Hermanus Barend du Plessis (29 September 1944[1] - 16 May 2023[2] ) was a South African policeman, torturer and assassin for the apartheid government[3] .
In the 1980s, he was appointed the provincial commander of a unit of the Security Branch responsible for counterinsurgency in the Eastern Cape province's black people areas.
[2] After Nelson Mandela was elected the first democratic president in 1994, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established by Mandela's government to address crimes relating to human rights violations and du Plessis appeared before the inquiry to apply for amnesty.
[2][4] In December 1999, the inquiry denied him and five other policemen amnesty for the murders of the Cradock Four and the Pebco Three.
I saw my duty to protect the constitutional dispensation of the day and to prevent that the power basis of the National Party should [not] be overthrown[1].