Sunday Times

General’s lover finds him, then loses him

No final goodbyes for Jannie Geldenhuys and his girlfriend

- By PETA THORNYCROF­T

● All Kathleen Sweeney wanted was to say goodbye to the man she loved before he died.

She didn’t even know where he was after their affair of 16 years ended when his family would not let him take her calls.

They then sold his house in Waterkloof, Pretoria, and had him admitted earlier this year to a care home in George.

Sweeney’s lover, retired general Jannie Geldenhuys, former chief of the SA Defence Force, died this month at the age of 83, just three days before Sweeney was due to ask the High Court in George to allow her to see him.

Geldenhuys had Alzheimer’s, according to his family, was incoherent and could not recognise anyone.

“I wanted to see that for myself. I loved him with all my heart and he loved me too,” Sweeney, 61, told the Sunday Times on Thursday while a memorial for Geldenhuys was under way nearby at the Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria East.

Sweeney met the soldier, then recently retired, 25 years ago on a flight from London. She was coming to SA to find a job.

“We were friends, and his wife (Marie) and his family welcomed me as we were working on his books. I helped edit them.”

But after their affair started, she stopped going to his house.

“His family knew we were lovers. In the last few years I used to pick him up from his house in Pretoria and he came here and worked on his books and stayed overnight.”

Sweeney received an e-mail from Geldenhuys’s eldest daughter, Annamarié, saying: “Exit graciously from his life and ours.”

Then the phone at his house was off the hook and his cellphone switched off.

Sweeney hired people to find him. They found him at the George care home.

“When I knew where he was I went to the care home with my lawyer, Alan Jacobs. I tried to see him. But I was not allowed in.”

Sweeney went to court and had papers served on the Geldenhuys family’s lawyer in Pretoria, demanding to be allowed to see him. She claimed that her lover was being denied freedom of associatio­n.

She said she would accept that her visits be monitored. “I simply wished for us to meet to say our goodbyes properly.”

With the court due to meet the following week, the Geldenhuys family lawyer sent a message to Jacobs, saying she could meet the old general the next day at 11am.

It was impossible for Sweeney to get there from Johannesbu­rg so quickly and the lawyer withdrew the offer.

Annamarié declined to comment, referring the Sunday Times to a family spokesman, Frans du Randt.

Du Randt said: “The main thing is that the family agreed she could see him and for some reason they are playing this low key but the date could have been negotiated.”

 ??  ?? Jannie Geldenhuys and his British lover, Kathleen Sweeney.
Jannie Geldenhuys and his British lover, Kathleen Sweeney.

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