Respected AFU advocate bows out
Retirement follows decades spent fighting to recover criminals’ ill-gotten gains
THIS month marks the end of an era as the “king” of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) in the Eastern Cape – one of its founding members – hangs up his robes, bidding farewell to a lustrous career spanning almost four decades.
Advocate Willie Kingsley, 65, will be missed – and it is easy to see why as he brushes off his involvement in some of the province’s biggest criminal cases to instead recall the time he handed back a stolen vehicle to Khanyisa School for the Blind as a career highlight.
It is hard to imagine now, but his interest in law only came about later on in life.
A young Kingsley obtained a BComm from Stellenbosch University and started working as a trainee manager at a car company in Pretoria before joining his father in the family business.
He began studying part-time through Unisa and ultimately obtained his LLB and LLM degrees.
In the early ’70s he went his own way to join the Department of Justice as a district court prosecutor, and later regional prosecutor.
Then, in 1978, he accepted a position as senior public prosecutor in Grahamstown, and has called the Eastern Cape home ever since.
Kingsley also acted as a magistrate before joining the then attorney-general’s office. He later joined the Bar, where he spent 13 years.
In June 2001, he was offered the chance to be involved in something new – to join the AFU and pioneer an office in Port Elizabeth – an innovation to ensure that crime does not pay.
But the project did not come without its own set of challenges.
“It was a battle to get the AFU recognised as an internationally regarded legitimate and more mainstream mechanism to curb crime,” Kingsley said.
“I now regard the challenge of motivating colleagues and partners to continue fighting the good fight despite sometimes overwhelming odds and diminishing resources as our greatest ongoing challenge.”
Kingsley leaves behind a stellar career. In July 2004, the unit obtained an order for a staggering R24-million in assets to be seized from jailed perlemoen kingpin Jason Ross.
The following year, Kingsley successfully attached an aircraft, houses, vehicles and cash to the value of R58-million from the family-owned Mastermind Tobacco company in East London.
As a result, in October 2007, the once-doubted AFU paid out R22-million of the recovered funds to the SA Revenue Service, the Department of Agriculture and several small businesses, all victims of the fraud.
“There is no better feeling than handing back the money or the proceeds of crime to ordinary people who have been victims of crime.”
But who is Willie Kingsley when he is not in the courtroom?
“I am primarily a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband, a father and a grandfather of the best nine grandchildren ever,” he quipped.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Lungisile Mahlati, wished Kingsley well. He said he had been a valuable member of his team and would be missed.
A colleague for the past 12 years, Advocate Warren Myburgh, described Kingsley as a respected prosecutor, colleague, mentor and friend.