A 20-year-old man arrested in connection with the death of a Northern Cape woman who was killed in a farm robbery appeared briefly in the Calvinia Magistrate's Court on Friday.Godwin Gevin Beukes was not asked to plead and his case was postponed to March 24 for further investigations, said Captain Cherelle Ehlers.
Beukes is accused of being one of the three intruders who shot and killed Loudine van Blerk, 60, during a robbery at Retseh farm near Brandvlei on Tuesday.
Blerk had just arrived home with her partner, farmer Willouw de Klerk Cilliers, at about 5pm on Tuesday when three robbers, who had assaulted and held their housekeeper hostage in the house emerged and shot her dead.
The men then tied up Cilliers and the housekeeper and bundled them into the farmer's Toyota Corolla before driving off in the direction of Williston.
However, one of the robbers lost control of the vehicle and it crashed.
Following the accident, two of the robbers kept watch over the farmer and the housekeeper while the third robber went back to the farm and stole the farmer's Toyota Hilux bakkie.
He allegedly drove it back to his accomplices and their captives and when everyone was in the bakkie they set off again.
However, they crashed the bakkie too, and Cilliers died on the scene from his injuries.
Police arrived on the scene after receiving a report of an accident and attended to the housekeeper and arranged for two of the robbers to be taken to hospital.
They also went to the farm and found Van Blerk lying dead in the ransacked home.
Beukes was arrested but on Friday it was not yet clear if he will be charged for Cilliers' death.
Source : Sapa /vm/gj
Date : 20 Mar 2009 12:49
