Former top cop Major-General Jeremy Vearey has denied being the voice behind a telephone call asking underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, to put ‘meat on the table’.
This was revealed on Monday as Vearey returned to the stand to be cross examined by Modack’s lawyer, Advocate Bash Sibda, amid corruption claims.
In June, a statement made by Modack nearly six years ago surfaced, wherein he claims that Vearey and slain Anti-Gang Unit detective Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear were on his payroll.
The statement was captured by Captain Alfred Barker.
In it, Modack claims that after being released on bail he was approached by Mohamed Hanware who said he could help Modack get his firearms back by paying cops R150 000.
A Hawks investigation found that money was transferred from the bank account of Empire Car Investments into four accounts belonging to Hanware’s wife, Advocate Caitlin Bowen.
The transfers from 2018 to 2020 using references such as ‘Gen V’, amounted to R587 000, and the Hawks said the money trail stopped with the couple.
On Monday, Sibda played a 3-minute long audio clip which he explained was a telephone call between Hanware and a man who Modack claimed was Vearey as they discussed guns and money using codewords such as ‘roses’, ‘biltong’ and ‘meat’.
It is understood that Modack had recorded the conversation.
Hanware was heard saying: “Howzit G. The deal that I am speaking about is on for tomorrow. But I will give you details when I leave later tonight… Tell me something, the roses [guns] for Nafiz?”
A man, which the defence claimed is Vearey, responds: “I am doing a lot of work for that guy Nafiz but there is no meat [money] coming to the table.”
But Vearey denied being the voice on the audio clip and revealed that there was a much longer clip of the same conversation that was sent to him when he was still the provincial head of detectives in the Western Cape.
He claimed the audio first surfaced in the Sunday Times newspaper with the media outlet later issuing an apology.
Vearey said the editor came to his office to apologise in person and revealed that their source was Barker.