Shocking claims of alleged police corruption surfaced at the Western Cape High Court on Thursday as the statement by Nafiz Modack was entered into evidence.
The alleged underworld kingpin claimed top cops such as Major-General Jeremy Vearey and the late Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear were on his payroll.
This follows a criminal case opened by Modack after he was first arrested in December 2017 for extortion along with other dik dinge such as Colin Booysen, the brother of alleged gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen.
Returning to the stand, Hawks detective Edward du Plessis, read Modack’s initial statement captured by Captain Alfred Barker.
Here Modack claimed that after being released on bail he was approached by a Mohamed Hanware who claimed he could help Modack get his firearms back by paying cops R150 000.
He claimed he met with Hanware in August 2018 where he handed over R30 000.
The statement reads: “Mohammed then phoned Kinnear and said he has the masala (meaning money). Kinnear said to him that he is going to send the fat b**** (Kinnear’s girlfriend) that is going to pick up the money.”
Modack further alleged that two more payments of R40 000 and R80 000 were paid into a bank account given to him by Hanware.
In his investigation, Du Plessis said he found that the money was transferred from the bank account of Empire Car Investments into four accounts belonging to the wife of Hanware, Advocate Caitlin Bowen.
Court documents showed various transfers from 2018 to 2020 using references such as “Gen V”, amounting to R587 000.
The money trail stopped with the couple. However the state said the husband and wife would not be called to testify.
Asked by Judge Robert Henney what happened to the money, the Hawks detective explained that while the reference was made using Vearey’s name, he studied the bank statements but could not find any transfer of funds to any police official from Bowen’s account.
A second statement made to the National Anti-Corruption Unit by Modack was also investigated but detectives could not find payments being made to any police officer and it is understood that a decision was made not to prosecute.
A voice note retrieved from the cellphone of Modack’s co-accused, Amaal Jantjies, was also played in court where Modack is heard vloeking when referring to Vearey.
In the voice note that was sent to Jantjies, Modack claimed to have paid Vearey R3 million but said Vearey “took him for a p**s” and still had his wife arrested on firearm related charges in Johannesburg.
The State revealed that Vearey would be called as a witness.