‘Hawks assassins are out to kill me’
But judge says family feud son’s claims are ‘paranoid reaction’
Migraine guru Elliot Shevel’s son says he could end up on the streets after being fired from his father’s business in a nasty fallout peppered with death threats.
Daniel Shevel, 47, is pulling out all the stops to avoid eviction from his flat on Cape Town’s upmarket Atlantic Seaboard. He owes his landlord hundreds of thousands of rands in unpaid rent.
But there seems to be no end in sight in the legal battle between him and the landlord, Alison Development Sea Point, as well as the impasse between him and his father.
Shevel fired Daniel in December 2015 for misconduct and insubordination, which included the death threats, an attempted hostile takeover of The Headache Clinic, locking his father out, encouraging staff to strike, stealing patients’ files and computer disks and hacking staff e-mails.
Daniel unsuccessfully challenged his axing in the labour court and failed to have his father disciplined by the Health Professions Council of SA, which found no evidence of unprofessional conduct.
This week, Daniel said he intends appealing the ruling of two Cape Town high court judges that upheld a magistrate’s decision permitting his eviction from a Three Anchor Bay flat.
The landlord hauled him to court in September 2019 and Daniel, who has represented himself in the litigation, told the magistrate he was “without any kind of income and any sort of support from family”, and that the Hawks had threated to assassinate him.
He wants to be placed in witness protection in the seventh-floor flat he has occupied for seven years, saying it is secure and its view allows him to keep an eye out for any would-be killer.
But last month’s high court judgment said: “So far ... [Daniel] has managed to evade the assassin’s proverbial silver bullet. Indeed, he can point to no incident where any attempt has been made on his life or that of his son. At the moment, everything is in his mind.”
Daniel told the magistrate’s court he borrowed from friends to survive and to pay his child’s maintenance, and fled the country when threats escalated.
“A friend flew me to London ... because the Hawks threatened to assassinate me and I had to open charges against the Hawks. I
I am deeply saddened ...
Our family has suffered greatly, and I hope for a way forward of peace and healing.
Elliot Shevel on his litigant son Daniel
am being threatened. The threat to me is increasing all the time,” he said.
The magistrate’s court ordered him to vacate the flat by March 31 last year, and in his high court appeal papers Daniel said the magistrate was wrong in saying he could afford alternative accommodation.
He claimed that his father and the family trust were responsible for his eviction. “You continue to illegally retain possession of the stolen assets and income that was supposed to be used to pay rent for the appellant and his son,” Daniel said in an unsuccessful application to join his father to litigation.
The high court dismissed his appeal with costs last month and ordered him to vacate the flat by Friday (February 26).
Daniel’s claim of a threat to his life and his “almost paranoid reaction ... is evidently sourced in a family feud which began in about 2015”, said judge Patrick Gamble.
“[Daniel] appears to have incurred the wrath of his father around 2015 when he made allegations that the latter was conducting illegal medical experiments on his patients. I conclude that this led to a breakdown of the family relationship with mutual recriminations being made either way.
“[Daniel] ended up reporting the matter to the police in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow and this seems to have attracted the attention of the Hawks.
“[Daniel] claims to have proof of corrupt activities on the part of the Hawks in relation to these complaints and portrays himself as a potential target of an assassination.”
Daniel told the Sunday Times he intended to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal. He said the prosecution declined to pursue a case against the Hawks.
“I cannot reconcile with my father emotionally until there is reconciliation of his actions. Innocent people have been hurt, some have been killed. Most of the families have no idea that their loved ones who presented with life-threatening headaches at The Headache Clinic were defrauded and then subjected to medical experiments in which some patients died,” he said.
Shevel said: “I am deeply saddened to hear of the position my son Daniel finds himself in after years of pursuing baseless allegations against me, all rejected by the courts. Our family has suffered greatly, and I hope for a way forward of peace and healing.”