 "The Sunday Independent" reported in January 2010 that De Kock was seeking a presidential pardon from President Jacob Zuma in exchange for more information about the apartheid government's death squads, and that a three-hour meeting between Zuma and the incarcerated De Kock took place in April 2009.A spokesman for Zuma denied the veracity of the report.In 2012, De Kock made several pleas for forgiveness to the relatives of his victims.