Werner Menges
26 September 2008
The first of three defence lawyers in the Kareeboomvloer farm massacre trial yesterday started testing the evidence that admitted killer Sylvester Beukes has been giving in the High Court in Windhoek since Tuesday this week.
Beukes is set to face further cross-examination from lawyer Boris Isaacks, representing Rehoboth resident Stoney Neidel, when the trial continues before Judge President Petrus Damaseb today.
During his first two days on the witness stand this week, Beukes (23) told the Judge President that he had killed eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Kalkrand and Rehoboth on March 5 2005.
His victims were farm owners Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, both 50 years old, as well as five other people - farm foreman Sonnybooi Swartbooi (35), Swartbooi's pregnant wife, Hilma Engelbrecht (32), her two children, Christina Engelbrecht (6) and Regina Gertze (4), her nephew, Deon Gertze (18), and Swartbooi's brother, Settie Swartbooi (50).
The killings, Beukes claimed, were ordered by the Erasmus couple's son, Justus Christiaan ('Shorty') Erasmus (30).
Beukes claimed Erasmus, who is also one of the three co-accused on trial with Beukes, had asked him to kill Erasmus's parents.
When he reported back to Erasmus that this had been done, Erasmus told him to clean up and leave nothing behind, Beukes claimed in his testimony.
He took this as an indication from Erasmus that he should execute everyone at the farm, which he then did, sparing only his brother, Gavin Beukes (27), Beukes claimed.
It was only two days later, after he and his brother had been arrested, that he returned to normal and came to realise what had happened at the farm, Beukes said.
Before that, he did not realise that what he had done at the farm was unlawful, he also claimed.
After leaving the farm with a Hyundai bakkie and a trailer loaded with goods taken from the farm - Beukes claimed Erasmus had told him that he could take anything he wanted from the farm - the two brothers ended up leaving these goods at Neidel's house at Rehoboth and at Neidel's other residence at the farm Areb west of Rehoboth.
According to Beukes, he told Neidel that the goods were his property.
Among the goods that he left with Neidel at Areb were two rifles that were taken from the massacre farm.
Beukes testified that he had told Neidel during January 2005 already that he had two unlicensed firearms and that he would be bringing these to Neidel.
On the morning after the eight murders at Kareeboomvloer he handed two rifles to Neidel for safekeeping, Beukes said.
He had found both firearms in a gun safe that he had broken open at the farm before the killings, he told the court.
During Isaacks's first round of cross-examination yesterday, though, Beukes said that when he set about trying to open the gun safe at the farm he did not know what was inside, or whether there were two rifles inside as it turned out to be.
Beukes also agreed with Isaacks that when he first asked Neidel if he could bring livestock to farm Areb where Neidel was engaged in communal farming, Neidel told him that if he brought goods to the farm it had better not be stolen goods.
Isaacks further told Beukes that according to Neidel both brothers were present when Beukes told Neidel that the goods they wanted to bring to the farm were livestock and other goods that they had inherited from their father.
Beukes's answer was that he could not remember that - but that it was possible.
Isaacks also told Beukes that his instructions from Neidel were that the two brothers again approached Neidel two days before the killings at the farm to tell him that they would be going to collect their inheritance that coming weekend.
Beukes replied that his brother was not with them when that exchange took place.
This prompted Judge President Damaseb to voice an observation that every time his brother's name was mentioned in a context that implicated him, Beukes denied that Gavin Beukes had been there on that occasion.
Once Isaacks has wrapped up his cross-examination of Beukes, another two defence lawyers will get a chance to test his evidence before it will be the prosecution's turn to cross-question him.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
