“R150 000 by 2pm today.” This was the alleged demand made on a Cape Town restaurant by underworld kingpins on trial for extortion in the Cape Town Regional Court.
Nafiz Modack, Colin Booysen, the brother of alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, as well as Ashley Fields and Jacques Cronje face charges of money laundering and extortion linked to a violent takeover of the local nightclub security industry.
A fifth accused, Carl Lakay, was murdered in his Goodwood driveway in August.
Before proceedings started Magistrate Byron Pedro looked for Lakay’s defence lawyer.
“He has to be here so I can excuse him from the record. I also want a death certificate of the accused placed before this court,” Pedro stated.
The group was nabbed in December 2017 for allegedly trying to extort R369 000 from The Grand Africa Cafe and Beach near the V&A Waterfront.
DEFENCE: Colin Booysen, right, at hof. Photo: Noor Samdien/African News Agency (ANA)
That amount has now been reduced to R90 000.
Modack, Booysen and Fields also face a charge of rendering a security service while not registered as a service provider.
In addition, Modack faces charges of prohibited inception of communication and defeating the ends of justice.
Security was tight at court, and all the accused, except Cronje, wore bulletproof vests.
The media were also asked to refrain from photographing any lawyers in the wake of the execution of gangster lawyer Advocate Pete Mihalik two weeks ago.
State prosecutor, Mervin Meningo, called his first witness, the complainant in the matter, Radley Dijkers.
A nervous-looking Dijkers explained how The Grand was forced to pay security company, The Security Group (TSG), for services.
“I am the brand manager for The Grand, when I started (in August 2016) the restaurant was being rendered a service by Lifestyle Leisure Security and we were satisfied with their services,” Dijkers testified.
But that changed in 2017.
“I was arranging an event and five vehicles pulled up during the early hours of the morning on April 2,” he said.
“About 10 to 15 men were standing and myself and the general manager were approached by a man and he told us they are now our security. I did not know who these men were.”
The next day he met with Lakay, “the security manager”, who informed him they would now have to pay TSG, which was being run by Booysen.
Photo: Noor Samdien/African News Agency (ANA)
Dijkers said he received a call from Cronje who demanded R150 000 for extra security services for The Grand’s summer party.
“He gave me a deadline of 2pm on the same day to get the R150 000, even though extra security for the event had been arranged [to TSG] two weeks prior, which came to a cost of R15 000 and we paid,” he said.
When he didn’t pay the money, Cronje rocked up at the Grand himself.
“When he told me he would be there in the next hour, I also decided to meet up with operations manager, Stuart Bailey, whom I told to rather pay the money but Bailey wanted to speak to them and try and sort it out,” Dijkers testified.
Video footage was shown in court and Dijkers pointed out two black BMW X5s which he claimed belonged to Booysen and his men.
Dijkers and Bailey can be seen in the parking lot.
As Booysen passes Dijkers, a group of men comes from the right side of the parking lot and greet.
According to Dijkers, these men are Modack, Cronje, Lakay and Fields.
The matter continues.