up to 1990 have been prosecuted at all,” he wrote.
He has by all accounts been a model prisoner, engaging with the families of his victims and cooperating with the government in locating the dumped bodies of his victims.
He has made confessions before tribunals, written letters begging forgiveness and named top officials who gave him orders.
In announcing his decision, corrections minister Masutha noted the assistance De Kock had provided to the authorities and said he was also satisfied that the families of his victims had been consulted.
“However, I need to remind all of us that parole does not reduce the sentence imposed by the court,” he said, pointing out that De Kock could return to jail if he failed to comply with set conditions.
Masutha said De Kock had asked that the date of his release and the conditions of his parole should not be made public, to which the minister agreed.
The minister however denied parole requests of two other apartheid-era killers — former member of parliament Clive Derby-Lewis, who is serving a life sentence for the high-profile murder of former South African Communist Party chief and liberation hero Chris Hani in 1993; and ex government agent Ferdi Barnard for killing prominent anti-apartheid activist and academic David Webster in 1989.
On Derby-Lewis, who had been recommended for medical parole, Masutha questioned the level of his illness and said there was no evidence the former MP had expressed remorse.
The murder of Hani, who was also chief of staff of the African National Congress’s military wing, sparked riots and fears of civil war ahead of South Africa’s first democratic elections.
ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who was later to become president, called it “a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster”.
But he called for calm and is credited with preventing major bloodshed.
Derby-Lewis, once described by a fellow MP as “the biggest racist in parliament”, supplied the weapon to the hitman, Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, who remains in jail.