There's a rather eerie honesty about Eugene de Kock. I followed his trial religiously and remember what he said then: 'Everyone wants to eat the chops, but none want blood and guts in their hands.' Everything he said does not only expose the cruelty of apartheid, but it also demonstrates the complicity and deceitfulness of ANC leaders as well as the treachery and callousness of Inkatha. The phrase I referenced highlights a central theme often raised by critics and historians: that while state agents like de Kock carried out the direct violence, entire political systems, military structures, and opposing factions operated within an environment of strategic compromises, covert agreements, and shifting alliances.