South Africa: Apartheid mass killer who ‘hunted’ black people says police encouraged him | BBC News

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Published 2024-07-22

A convicted South African murderer who shot dead dozens of black men during apartheid has told the BBC the police sanctioned his violence.

Louis van Schoor says others should share the blame for the killings he carried out as a security guard.

Over a three-year period in the 1980s under the country’s racist apartheid system - which imposed a strict hierarchy that privileged white South Africans - Van Schoor shot and killed at least 39 people.

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All Comments (21)

@daledevernon56 yesterday

He might be the scapegoat but the reality is there are a lot more police officers from the apartheid era that is still alive today and who knows what they got up to.
@maha_sage yesterday

12 years for 7 murders and 30 other kills
@Vimana11 yesterday

"Encouraged him..." That's supposed to justify him for not having a mind of his own!
@davidmcleod1760 yesterday

He doesnt seem very rehabilitated.
@Jojohumf yesterday

SA has failed its people in so many ways. How can that man possibly be walking free
@nicholasbenjamin3166 yesterday

So let me get this straight, this guy who went around killing black people is just walking around breathing like life is sweet cool.
@MohamedOmar-rs4jy yesterday

Why are these people not still in jail
@Artemis-re6yj yesterday

To not feel bad about killing a child?! Truly evil.
@JenJams1 yesterday

Apartheid is a sick stain on humanity. RIP to all those victims 🙏
@douglaskachiza738 yesterday

He has no remorse even...thats why people say the release of Mandela was staged...
@felix4321ful yesterday

We don't care who "encouraged" him!!! He should be rotting in prison for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, my Black brothers and sisters in SA are fighting fellow Africans? Instead of making sure nothing like this ever happens again in "Your land"? Wtf is wrong with you?
@GiDaOne yesterday

BBC, you should have mentioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is an important piece of the puzzle on why some of these killers have been released so soon. After the Apartheid system was abolished, the TRC focused on forgiving transgressors of political crime on both sides of the struggle by granting them amnesty. From the Wikipedia page: "The TRC's emphasis on reconciliation was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by the Nuremberg trials and other de-Nazification measures. South Africa's first coalition government chose to pursue forgiveness over prosecution, and reparation over retaliation." However, note that Van Schoor was not actually released as a result of the TRC - he even applied for it and was rejected. He was released under the Thabo Mbeki administration, the president who served after Mandela served one term. Apparently this was a standard procedure of the criminal justice system based on factors like good behaviour. But it is clear from this interview that he never felt remorse. So I don't agree that he should have been released after only 12 years.
@PaulineTP yesterday

This is appalling
@pennyhouston2667 yesterday

PURE EVIL!!!!!
@DC9V yesterday

wtf? put him back in jail NOW
@MrNkohlaSir yesterday

Why did they release this trash? 🇿🇦
@meridaohara6453 yesterday

Something tells me, he wont be around for much longer
@hanusiaschostak5100 23 hours ago

So these were people trespassing with intent???????
@whitekuk4679 yesterday

What a creep.
@nabukuma 23 hours ago

And it’s happening right now in Gaza and the West Bank