Dirk Coetzee

Dirk Coetzee (15 April 1945 – 7 March 2013) was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Security Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of extrajudicial killings including that of Griffiths Mxenge. Coetzee publicly revealed the existence of the Vlakplaas death squads in 1989, making himself a target of a failed assassination attempt.

Early life Coetzee was born in April 1945 in Phokwane Local Municipality. His father was a postal worker. Coetzee matriculated in 1963 and joined the South African Postal Service in January 1964. In July 1966, he volunteered for military service with the navy until March 1967, then resumed his employment with the postal service until April 1970.

His role as Vlakplaas commander ended after 18 months, following a disaster when two of his operatives were arrested on a sortie in Swaziland. He was replaced at Vlakplaas by Eugene de Kock, who was later convicted of attempting to assassinate Coetzee.

After Vlakplaas He was transferred to the Narcotics Bureau in 1982 serving there until 1984. Coetzee had just been suspended by the police service after compiling a report about security police phone tapping and had given it to leader of the opposition Frederik van Zyl Slabbert. he went on the run, staying in 38 houses in four countries – including a short while in London. While there, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and expressed his support for Nelson Mandela.

Return to South Africa Coetzee was minded by the future president Jacob Zuma. He later fell out of grace with the ANC.

Later life and death Coetzee was employed by EduSolutions, which supplied textbooks on behalf of the government to Limpopo province. In July 2012, he told the media about huge piles of undelivered textbooks. Coetzee was suffering from kidney failure and cancer when he died on 7 March 2013, aged 67.