Paul Kirk
A trio of former Durban policemen who openly flaunt the sizeable fortunes they amassed while in the service of the organised crime unit were arrested this week for, among other things, running an extortion racket.
The suspended head of the KwaZulu-Natal organised crime unit, Piet Meyer, and two of his closest friends – former organised crime unit members Sergeant Dave McBrier and Inspector Sarel Geldenhuys – were picked up by the Scorpions early on Thursday morning.
Geldenhuys – the most flamboyant of the three – is a well-known man about town and the owner of three racehorses, a luxury 4×4, a top-of-the-range BMW and a luxurious home in Ashley, a suburb outside Durban.
He resigned from the police last year claiming that rumours and speculation about his modest wealth were causing him too much stress. At present he owns Reno’s Horse and Whip, a high-class strip club.
Until Geldenhuys joined Meyer’s organised crime unit he struggled to make ends meet and lived in a cheap police flat in the Durban CBD where he often battled to pay his electricity bills.
Court records tell a story of how “from February 1997 to December 1998 there were few raids and no successful prosecutions of illegal casinos because of the lack of proper investigations and contradictory evidence”. Geldenhuys was in charge of investigating illegal casinos.
The current charges against the three are that, together with a casino boss, a well-known Durban bouncer and former paratrooper, JP deVaal, and a top lawyer they extorted large amounts of cash from casino owners for protection money.
Some of their closest allies in the racket, including De Vaal, who was nicknamed “The Strong Arm Boy”, have helped to shop the three.