Human Rights Violation Hearings — Benoni — 1997-02-05

MR LEWIN: Mrs Beech are you comfortable?

MRS BEECH: Yes.

MR LEWIN: And is it alright that you will be speaking in English?  Because we do have facilities if you want to speak...

MRS BEECH: No, it is alright.

MR LEWIN: And if I could please ask you to stand and take the oath.

MRS BEECH: (sworn states)

MR LEWIN: I will ask Tom Manthata please to lead the evidence today.   Thank you.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Who has come with you?

MRS BEECH: My daughter, Dina and my son, Gordon.

THOMAS MANTHATA: That is fantastic.  You are all welcome.  Please feel at home.   Relax.
 Mrs Beech can you just tell us about the death of your son, Robert in Zimbabwe.

MRS BEECH: Well in 1980 we came to South Africa from Zimbabwe and in 1980 my son joined the SADF.  He was in the Recci and path finder unit.
 In the beginning of 1982 he was transferred to another unit and in August the 3rd he left our home for the last time, in 1982.  From then on we heard nothing from him.  When he died, we were told on the 21st, they knocked on our door and they said, I am very sorry your son, Rob, had been killed.   We were told to keep our mouths shut.  We were to talk to nobody in Zimbabwe.  We were to go to no trade mission.  We were just to keep ourselves to ourselves. And that is what we did.
 So, really, you know, the whole thing is totally unacceptable to us, because we do not know what happened to him, we do not know where he is and we would like to have his body brought back to us so that we can bury him, put in the right place, so that all my family can rest in the future days.   And ourselves we have all suffered from family problems, we have had ill health, just because we do not know.  We hear this, we hear that and it is just not fair.
 The Death Certificate showed us that he was killed of multiple injuries in Pretoria.  Well, he was supposed to be killed in Zimbabwe.  So where was he killed?
 You know it is just not fair.  And I mean they emphasised the situation that he was killed in Zimbabwe on an unauthorised mission.  But how did he get a Propatria medal?  
 I mean I have got extra newspaper pieces that I got and yesterday's newspaper, saying that they never sent anybody on unauthorised missions.   And here I got another piece of newspaper of only a few days earlier, saying that that is what they were doing.   I have got it with me to give you.
 I have also got pay slips.  I have also got his tax form.  When he filled in his tax forms in 1981 he filled in a form with his father, because he hated forms.  I posted them.  He got a rebate.  When he was killed, a year 
later we were still waiting for the estate to be sorted out, telling us that they had never heard of him.  His tax papers had disappeared, they said, lost.
 We would like to know actually - now they came and told us on the morning of the 21st of August, that they had to tell us that our son had been killed, because the Zimbabwean press were going to release it that night on television or whatever it was.   
 Now, how did they identify the bodies?  And who identified them and where are they?  What happened to them?   
 .... he said that they were unauthorised, I mean it is totally untrue.  I mean, he must have known.   There was also a group of black soldiers with him on this mission.  We believe that they all returned.   We do not know.  We actually do not know what happened to him, where he went to or anything.
 What we have got, is what we have picked up from the press or stories what people said, you know what happened to our brother, do you know what happened to your son...   That is it.
 So I do not know.  We also, my sons, I have got five other sons and people would say, oh, you have got other children.  I would say, yes I have got two daughters and five sons.  Oh, that is fine.  So you won't... I mean how does that feel.   You will miss your son forever.  And the other kids miss him too.  It is not fair on them.  I feel for them that this must be put right because my kids also deserve a life that are living here today.  
 And I feel that this is a fair request.  And I would like you to help us please.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Robert went into the Army through this compulsory conscription?

MRS BEECH: He volunteered as a Permanent Force.  He joined in August of 1980.  Permanent Army, SADF.

THOMAS MANTHATA: He had volunteered?

MRS BEECH: Yes, he was a soldier from school.  He loved the Army.  It was his life.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Were there any conditions for volunteering into the Army?

MRS BEECH: As far as I...  He signed up in the Permanent Force.  He was supposed to have done a one year temporary service, but I have got here that he has finished his temporary and he was now on permanent.  And he was actually within his third year of Permanent Force, south African Defence Force.   He was with the Parabats.  He was with path finders and CSI.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Or he had accepted even the promotions.

MRS BEECH: He was taken in as a Sergeant, because we were not South African citizens and when he came home one day, it must have been about July of 1982, guess what mom, I have been promoted to Major.  I have got his uniforms at home, but they would not give him that rank officially, until he had his citizenship in his hand and then it was too late.

THOMAS MANTHATA: How long had you been in South Africa before Robert joined the Force.

MRS BEECH: We arrived in South Africa on the 18 of August 1980.   He joined the Army of that same month.
He actually applied for the Army in Rhodesia and he was accepted and he went into the Army a little while later.

THOMAS MANTHATA: So, the biggest dissatisfaction is that it
was disclosed to the family how he died.

MRS BEECH: We do not know.  They just came to the door and they said, we are very sorry to tell you, Bob has been killed.  That was the story.  We do not know where he was killed.  We do not know who he was with when he was killed.   In fact the two who were supposed to have been killed with him, we know nothing.  Well we are ... we know nothing.

THOMAS MANTHATA: And you were not even given the remains to bury?

MRS BEECH: No.   Nothing.  We had never had anything to prove that my son is even dead.  I mean, we have no body, we have no story.  We have nothing.   We were not allowed to go to Zimbabwe.   We were told to keep out of that country.  And that is what we did.  So for many many many years we did not ....
 My brother actually was still living out there at the time and he phoned me and I said, I am sorry you have got the wrong number.  That was to my brother.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Let me hold my questions there.  Let me give it back to the Chairperson.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Beech I just ask the other Commissioners if they have any questions.

DR RANDERA: Mrs Beech you know you gave us one of these press cuttings.  And it says there that, this was after the enquiry that was held by the Army and General Viljoen, the Head of the Army at the time, actually made some statements, but says here that your son was accompanied by David Barry and John Andrew Wessels.

MRS BEECH: That is right.  They were also killed as well.

DR RANDERA: They were also killed?

MRS BEECH: As far as we know.  I do not know.  I mean we presume so.   I do not know what happened to them.

DR RANDERA: And it also says there were 14 black Zimbabwean soldiers who accompanied, well, Zimbabweans, there were soldiers in the South African Army then.

MRS BEECH: Well the South African blacks who were with him, as far as we know, we waited three months for Robert's memorial, because I could not stand the waiting any longer, to have something.  And those blacks attended the memorial, but my sons wanted to ask them questions, but they were removed in trucks in seconds.  I could not even tell you what they look like.  We were not allowed to talk to them.

DR RANDERA: So you were never sent a full report of that enquiry were you?

MRS BEECH: No, we know nothing.