Werner Menges
25 September 2008
This, self-confessed farm killer Sylvester Beukes testified in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday, was the order he received from Justus Christiaan ('Shorty') Erasmus after he reported to Erasmus on March 5 2005 that he had killed Erasmus's parents at their farm between Kalkrand and Rehoboth.
What followed that order, Beukes claimed in testimony before Judge President Petrus Damaseb, was a further six killings.
'STONED'
As he understood Erasmus's alleged order, Beukes (23) told the court, "clean up means execute".
The cleaning up, he also said, was meant for "whoever was there".
Beukes told the Judge President on Tuesday, on the first day of his testimony, that he was stoned on dagga when he shot dead Erasmus's parents, Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, both 50 years old, at their farm, Kareeboomvloer, in the Mariental district.
He claimed he carried out those killings after Erasmus Jr asked him to kill the couple, with N$50 000 promised to him as his reward for the contract killing.
Erasmus denies these claims.
After killing the couple, Beukes continued telling the Judge President yesterday, he contacted Erasmus on a two-way radio to report to him that his parents had been killed.
"He said I should clean up," Beukes claimed he was told by Erasmus.
"He said: 'Leave nothing behind. Clean up'," Beukes told the court.
He said he then put five people into an outside room next to the farmhouse.
He knew the name of only one of those people, which was 'Set', Beukes said.
He closed the door of the room by fastening it with a piece of wire, he said.
In his testimony Beukes initially did not want to tell the court what happened next in that outside room.
'IT WAS RANDOM'
After a mid-morning break in the court's session, though, he told the Judge President that the people in the outside room were also killed.
"I shot them," Beukes said.
He added that he could not say where he shot each of the people in the room.
"I shot them randomly," Beukes said.
After the shooting, he fetched some diesel from a storeroom, returned to the room and poured the fuel over the people and the room, he continued.
He then set it on fire.
The remains of five of the victims of the Kareeboomvloer massacre were found in a gutted room at the back of the farmhouse.
They were farmworker Settie Swartbooi (50), a pregnant woman, Hilma Engelbrecht (32), her two children, Christina Engelbrecht (6) and Regina Gertze (4), and her nephew, Deon Gertze (18).
According to Beukes, the last victim of the massacre, farm foreman Sunnybooi Swartbooi (35), was still tied up in the farmhouse when the events at the outside room took place.
With those events over, he went and loosened Swartbooi, and ordered him to also cut loose his brother - and now co-accused in the trial - Gavin Beukes where Beukes claimed he had also tied his brother up.
Beukes claimed he then ordered Swartbooi and his brother to load goods onto a bakkie and trailer that were at the farm.
When that job was done, he instructed Swartbooi to tie up his brother again, and went with Swartbooi back into the farmhouse.
There he again tied up Swartbooi on a chair in the lounge.
"From there I took the .22. And I shot Sunnybooi and I came out."
Beukes said he shot Swartbooi from the back, through a window between the lounge and the main bedroom of the house.
After that, he said, he again cut his brother loose and they left from the farm, driving to Rehoboth with the vehicle and its load of stolen goods.
During his testimony, Beukes's defence lawyer, Titus Ipumbu, asked Beukes to look through some of the photographs showing Swartbooi and the charred remains of the people who were killed and burnt in the outside room.
Beukes showed no emotional reaction as he looked at the pictures.
This prompted Judge President Damaseb to comment that he saw "a very clear lack of remorse" on Beukes's part.
Beukes is on trial with his 27-year-old brother, Erasmus (30) and Rehoboth resident Stoney Neidel (31), at whose house at Rehoboth and his home at a farm west of the town the hoard of stolen goods were discovered a day after the massacre.
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