WATCH | Son’s face-off with ‘Prime Evil’ shows true strength

A son stood in front of a man this week who is tied to the apartheid machinery that killed his father, Fort Calata.

There was nothing abstract about the moment Lukhanyo Calata faced Eugene de Kock in the Gqeberha high court.

Lukhanyo did something many would find almost impossible.

He acknowledged that the man in front of him was, in this moment, helping to uncover the truth about the deaths of the Cradock Four.

Decades have passed since the killing of Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli.

But in that moment in court, it was not just about anger.

Lukhanyo spoke of gratitude for the information being revealed.

Not because it erases anything, but because it might finally help the court to understand how the machinery of the apartheid killings actually worked.

De Kock is the apartheid-era Vlakplaas death squad commander infamously known as “Prime Evil”.

The families of the Cradock Four watched tensely as the man once responsible for orchestrating kidnappings, torture and assassinations under the apartheid state faced scrutiny once more.

Implicated as a person of interest in the 1985 murders, De Kock denied direct involvement, claiming his only role had been to change the barrel of a firearm to tamper with ballistics.

Many South Africans like to tell themselves that the country’s past has been dealt with.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave people a chance to speak, to confess, to be heard.

But in that courtroom, it is clear that it is not true.

For the families of the Cradock Four, this is not just history.

It is personal. It is unfinished business.

And despite the suffering, Lukhanyo showed us a painful kind of gratitude to De Kock for testifying.

But he was clear. This does not make De Kock a hero. It does not justify the devastation inflicted on countless families.

This is not about rewriting the past or softening it.

It is about understanding the past events so that those left behind can get closure.

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