid-era death squad headquarters, found abandoned and vandalized on Freedom Day
via The Citizen14 min read
On Freedom Day, the infamous Vlakplaas farm, located 20km west of Pretoria, was found abandoned and vandalized. This site served as the headquarters for the apartheid-era Security Branch police death squad, C1, later known as C10, which operated from 1979 to 1993. The unit was notorious for capturing, converting, or executing anti-apartheid activists. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, Vlakplaas was exposed as a center of apartheid-era atrocities. Last month, convicted apartheid assassin Eugene de Kock testified in the Eastern Cape High Court during the Cradock Four inquest, stating that instructions to kill came directly from the top of the apartheid state, then President PW Botha. The property, despite some initial appearances of being well-kept with trimmed grass and flower beds, showed signs of decay, including broken glass, old faeces, and stripped interiors. Rooms with safe-like steel doors and ventilation windows were observed in some abandoned buildings. A concerned Gerhardsville resident, Charne Strydom, discovered the vandalized state of the farm, noting a cut fence, an open back gate, and cut power cables, with evidence of cables being dug out of the ground. Strydom and a friend posted videos of the site online, which received significant attention. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure had not responded to inquiries about the farm's condition and future.
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