PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday
LUCRATIVE illegal casinos are operating openly in Durban under the protection of a secret agreement between the police, the Department of Justice and two of Durbans most notorious illegal casino owners.
The deal makes a mockery of state attempts to claim that the suspended head of KwaZulu-Natals organised crime unit, Senior Superintendent Piet Meyer, was the sole source of protection for unlicensed casinos. Meyer is currently on trial in Durban facing a string of charges, including taking a kings ransom in bribes from illegal casinos.
This week the Mail & Guardian obtained a copy of an agreement signed in April 1999 between state attorney Charles Bell and Carl van der Merwe, an attorney representing the illegal casinos. The deal is still in force.
Two weeks ago, in a joint police and army operation, the Queens casino was raided in an operation spearheaded by members of the Pine Parkade satellite police station.
After the raid the owner of the casino, David Winter, produced a copy of the agreement and forced the police to return all his gambling equipment and leave him to carry on operating.
Police at the Pine Parkade satellite station confirmed the raid and authenticated the copy of the agreement the M&G has obtained.
At the time the deal was signed Van der Merwe, acting on behalf of illegal casinos, had launched several court cases against the minister of safety and security and the premier of KwaZulu-Natal. He was attempting to use legal loopholes to attempt to get his clients casinos declared legal.
Rather than defend the cases in court, Van der Merwe persuaded justice department officials and senior policemen to settle out of court. In exchange for not proceeding with the court cases, Durbans law enforcement agencies signed a secret deal with Van der Merwes clients, agreeing not to raid them.
Van der Merwe has near-celebrity status in Durban as the best criminal lawyer that money can buy. He is also a former policeman and at one time commanded the South African Narcotics Bureau. He has close links to most of the senior police in the province.
The National Gambling was not prepared to comment until legal opinion had been obtained. Trevor Erlink, one of the protected casino operators, is presently outside the country, while Winter was not available for comment. Lionel Mtshali, the Premier of the province, was not contactable at the time of going to press.
The commander of the special police unit set up to tackle illegal gambling in Durban, Superintendent Gert Grobler, confirmed the agreement existed but said he could not discuss any of the specifics of it due to the secrecy clause in the document.
State attorney Krish Govender said it had to be remembered that when the agreement was signed illegal casino operators were operating in a grey area.