Remembering Brood van Heerden – watch rats start running from SS Zupta

It's almost a quarter century since I had a brief but productive spell in corporate South Africa. One memorable engagement in those two and a half years was a Saturday I spent in the company of one Brood van Heerden – the man whose disclosures broke open the infamous apartheid hit squad unit at Vlakplaas.

For some reason, I was the only member of Absa's Exco who was around that weekend. So it fell to me to accompany the bank's superb head of investigations, Roy Simpson, as he interviewed Van Heerden, nicknamed "Brood" because he could finish a loaf of bread at a single sitting. He had been named by the Goldstone Commission as a Third Force operative. As he was an Absa employee, the bank was justifiably concerned.

To begin with, Van Heerden was obstructive, stopping us a number of times before answering the questions so that he could phone "die Generaal" (his general). By the end of the weekend, however, Van Heerden had spilled the beans on the infamous Vlakplaas operation. Before the week was out Brood jetted out of the country as part of his safe custody deal.

The Brood van Heerden episode showed me that when they see writing on the wall, even the most hardened criminals put their own skins first, seeking safe exits wherever they can be found. We saw the same in the Brett Kebble case. And are sure to be witnessing a repeat soon as the Zupta rats leave the ship as they see the dominoes falling. Hope springs.