Former Springbok rugby player Joost van der Westhuizen has paid R15 000 to avoid prosecution on charges of malicious damage to property for breaking a security boom, the Star reported on Friday.
The father of two was to have handed himself over at Douglasdale Police Station on Thursday where he would have been formally charged.
He, however, struck a deal with the management of Dainfern Golf Estate and Country Club and paid them R15 000 in damages for the broken boom.
The upmarket estate was one of the country’s first golf estates and is home to a Gary Player-designed golf course.
Van der Westhuizen’s docket was to be taken to the Randburg Magistrate’s Court where the charge would be formally withdrawn, meaning that he won’t have to appear before the court to explain his aggression towards a security guard at the entrance to the estate.
It is alleged that Van der Westhuizen went to the estate last Wednesday to watch his son’s soccer practice when the guard apparently angered him by asking for proof of his identity before she could allow him entry into the golf estate.
Van der Westhuizen had arrived in a black Audi that had no registration plates. He had no ID book or driver’s licence on him and asked to be let through, but the guard on duty refused to let him in as he did not have the necessary documents.
Van der Westhuizen got upset and he is said to have got out of his car, gone over to the boom gate, broken the gate with his bare hands, got back into the car and showed the guard the middle finger before driving off into the estate.
Inspector Bala Muthan of the Douglasdale police said: ”But that [the settlement] does not mean that he did not commit a crime. The docket will always be there so that if anything happens in the future, we can always refer to it.” – Sapa