Adriaan Vlok is born

Former South African minister of law and order, Adriaan Johannes Vlok, was born in Sutherland, Cape Province. He started his career in the department of justice at the magistrate's offices in Keimoes and Upington. Vlok resigned from public service, became involved in politics and successively held the positions of deputy minister of defence, deputy minister of law and order and later as minister of law and order, thereby becoming head of the security forces. President F.W. de Klerk moved him to the less controversial position of minister of correctional services in 1991, after the African National Congress (ANC) insisted on his dismissal. In the 1990s Vlok made a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and received amnesty. He was recently in the news when he visited the Rev. Chikane, former head of the South African Council of Churches who had survived an assassination attempt by state agents in the late 1980s, to ask his forgiveness. His symbolic act of washing Chikane's feet was widely publicised and drew criticism as well as approval from the public.