Adriaan Vlok
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adriaan Vlok | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Correctional Services | |
| In office July 1991 – 1994 | |
| President | Frederik Willem de Klerk |
| Minister of Law and Order | |
| In office December 1986 – July 1991 | |
| President | Pieter Willem Botha Frederik Willem de Klerk |
| Preceded by | Louis le Grange[1] |
| Succeeded by | Hernus Kriel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 December 1937 |
| Died | 8 January 2023 (aged 85) |
| Party | National Party |
| Alma mater | University of Pretoria |
Adriaan Johannes Vlok (11 December 1937 – 8 January 2023) was a South African politician. He was Minister of Law and Order in South Africa from 1986 to 1991 in the final years of the apartheid era. Facing increasingly intense opposition and political unrest in this period, the South African government – through the State Security Council of which Vlok was a member – planned and implemented drastic repressive measures, including hit squads, carrying out bombings and assassination of anti-apartheid activists.[2]
Adriaan Vlok was born in the Northern Cape town of Sutherland in what was the then Cape Province on 11 December 1937 to Nicolaas Vlok and Bett Oliver where he grew up on a rural small holding along the Orange River.[3] He attended Neilerdrift Primary School and matriculated from Keimoes High School in 1956 located in Keimoes. He obtained a Dip. Proc. from the University of Pretoria in 1962.[4]
Career
Vlok started his career working in the magistrates office for the Department of Justice in Keimoes and Upington joining the National Party in 1959. From 1959 to 1966, Vlok served in Pretoria as the under-secretary for the Department of Justice whilst studying for an Attorney's Diploma at the University of Pretoria. He was then made assistant private secretary to South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster.[5]
He resigned from the Department of Justice with the aim of entering politics in 1970, running a court messaging service. In 1972, he was elected to the Verwoerdburg (now known as Centurion) City Council and was elected to represent the area in the national Parliament in 1974. In September 1984, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence and was then made Deputy Minister of Law and Order a few months later in early 1985. During his time as Deputy Minister of Law and Order his ministry was responsible for the suppression and detention of around 30,000 people. In 1988 as minister of Law and Order he oversaw the restriction of 17 anti-apartheid organisations.[5]
Vlok's position as minister became especially controversial after 1990 during the negotiations to end apartheid, with the African National Congress insisting on his dismissal. President FW de Klerk responded by moving him to a less controversial post as Minister of Correctional Services in July 1991. In 1993–1994 he was the last chairman of the minister's council of the House of Assembly, the white chamber of parliament.
TRC amnesty
In 1999, Vlok was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – the sole cabinet minister to have admitted committing crimes, including the bombing of the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches at Khotso House, and the COSATU trade union headquarters.[6][7]