Anna Beukes, 104, leaves behind passion for Khoisan
RELATIVES, friends and Mitchells Plain residents will gather at the United Reformed Church (VGK) in Athlone on Wednesday to pay their tributes to 104-year-old Anna Elizabeth Beukes.
Beukes, who was known for the passion she had for her Khoisan heritage, died last week.
In 2010, at the age of 95, Beukes spearheaded a mass gathering in her birth town of Carnarvon in the Northern Cape for all South Africans with the surname “Witbooi”.
It was her dream to unite everyone, in an effort to piece together their history, linked to Namibian freedom fighter Hendrik Witbooi, who was regarded as one of the national heroes of his country.
Witbooi was a chief of the Khowesin people, a sub-tribe of the Khoikhoi. He was killed in battle with the German army near Vaalgras in the early 1900s.
Beukes had been sick for some time, according to her daughter Yvonne. “She was a very healthy person, but for the last week she was so confused she didn’t know nothing around her,” said Yvonne.
“She only got high blood (pressure) at the age of 102 because she ate healthy foods and she always took her tablets if she had to.”
Beukes was a mother of five, a grandmother to 16 and a great-grandmother to 17 children.
“We are heartbroken but she is in a better place. Being that old is torture in some ways because it’s very lonely.
“She didn’t have any friends her age… most of her friends had gone.
“Every day she would say ‘I’m ready to go, God can take me as I am’.”
Sayda Witbooi described her aunt as a “people’s person”.
“She was very lovely, a straightforward person who would say what was wrong and then continue as if nothing was wrong.
“She was passionate about keeping the family together and learning about where she came from.”
Her memorial service will be held at 7.30pm and her funeral will be held at the same church on Saturday morning at 7.30am.