Family denies racist threat

2007-02-06 23:05

Hilda Fourie

Pretoria - The Greyling family of Centurion have issued a statement denying that the robbers who killed Albie Greyling last Friday shouted "We will kill all whites", when they cornered his friend, Martin Vermeulen, after the shooting.

Beeld reported previously that Greyling, 25, a final-year paramedic student at the University of Johannesburg, was killed in cold blood on the lawn of his mother's house in Eldoraigne, Centurion.

He and Vermeulen, 28, arrived at the house just after the men had struck and robbed Albie's mother of several hundred rands and a cellphone.

On behalf of the family, Albie's mother, Susan Greyling, sent a statement to Beeld: "We are upset that, in the midst of the huge tragedy of Albie's death, the tension in our country about the wave of serious crime at present and the racial polarisation around the violence, those words could be attributed to them."

Stands by her information

The quote and the information was given to Beeld by Yolanda Barnard, the sister of Albie's fiancée Sandra.

She was fielding media inquiries on Sunday, because the families were in an emotional state.

Barnard stands by the information she gave Beeld.

"As a journalist I can't say things that aren't true. I wouldn't have said it, if I hadn't heard it. I'm not a simpleton," said Barnard.

"Nothing that anybody says will bring him back in any case."

"The Greyling family hopes that Albie's death will spur everyone concerned, including the government, to approach the violent crime in our country in full seriousness and to combat it effectively."

- Beeld