Africa-Press – South-Africa. The high security surrounding Nafiz Modack’s return to the Cape Town Regional Court on Wednesday drew large crowds.
Both sides of the street near the loading entrance of the court were blocked off by the police and metro police. People queuing at the labour department’s office across the road watched the spectacle.
The eyes of heavily armed police officers in uniform with helmets and bulletproof vests, and others in civilian clothes, darted all over to seek out risks, with a finger on the trigger of their rifles.
“Kyk dis Modack! Dis Modack! [Look it’s Modack],” said two women excitedly as he was led out for the most dangerous part of his transfer, from court to an armoured car.
Modack is either hero-worshipped or villainised, depending on who is asked. Some see him as an innocent philanthropist, putting food on the table of the desperately poor.
On the other hand, the State is unravelling what it alleges is a vast criminal enterprise with tentacles in specialities ranging from VAT fraud, target scouting, finding guns and burner phones to murder.
The State is pulling out what it believes are key strands as it builds its case.
Last week, Abongile Nqodi was convicted in the Khayelitsha Priority Crimes Court for participating in gang activities, conspiracy to commit murder, murder, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He confessed to belonging to the Terrible Westsiders in Woodstock, and said he was paid a cut of a R25 000 five-way split to murder a former Hawks officer who was investigating Modack.
Modack co-accused claimed to have woken up in a morgue after shooting
He shot Nico Heerschap, 74, in his vehicle near his home in Melkbosstrand on 9 July 2019. The hit was supposed to have been on Detective Warrant Officer Nicolaas Heerschap, the older man’s son.
On Tuesday, a self-confessed member of the Junky Funky Kids (JFK), Fareez Smith, took a plea deal, admitting to carrying a grenade he intended throwing at late Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear’s house in 2019.
Smith said he did it on the instruction of alleged JFK member Jannick Adonis, a co-accused in the hand grenade case, for which Modack also faces charges.
Modack denies everything, and insists it is all a set-up by crooked police who are out to get him for stopping their side hustle of selling drugs in clubs.
He has also in the past run security for nightspots and was acquitted of charges relating to extorting the swish Grand Cafe in Cape Town.
Wednesday’s appearance was about the allegation he paid the former commander of the Cape Town Central police station, Brigadier Kolindren Govender, R146 000 for the off-book recovery of a stolen Mercedes-Benz and other favours, allegedly for Modack.
Govender also allegedly blocked junior police officers from doing their job when they spotted the missing Mercedes.
“He was paid handsomely for his interference,” said National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila of Govender.
Man gets 5 years behind bars for attempting to blow up Charl Kinnear’s house
Govender has already pleaded guilty and was sentenced on 51 charges related to payments between 2011 and 2013.
The death knell for the arrangement allegedly involved him stopping two young police officers from seizing a car that Modack wanted back from a now-dead business associate named Nazeem Saait, instead of going through the usual process of officially recovering a vehicle.
Govender also allegedly helped get Saait released after he was arrested for reckless driving in Cape Town.
A Land Rover was also allegedly recovered for Modack without it going through the police’s systems.
Recovering a stolen or repossessed vehicle usually involves mountains of red tape.
Modack’s mother, Ruwaida, was initially also arrested in this case, but the charges against her were withdrawn.
According to Ntabazalila, Govender ordered the two police officers trying to recover the missing Mercedes-Benz not to continue with their work. They had been trying to get a search warrant after one of the officers spotted the luxury vehicle.
Govender was also part of a huge case involving corruption allegations against former Brigadier Darius van der Ross and former Western Cape police commissioner Arnold Lamoer in cases that shook policing in the province.
They were found guilty of corruption in a case that involved taking payments in exchange for favours for tow-bar company owner Salim Dawjee.
Dawjee, who was Govender’s cousin, would cough up for all sorts of personal requirements for the top cops, like paying off a Markham account and filling family vehicles up with petrol from his filling station in Plattekloof for free.
In exchange, Dawjee would call in favours from the top cops for personalised service in finding items stolen from him, or getting a vehicle released from a pound, or finding a vehicle where someone had skipped their installments.
Dawjee traded off old relationships from common neighbourhoods when they were all younger, his role as a generous benefactor to police causes, and as a house friend of police officers he got to know well.
Modack’s leg of this case was postponed to 17 June 2022 for consultation with his legal representative.
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