Extortion and intimidation charges against alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack were withdrawn in a Johannesburg court this week, after it was found the State has no case.
The State prosecutor alleged that Modack and his co-accused, Jacques Cronjé, tried to extort almost R20 million from the owner of The Grand nightclub in Sandton.
On Wednesday, in a surprise move, the matter was withdrawn in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg.
The two, along with Colin Booysen, the brother of alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, and two others, face similar charges in Cape Town.
This matter has been set down for trial at the Cape Town Regional Court, due to start later this month.
Modack’s lawyer, Advocate Bruce Hendricks, on Thursday confirmed the Joburg case had been withdrawn, and says the Cape Town matter will follow suit.
“The case against my client, Mr Modack, has been withdrawn. We are happy that justice finally prevailed. We will now focus on the Cape Town matter and have that withdrawn as well as there is no merit to the State’s case, as was evident during the bail application that was dragged out for months,” Hendricks says.
Modack, Cronjé, Booysen, Ashley Fields and Carl Lakay were arrested on 15 December for allegedly trying to extort R369 000 from The Grand Africa Café and Beach near the V&A Waterfront last year.
Hendricks claims charges have been fabricated.
“All these cases against Mr. Modack and Booysen are fabricated and full of lies and deceit,” he added.
Speaking to the Daily Voice, businessman Modack says police manpower could have been used to focus on the ongoing gang wars on the Cape Flats, instead of being wasted on him.
“If that police was dispatched to investigate the gangs and the drugs in Cape Town then there would have been many more people alive,” Modack says.
“If they used that manpower they gave us - 40 policemen doing escorts - and put it in the local areas like Manenberg and Mitchells Plain then police could have saved people’s lives.
“How much money have they wasted driving us [up] to Johannesburg? Monies used for accommodation for those police officers for four days, cars [and] petrol could have been used to send the police into Manenberg, yet they don’t want to do that because they have been paid to investigate something there isn’t.
“They are investigating a ghost.”