Pension millions go to killer’s son

THE son will inherit more than R2.2 million from the pension fund of the man his mother murdered, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ruled.

This followed a legal tussle between the siblings of Piet Beetge, who was murdered with his wife Eva in his Capital Park home on December 27, 2015.

Eva’s daughter Bonolo Lekalakala, her boyfriend Thapelo Molokomme and friend Nicholas Kgaugelo Rapelego planned the killing. Lekalakala is serving 20 years in prison, while the other two received life sentences.

She pleaded guilty to killing her stepfather and mother. They were strangled with a cellphone charger and a USB cable before their bodies were dumped in the Hennops River in Centurion.

“T” is Lekalakala’s younger son. He cannot be named because he is a minor. He lived with the Beetges before they were murdered.

Netcare Pension Fund decided that he should inherit Piet’s entire pension. Piet was employed at Netcare Jacaranda Hospital at the time of his death, and his pension fund stood at slightly more than R2.2m. He did not have children, apart from T, his step grandchild.

Piet’s siblings – four sisters and one brother – contested the pension award to T. They said “the bloody hand cannot inherit”.

As Lekalakala is T’s mother, the siblings said the money should come to them.

Piet’s siblings told the court that should T somehow inherit, the pension fund should then be split in equal parts between them and him.

The Beetges bequeathed their estates to each other but stated in their will that if they died within 30 days of each other, all the money should go to Lekalakala.

The fund awarded the pension fund to T, as he is a minor who was financially dependent on the couple. The siblings contested this, and the matter was referred back to the pension board, which again ruled in favour of T.

Judge Selby Baqwa said the Pension Funds Act gave the adjudicator a wide discretion to decide who could benefit the most from the award. |