Robert Smit

South African politician

Robert van Schalkwyk Smit (19331977) was an economist and parliamentary candidate for South Africa's National Party, tipped as a future Minister of Finance. He was murdered, along with his wife Jean Cora, on 22 November 1977. No arrests have ever been made, and there was little evidence in the case, but the murders are widely suspected to have been politically motivated. Cabinet Minister Pik Botha described it as "one of the most haunting criminal mysteries in our country," and the police investigation remained open as of November 2012.

Smit attended Pembroke College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship and received a doctorate in economics from Stellenbosch University. He was a member of the National Party, which governed in South Africa throughout apartheid, and in 1967, aged 34, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of Finance. At the time of his death, he and his wife, Jean Cora, were staying in a rented house in Selcourt, Springs; their two teenaged children were in Pretoria. The Smits' driver discovered their bodies the next morning, and also discovered that the letters "RAU TEM" had been written in red spray paint across the fridge and kitchen walls. However, no charges were ever laid: Verwey had died in 1980; Freeman had committed suicide in 1990; and Allen was by then living in Australia. It has also been alleged that the police investigations into the murders were in fact orchestrated to cover up the involvement of the security forces, and attention has also been given to the possibility that Smit was murdered by a Cuban hit squad.

After the end of apartheid, Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard evidence on the Smits' murders. Its report said that the evidence suggested that some party retained "a contemporary interest in ensuring that the facts surrounding the killings remain hidden," indicating "a political agenda or at least one in which powerful – possibly financial – interests are vested." It concluded that the murders had been politically motivated and carried out by members of the apartheid security forces.