Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Beeka family waits in vain
SLAIN underworld kingpin Cyril Beeka’s family is frustrated that although half a decade has lapsed since his murder, no one has been charged for the killing.
Monday marks five years since the businessman and rumoured spy was murdered in Bellville South in a drive-by shooting that rocked the local underworld and exposed a Serbian assassin.
“We are concerned about the fact that no arrests have happened, and that there’ve never been breaks in the case… At the very least we’d like to be updated by the police,” his brother, Daniel Beeka, told Weekend Argus.
“We believe the law must take its course. However, we are frustrated by the slow pace of the investigation.”
He planned to contact investigators to find out what was happening.
Beeka’s family will meet at his grave on Monday, but his brother said it felt futile to do so because of the apparently stalled investigation.
Police this week referred questions about his murder to the Hawks.
Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi did not respond to queries by the time of going to press, but a source close to the investigation told Weekend Argus there had been no developments.
Beeka, 49, a former bouncer boss who worked for RAM Hand-to-Hand couriers and who was rumoured to have worked for the National Intelligence Agency, was murdered after visiting alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome Booysen in Belhar.
Booysen was years ago named a suspect in the case.
Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, who at the time was going by the alias Sasa Kovacevic, was driving Beeka when bullets were sprayed into a 4x4 BMW along Modderdam Road in Bellville South.
This week Daniel Beeka recalled his brother’s final movements.
The brothers had initially both been at restaurants in the V&A Waterfront, but neither had known the other was there.
Later, after leaving the Waterfront and visiting Booysen, Beeka had tried to visit Daniel.
“At 4.44pm I got a call from him. He wanted to know if I was home because he’d just stopped in front of the house. I said: ‘No, I’m not home.’
“He said: ‘Okay, Danny, I’ll see you later.’ He then drove off to meet his end.”
Exactly 20 minutes later, at 5.04pm, Daniel Beeka said he got a call from someone at the scene who told him his brother had been shot.
It later emerged that a motorcycle carrying two people had stopped next to the car at a set of traffic lights. Seventeen shots were fired at Beeka’s vehicle.
Beeka was wounded in the chest, arms and head, while Gavric was wounded in the arms.
Gavric is wanted in Serbia, where he faces a 35-year jail sentence for murdering two people and for assassinating Serbia’s most feared warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, 15 years ago.
His real identity was exposed months later after Gavric was arrested when cocaine was found in a bag when he was discharged from hospital.
This week Daniel Beeka said despite five years having lapsed, it felt like the murder was very recent.
“For us, it’s almost hard to believe or accept it’s so long since he’s gone. It still feels like yesterday.”
His brother had played a major role in the lives of all his relatives.
“He would never forget a celebration. And there’ve been so many milestones that have taken place, birthdays and weddings… People say that time heals. I can’t accept that. We as a family still long for him.”
He missed Beeka’s ability to always call and ask how he was at times when he most needed to chat.
Daniel Beeka said his family had no evidence to prove who had killed Cyril. Four years ago, in a case focusing on Gavric in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, investigating officer Paul Hendrikse testified Booysen was a suspect in Beeka’s murder. Booysen was never arrested.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za