“Don't pay us peanuts, we’re not monkeys.”
This is what underworld kingpin Colin Booysen allegedly told the manager of a restaurant who claims Booysen extorted money from him.
Booysen, the brother of alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, Nafiz Modack, as well as Ashley Fields and Jacques Cronjé are on trial at the Cape Town Regional Court for money laundering and extortion linked to a violent takeover of the local nightclub security industry in the Cape.
A fifth accused, Carl Lakay, was murdered in his Goodwood driveway in August.
The group was nabbed in December 2017 for allegedly trying to extort R369 000 from The Grand Africa Café and Beach near the V&A Waterfront.
That amount has now been reduced to R90 000.
On Tuesday The Grand’s brand manager, Radley Dijkers, testified how the group allegedly tried to extort R150 000 from the restaurant in November last year, just before their signature summer party event.
“It was myself and operations manager, Stuart Bailey, Modack, Fields, Cronjé, Booysen and Lakay in the upstairs office,” Dijkers said.
“Booysen started the conversation, stating we needed to discuss the extra security cost his associate Modack had.
“Booysen said he doesn’t normally come to meetings like this. Then he told me: ‘Don’t pay us peanuts, we’re not monkeys’.
“Modack said he needed to bring in 80 [security] guards for an event of this size and he needed to pay them R2 000 each and they needed it to be paid.
“Bailey and I explained to him we only had R50 000 to offer.
Alleged kingpin Nafiz Modack. Photo: Noor Slamdien/African News Agency/ANA
“After Booysen’s statement about peanuts, I told Bailey we must increase their monthly security fee from R70 000 to R100 000.”
Asked by the magistrate why he would volunteer to pay more, Dijkers replied: “I wanted to make the gentlemen in front of me happy.”
Dijkers said they argued about the money, with Modack demanding R100 000 on that day, but it was Booysen who eventually “met us halfway”.
“Bailey said we could not do R100 000 but R80 000, it was Booysen who then said why not meet halfway and make it R90 000,” he explained.
“I stated I would need time till midnight to get the monies. After the meeting, Lakay stated he would get the cash the evening.”
State prosecutor Mervin Meningo then brought forth a 1 240 page document of cellphone records of Dijkers and Bailey to prove friendly interaction with Modack and Cronjé from 3 November until 15 December 2017.
This after Dijkers said he received an SMS from Modack asking him to “organise” a table for murdered Advocate Pete Mihalik and five people at the restaurant.
Modack, Booysen and Fields also face a charge of rendering a security service while not registered as a service provider.
In addition, Modack faces charges of prohibited inception of communication and defeating the ends of justice.
The matter continues.