Former President F.W. de Klerk’s Nobel Peace Prize should be revoked because he has the blood of children on his hands

Former South African Police colonel Eugene de Kock said that former President F.W. de Klerk’s Nobel Peace Prize should be revoked.

This, he said in an interview, was because De Klerk has the blood of South African children on his hands.

De Kock appeared before the Khampepe Commission on Monday, 26 October 2026, saying that top government officials knew and supported their operations.

He served as the commander of C10, a covert counter-insurgency unit based at the Vlakplaas farm near Pretoria during the apartheid era.

Dubbed Prime Evil by the South African media, he became the face of state-sponsored atrocities under apartheid.

The Vlakplaas unit functioned as a government death squad targeted at anti-apartheid activists linked to the ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

Under De Kock’s command, the unit was responsible for targeted assassinations, ambushes, abductions, torture, cross-border operations, and bombings.

Following the transition to democracy in 1994, he was arrested and put on trial for his actions at Vlakplaas.

In October 1996, he was convicted on 89 charges and sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years in prison.

During his trial and subsequent appearances before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), De Kock gave extensive testimony.

Unlike many high-ranking politicians and generals who denied knowledge of or responsibility for them, De Kock admitted to his crimes.

He accused senior apartheid politicians, including former presidents, of giving the orders for these covert actions.

Eugene de Kock says F.W. de Klerk does not deserve Nobel Peace Prize

In an interview on Monday, 26 October 2026, De Kock said that F.W. de Klerk’s Nobel Peace Prize should be revoked as he has children’s blood on his hands.

He cited an operation on 8 October 1993 in which members of the South African Defence Force (SADF) raided a residential house in Mthatha.

The target was a safe house used by the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

During the raid, SADF forces killed five young people inside the home. They included 12-year-old twin brothers Wandile and Samora Mpendulo.

Subsequent investigations revealed that the victims were unarmed youths and no weapons or APLA insurgents were found at the scene.

De Klerk authorised the cross-border raid based on military intelligence supplied to the State Security Council.

De Kock said that F.W. de Klerk gave the order to General George Meiring of the army to execute the raid.

“George Meiring had to appoint people to do the shooting. How do you miss a target, which was the APLA people, and kill five children?” he asked.

He argued that no one had pardoned De Klerk or Meiring and that the debacle had been covered up.

“This is why, when justice is not served, the public will take matters into their own hands,” he said.

“My personal opinion is that the collapse of the South African justice system started with how they covered it up and how they defended each other.”

He disputed F.W. de Klerk’s claim that he did not have blood on his hands when it came to apartheid crimes.

“De Klerk is up to his elbows in the blood of children, and his Nobel Prize should be revoked,” De Kock said.