Vlakplaas is a farm 20km west of Pretoria that served as the headquarters of the South African Police counterinsurgency unit C10 (later called C1) working for the apartheid government in South Africa. The C-designation of the counterinsurgency unit was its official name but the whole unit became known as Vlakplaas and was commanded by Eugene de Kock.

Vlakplaas functioned as a paramilitary hit squad, capturing political opponents of the apartheid government and either "turning" (converting) or executing them. The Vlakplaas farm was usually the site of multiple executions of political opponents of the apartheid government.

In August 2007, it was announced by the South African Department of Science and Technology that the farm would serve a new purpose, as a centre for healing. The centre will conduct research into plants used in traditional medicine, and promote collaboration between practitioners of western medicine and traditional healers.

Coordinates: 25°49′3.01″S 28°1′41.44″E / 25.8175028°S 28.0281778°E / -25.8175028; 28.0281778

Eugene Alexander de Kock (born 29 January 1949) is a former South African police colonel, active under the apartheid regime. Considered one of the darkest figures of the apartheid period and nicknamed "Prime Evil" by the press, de Kock was the commanding officer of C1, a counter-insurgency unit of the South African Police that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered hundreds of anti-apartheid activists from the 1980's to the early-90's. C1's victims included members of the African National Congress.

Following South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, de Kock disclosed the full scope of C1's crimes while testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 1996, he was tried and convicted on eighty-nine charges and sentenced to 212 years in prison. Since beginning his sentence, de Kock has accused several members of the apartheid regime, including former state president F. W. de Klerk, of permitting C1's activities.

Eugene Alexander de Kock was born to Lawrence de Kock, a magistrate and personal friend to former prime minister John Vorster. Vossie de Kock, Eugene's brother, later described him as a "quiet" boy who "wasn't a violent person." He also recounted how their father, a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, indoctrinated the boys in Afrikaner nationalist ideology and taught them "strict Afrikaans" as they grew up.

Dirk Coetzee was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of atrocities including the murders of Sizwe Khondile and Griffiths Mxenge. Coetzee lifted the veil on the existence of the unit in a 1989 interview with Vrye Weekblad confirming a story that death-row convict Almond Nofomela told a Johannesburg weekly the previous year.

Dirk Coetzee was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on 4 August 1997.

In 1997 Eugene de Kock, a former commander of Vlakplaas, was convicted for attempting to murder Coetzee