Johannesburg -
The family of Japie Maponya, who was murdered by the apartheid government’s security branch says “we cannot forgive anyone until we have found his remains”.
The family spokesman and the victim’s younger brother, Itumeleng Maponya, was reacting to the release of Eugene de Kock, commander of the Vlakplaas police hit squad.
He said they could not question the granting of parole to the apartheid era killer.
“We are just focusing on finding his remains so that we can bury him properly,” he added.
Japie, a security guard, was abducted in Krugersdorp in 1985 by Vlakplaas operatives, who had launched a search for his brother, Odirile, who was an Umkhonto weSizwe operative responsible for bombings in Pretoria and the Vaal region.
In 1988, Odirile was accidentally killed in Pretoria by a bomb that exploded prematurely in his hands.
He was subsequently buried as a pauper in an unmarked grave in Mamelodi cemetery.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is still busy with the process of trying to locate Odirile’s body.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha granted De Kock parole on Friday.
De Kock was found guilty of six murders and a series of other heinous crimes, and sentenced to life plus 212 years in prison.
Itumeleng said: “The chairperson of the parole board contacted me last week. He wanted to know how the family feel about De Kock. He wanted to know if we have forgiven him.
“Everything is about him. He never asked me anything about Japie. The interest is around De Kock. We feel that we were not accommodated,” he said.
De Kock has been granted parole, but the chapter has not been closed because his brother’s remains hadn’t been handed over to the family, he added.
“It’s an open wound. We are not asking for anything other than to give him (Japie) a dignified funeral.”
De Kock’s application for parole was denied last July.
Masutha said De Kock’s victims’ families had not been consulted by the parole board on whether he should be released.
De Kock told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee that Japie was tortured and interrogated for about 45 minutes about his brother.
The next day, he took Maponya to a place near the border with Swaziland to be killed.
He was shot by another officer, and De Kock hit him twice over the head with a spade.
De Kock told the TRC that the original plan had been to bury Japie, but this could not be done because the ground was too hard.
Japie’s clothes and handcuffs were removed to destroy the evidence, and his body was buried under debris, he confessed before the commission.
The Star