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

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

MS SEROKE: Mrs Beech I can imagine how you have agonized all these years for a son who was supposed to have died but you have no proof of his death, but I suppose I could not say there is hope, you must be watching the media, through your television and newspapers.  The sort of revelations that are coming out as a result of the amnesty applications and I can only say that probably very soon something is going to come up, perhaps through that there is a hope that you can cling to.   That somebody somewhere is going to apply for amnesty and explain what happened to Robert.

MRS BEECH: Yes, because that is all we really want, is a little bit of peace to live with.   You know, I am not a
young person any more.   And I sit back and I watch my grand kids now beginning to feel the pressure of all this.   And it is just not right.   You know, I feel it is just not right.  Something must be done for all of us, just to live with.  And we would like the bodies brought back.  We just would like Robert brought back to South Africa, or wherever the body is, so we can live with it.

MS SEROKE: Was Robert married or did he have children.

MRS BEECH: No he was single.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Beech I am as puzzled as you are, I think by the nature in which, the way in which you were actually informed of this.    I see that one of the cuttings that you gave us is from the Citizen in 1982, which names the three people who were killed.   And it talks about...  It does not actually use the phrase 'cross border raid' but I mean that is obviously what it was about.  And then it was only, well less than a year later that you get the letter from this Brig Terblanche, Chief of the Army.

MRS BEECH: With his Propatria.

MR LEWIN: This Propatria medal, No 109751, awarded to Robert for the part he played in the defence of our country against the onslaught of terrorism.  And that is all you had ever had.

MRS BEECH: What I gave you in my statement, except for these two pieces here and I ... the Caprivi was in the SADF.

MR LEWIN: How do you feel about that?  I mean how did you feel about it at the time?   You came down from Zimbabwe in 1980 and then how did you feel about this business of the onslaught of terrorism?

MRS BEECH: Well, I mean my kids were in the Rhodesian forces when they left school.   You know you can live with a war if you know how to handle it.   I lived with it pretty well I think and Robert was a soldier from 17 and he used to say to me, mom I wish I could leave the Army for you and dad.  And I said to him, Robert if your day is going to be a bullet, that must be the way it goes, because that is where you belong.   And in a way he was quite happy with that arrangement.
 So I was not paranoid about all this carrying on.  You know, I am not new to the game.

MR LEWIN: What did you...  I mean you obviously thought about it a great deal and discussed it a great deal, have you ever come up with any explanation for what might have happened?

MRS BEECH: O well, you come up with this idea, you know somebody might say, you know we heard that Robert was, for example, oh well they would just give a reason, you know, then I will think about it and I will feel, well that fits, and then I will maybe say to somebody else, oh, I heard the story today da da da da.  And they will say, well I heard one too and this is the story and that also fits, but nothing fits, nothing.

MR LEWIN: And you also gave us a letter from Magnus Malan, expressing deep regret.   That was also quite early, that was within a month.  I mean, at the time you say you were told not to say anything.  Who actually told you?

MRS BEECH: The SADF.

MR LEWIN: Were they the people who came to the door?

MRS BEECH: They came to the door and I remember Maj
Danning, standing with his foot up against my dining room wall and he said, we would prefer you not to have any communication with Zimbabwe.  You are not to go to the Zimbabwean trade mission.   We will see into the matter.  And nothing has been done.  Nothing.  Nothing.

MR LEWIN: That was in 1982?

MRS BEECH: That was in 1982, August the 21st.

MR LEWIN: And I mean what did you feel about that?  Did you have any sort of understanding about why they were making this demand?

MRS BEECH: No, we did not, because we were new to the country really.  That came as a very big sort of a sudden blow, if you would like to call it that and one does not think why did this happen and why did that.   You only think about that later.   When you have time to put it together.

MR LEWIN: Were you living with your family here in Benoni at the time?

MRS BEECH: We were actually living in Kempton Park at the time.

MR LEWIN: I mean, did you know where Robert was based in South Africa?

MRS BEECH: Ja, ja.

MR LEWIN: That was in the old Northern Transvaal, wasn't it?

MRS BEECH: Ja.

MR LEWIN: So the possibility is that he might have gone on some excursion into Zimbabwe.

MRS BEECH: Well, I remember just before this took place, it was about five in the afternoon, I was actually cooking supper, and I heard Robert say to somebody on the phone,
listen I do not trust that, and before I do that I will resign.
 Who he was talking to I do not know.   We did not ask him, because he worked with Military Intelligence, you don't ask questions.

MR LEWIN: I mean, the surprising thing is it was 1982, which was two years down the line after Zimbabwean independence.   So this would have been an illicit attack from within South Africa, going back into Zimbabwe.

MRS BEECH: He was based at Louis Trichardt.

MR LEWIN: So that was sort of on the border, because at the time in Zimbabwe it seems unlikely that there were excursions of this sort which involved the Zimbabwe Army two years down the line.

MRS BEECH: It is hard to say.  You know if you do not sort of get involved, as we tried no to do because of his job, but I know he was in the SADF, I know he was very strict about right things.   I mean, his men were always his first priority as well and his brother here can vouch for that.

MR LEWIN: And he did not actually say what this Recci and Path Finding Unit involved.

MRS BEECH: Well, the path finders, are as far as I know, like a Recci kind of set-up.  You know I do not know much about the path finders.

MR LEWIN: What they called 'scouts' in Zimbabwe.
 Because thinking about what was happening in Zimbabwe at the time, towards the end of 1982, that the beginning of a fair amount of activity in Matabeleland by the Zimbabwe Army.   Information about that is only now beginning to emerge in Zimbabwe.

MRS BEECH: Ja.

MR LEWIN: It is just strange that there was this apparent troop from within South Africa in Zimbabwe.

MRS BEECH: Well, actually my son has just told me here, which I have forgot to mention, I approach the International Red Cross.  I went through to see them in Pretoria and he said yes he remember... He actually went up to Zimbabwe and he was told, yes we remember the incident it is none of your business.
 He came back here and he told me this and he went to Geneva and he tried to work a plan from there, and there was nothing.

MR LEWIN: The Red Cross said this was none of your business?

MRS BEECH: Not the Red Cross. The Zimbabwean Government whoever it was he saw in Zimbabwe, told them they told the Red Cross this.   The Red Cross were told to forget it.