Ex-tobacco employees up for racketeering.
Cape Town - Seven former British American Tobacco employees face racketeering charges if National Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane grants the go-ahead to amend theft charges against them, the Weekend Argus newspaper reported on Saturday.
The former employees, Pienaar van Heerden and his wife, Anthea, John van der Vent, John van Rooy, Phillip Gorden Heynes, Reginald Fisher and Terrence Keyster, appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Friday where they are currently charged with stealing more than R6.9 million in cigarette shipments.
When they appeared in court, it emerged that the State was applying to amend the charges to more serious counts of racketeering under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
The syndicate’s operations allegedly included the theft of about 590 boxes of cigarettes, mostly Peter Stuyvesant, intercepted while being shipped from the Gauteng plant to the firm’s laboratory in Stellenbosch to undergo quality testing.
Prosecutor Mzukizi Mazandwa asked on Friday that the case be postponed to allow the State to get necessary authorisation from Simelane.
Mike Loftus, who appeared on behalf of three of the accused – the Van Heerden couple and Van der Vent – said the State had already had more than three months to prepare.
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