Judgement Day Closer in Farm Massacre Trial

Werner Menges

1 July 2011

JULY 13 remains the target date for the delivery of the verdict in the Kareeboomvloer farm massacre trial.

The four men facing charges in the trial heard this when they made a return to the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Judge President Petrus Damaseb set July 13 as a target by when he should have his judgement in the trial completed when he heard last arguments before the verdict on May 12. He indicated yesterday that this goal remains unchanged.

With the delivery of the judgement a trial that started more than four years ago, on March 1 2007, will be in the home stretch to its conclusion at last.

The four charged men – brothers Sylvester and Gavin Beukes, 26 and 29 years old respectively, Windhoek resident Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (33), and Rehoboth area resident Stoney Neidel (34) – are accused of having been involved in the murder of eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand on March 4 to 5 2005.

They are charged with eight counts of murder and additional charges of housebreaking and robbery, robbery with aggravating circumstances, arson, theft, defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and possession of firearms and ammunition without a licence.

The four accused men pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of the trial.

During the trial, though, Sylvester Beukes admitted that he killed the eight people at the farm.

Beukes claimed he did this after Erasmus, whose parents were the owners of the farm, had asked him to murder his parents.

Erasmus vehemently denied Beukes’s allegations during the trial.

Gavin Beukes was also present at the farm when the eight victims were killed. He did not testify in his own defence during the trial, but his brother claimed that Gavin Beukes had only been a captive and passive spectator to the deadly events at the farm.

Neidel entered the picture when the Beukes brothers hid a hoard of goods stolen from the farm at his house at Rehoboth and at the communal farm where he was farming west of the town.

The Beukes brothers were arrested on March 6 2005. They are remaining in custody while the judgement in their trial remains pending.

Erasmus and Neidel remain free on bail.

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