Acknowledgements, about the book, author and praise

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Larry Hanton who dedicated a few years of his life to accompanying me to countless meetings; Hennie Heymans who made an enormous contribution; Nicole Cronjé who made the manuscript a reality with her graphic expertise; Lorinda Nel, Amanda Geyer and Towes Pierce for reading sections of the manuscript; and to Marie Nel for her translations of parts of the manuscript.

Thank you so much to my family: Chris, Rohan, Christian and Carina for their patience and encouragement; also to all those who were prepared to talk to me and make photos available; and to Anne-Marie Mischke for her perceptive observations and comments. A special word of thanks goes to David (pseudonym). Above all I wish to thank my editor, Annie Olivier, for her close involvement in every aspect of this book this past year; for her unerring hand at the helm, her input, her honing and shaping, and her boundless energy. This book is her book too.

About the book

When Anemari Jansen first met Eugene de Kock at Pretoria Central in 2011, she was instantly intrigued by ‘the man with the soft voice and neatly groomed hands’, well aware that those very hands had murdered dozens of people. How could she reconcile this well-read, intelligent man with the ‘monster’ from the Vlakplaas death squad, the man dubbed Prime Evil by the media?

For the next three years Jansen traversed the country in search of De Kock’s story. She had exclusive access to his diaries, his family, friends and former Koevoet and Vlakplaas colleagues. Her quest for answers changed Jansen’s life irrevocably. ‘Apolitical’ for most of her life, she now came face to face with the horrors of apartheid and had to reassess her identity as an Afrikaner.

This book illuminates not only the complexities of De Kock as a person and the choices he made, but also sheds light on South Africa’s disturbing, often shocking, recent past.

About the author

Anemari Jansen is a published writer of fiction whose first nonfiction book on the life of Eugene de Kock was published in 2015. Her debut novel, Glipstroom, was published in 2014 by Tafelberg.

She has a masters’ degree in Afrikaans from the former Rand Afrikaans University (University of Johannesburg). Since 2012 she has written a number of articles for the online police magazine eNonqai and she also runs a guesthouse in Bedfordview.

Praise for the author

‘Jansen’s unusual book is an important contribution to the ongoing and necessary debate about what it means to be a South African, how to own and make peace with the past, and how to find a way of believing in a future.’
– Marianne Thamm in Daily Maverick

Tafelberg,
an imprint of NB Publishers,
a division of Media24 Boeke (Pty) Ltd,
40 Heerengracht, Cape Town, South Africa,
P.O. Box 879, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa,
www.tafelberg.com

No part of this electronic book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording, or by any other information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Cover image by Jim Hooper
Cover design by Michiel Botha
E-book design by Cheymaxim

Available in print:
First edition, first impression 2015
ISBN: 978-0-624-07027-6

Epub edition:
First edition 2015
ISBN: 978-0-624-07028-3 (epub)

Mobi edition:
First edition 2015
ISBN: 978-0-624-07029-0 (mobi)