Say the words ‘death squad’ in South Africa and most minds will be cast back to the days of Eugene De Kock and Vlakplaas, the farm where unspeakable acts were carried out during the dark days of Apartheid.

Just in case you were getting cosy in thinking that death squads were a thing of the past the folks at Al Jazeera released South Africa: Echoes of Apartheid, a new documentary that they describe as follows:

Under apartheid, South Africa’s police were notorious for extra-judicial killings and the routine use of torture against political dissidents. Only later did it emerge that these same techniques were being used even when the victims were suspected criminals, rather than enemies of the racist state.

On the birth of the Rainbow Nation two decades ago, most people believed that this would quickly become a thing of the past, that a new era of prosperity, justice and social harmony would make such abuses unthinkable.But in the past 20 years, with both prosperity and social equality remaining an unfulfilled dream for many South Africans, violent crime has been on the rise. This in turn has generated an increasingly aggressive response from the police – under intense political pressure to stop muggings, armed robberies, gang warfare and murder on the streets of the country’s major cities.

The problem is that some of those charged with upholding the law have been breaking it themselves. Elements of South Africa’s police now stand accused of being out of control in a way that is dangerously reminiscent of apartheid’s darkest days.

Coming under the spotlight are the Cato Manor police squad, in particular current Hawks boss Johan Booysen and four of his closest allies dating back as far as 1977 – Eugene van Tonder, Anton Lockem, Paul “Mossie” Mostert and Willie Olivier. Times Live reports:

Between 2007 and 2011, they were involved in 18 suspect shootings that led to 28 deaths, often pulling the trigger themselves.

Mostert, according to sworn statements, pulled the trigger in 15 of these deaths.

In just six weeks in 2008, the Cato Manor squad killed five leaders of one taxi association and one of their bodyguards in four suspect shootings. Within a year they had killed its chairman, Bongani Mkhize. The same four men in Booysen’s inner circle were linked to most of these shootings, too.

For the full story watch the Al Jazeera doccie up top and give the Times Live piece a read too.

[source:youtube&timeslive]