Businessman probed for corrupt dealings with Cape cops ‘suicidal’
Notorious Cape figures named in Hawks probe
A SOBBING Mohamed Salim Dawjee, under police investigation for being in a corrupt relationship with senior Cape Town police officers, admitted this week that he:
Gave plasma televisions and a couple of radios to police officers;
Donated R3 000 worth of coffee cups to a police event;
Made various cash donations; and,
Fitted out a police counselling room.
“I’m so very sorry that I ever gave the police any money or sponsored their events. I wish I hadn’t, because they’re now killing me with these false allegations,” Dawjee said.
He admitted that he gave Western Cape police chief Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer R20 000 by paying off a loan the policeman had taken out to help fund his daughter’s wedding.
Lamoer refused a Sunday Times request to comment, but soon after the SAPS spokesman received the questions, Dawjee called the paper. He said he had received a call from Lamoer’s daughter, who wanted to know what he had told the paper “about the loan pay-back”.
Earlier in an interview, Dawjee said Lamoer was his friend.
“We grew up together. Our chil- dren grew up together. Of course I helped him,” Dawjee said.
He showed the Sunday Times a “forensic audit” done by La Festois Consulting six days after the paper linked Dawjee with Lamoer and three police brigadiers — Darius van der Ross, Kolindhren “Colin” Govender and his wife Sharon Govender. They are also believed to be under investigation for corruption with at least two other police officers.
The report shows that Dawjee was paid just more than R400 000 by the police for fitting tow bars and other equipment to police vehicles during
the past nine years.
“That’s not real money,” Dawjee said.
The police refused to comment on Dawjee’s tow-bar business dealings.
Dawjee said on Friday that he was a broken man, and he was contemplating suicide.
“I wanted to shoot myself after the Sunday Times published my name calling me a criminal.
“My friend Lieutenant-Gener- al Lamoer said: ‘Don’t kill yourself my friend because then the newspaper would have won’,” a tearful Dawjee said.
He showed the Sunday Times his bank statements, saying he was a broken man financially.
“My business is completely ruined; my family is falling apart; my wife can’t sleep at night and I’m destroyed after the Sunday Times called me a crook. I think the best thing would be for me to kill myself.”
The bank statements from Standard Bank show that he has huge overdrafts.
Dawjee said he had never been a member of any community police forum, yet a framed certificate hangs in his office from the Goodwood police forum thanking him for his “support”.
The Sunday Times obtained a copy of a two-page letter written on Monday by Lamoer in which he denied there was “any investigation against Mr Dawjee”.
However, three weeks ago, Lamoer was warned by the national police commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, that he was being investigated for, among other things, his links with criminals.
Phiyega’s tip-off has led to a case of defeating the ends of justice being laid against her by the National Intelligence Agency. The agency was conducting surveillance on Lamoer and Dawjee when it picked up Phiyega telling the Western Cape chief that he was being investigated by the Hawks.
Asked if Lamoer had given him the letter, Dawjee said: “I said to Lamoer that he must help me and speak out to clear my name after you destroyed it. He wrote me the letter.”
In the letter, Lamoer says he has known Dawjee for 20 years. “[I am] not aware neither bear knowledge of Mr Dawjee being investigated or convicted of any criminal activity.
“As an officer of the law for almost 34 years and in my position as provincial commissioner and senior official, I cannot and will not associate myself with any person who is involved in any criminal activity,” Lamoer wrote on official stationery.
Lamoer admitted in the letter that Dawjee had received work from the police.
“Dawjee is a well-respected business person who also does business with the SAPS through proper processes,” he wrote.
Dawjee said his lawyer William Booth would serve notices on the Sunday Times soon. “I’m suing you for R100-million and the police for another R100million. That’s how much you are costing me. When I have been paid that money, I will donate every cent to charity.
“I’m an innocent man getting destroyed in the middle.”
THE criminal investigation into top police officers in the Western Cape promises to expose a national network involving some of the province’s biggest underworld names.
Two weeks ago, the Sunday Times linked Western Cape police chief Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer and three police brigadiers to Cape Town businessman Mohamed Salim Dawjee in a case that has the potential to bring down national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega.
Now, three independent sources with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is being conducted by the Hawks, have revealed that the Western Cape underworld figures include car dealer and property developer Nafiz Modack; notorious underworld boss Mark Lifman; and Lifman’s right-hand man, Jerome “Donkey” Booysen, alleged leader of the Sexy Boys gang based in Belhar.
Phiyega has been charged with defeating the ends of justice because she was recorded tipping off Lamoer that he was being probed as part of the Hawks case.
The Hawks are investigating Lamoer along with at least three police brigadiers — Darius van der Ross, Sharon Govender and her husband, Colin Govender. They are allegedly involved in corruption, money laundering and racketeering.
A senior Cape Town police officer said witnesses had also provided “affidavits and statements” alleging that police vehicles had been used to transport uncut diamonds and other contraband.
Another senior police officer said a security firm in Plattekloof “is central in unlocking the use of police vehicles in criminal activity”.
“We suspect that this investigation has the potential to expose a big criminal network where police have assisted large-scale criminal activity,” the officer told the Sunday Times.
Another source with knowledge of the investigation into the police said that the diamonds “could be coming from Namibia”.
Both Modack and Dawjee denied any involvement with diamonds.
Meanwhile, Dawjee’s links with the senior policemen were further underscored by two photographs obtained this week by the Sunday Times.
The first shows Dawjee at his R5.5million home in Plattekloof next to a white BMW M5. The car, valued at about R1-million, is registered to Towbars Cape, Dawjee’s company, which has done work fitting police vehicles with tow bars.
The second photograph shows the same car with a blue police light on the dashboard. Dawjee admitted it was his car, but said the light belonged “to my friend, Colin Govender”.
He said a family member had broken into his property, taken the photographs and sold them to the police. “I never drove that car with the blue light in,” said Dawjee.
He said Govender, who is station commissioner at Cape Town Central, had borrowed the car when his own was in the garage.
“He has often driven my car. We are friends. I’ve known him since our childhood in Durban,” said Dawjee.
“He simply forgot the blue light in the car when he returned my car. The next day my wife took his light back to him.”
The MEC for community safety in the Western Cape, Dan Plato, told the Sunday Times: “If it is true that he [Dawjee] has the use of a blue light, this raises serious concerns and would be an abuse of police resources.”
Modack, owner of at least five Cape Town properties and several companies, including Auto Investment Cars, has at least nine motor vehicles registered in his name. They include two Mercedes-Benzes and two BMW convertibles.
He told the Sunday Times on Friday that he knew Lifman, Booysen, Dawjee, Van der Ross and Colin Govender but had no business dealings with them.
“Dawjee is like family, but we have no business together and never have had. I have met Lifman and Booysen but it was a long time ago — like last year . . . It is confidential why I met with them,” he told the Sunday Times.
Modack said he had met Van der Ross only once, when he laid a criminal
This investigation has the potential to expose a big criminal network
complaint, and that he knew Govender “personally and well”. “I don’t have a relationship with these people. What is this about?” Modack asked.
Dawjee, asked whether he had a business relationship with Modack, said: “No. You are talking about different people now.”
Dawjee told the Sunday Times that he was facing bankruptcy after being linked to Lamoer in an allegedly corrupt relationship.
Deeds office records show that 10 properties are registered in Dawjee’s name.
Dawjee said his properties were all bonded with Standard Bank and that he was “living off his overdraft”.
One source, who insisted on remaining anonymous, described Modack as one of the “biggest players in the car business”.
“This guy is known to be fronting for Lifman by buying and selling. He also knows who gave Booysen a R2-million red Ferrari some months ago,” the Sunday Times was told.