From the Wrong Side of the Tracks...Chapter 24 – Dirty Tactics Fueled By Frustrations
It was the dawn of a new South Africa. A new Government came into being. A lot of changes were happening really fast. It also affected the Police Service. One change was that all the specialised units were incorporated into one unit known as the Organised Crime Investigation Office.
At the Intelligence office, we would identify an investigation officer working at the Organised Crime office. This was done for every operation we registered. The identified investigation officer’s role was to make the arrests and carry the case docket whilst the members at my office were working undercover and supplying the information to this investigation officer.
During this time, I passed my officers exam and was promoted to the rank of Captain. I was put in charge of the Organised Crime Intelligence Office and we also moved to a new covert office.
With all the changes happening, things did not always work as smoothly as it used to and it caused a lot of frustration for us who just wanted to do the work. Sometimes we had to use dirty tactics to get the ball rolling. The following incident was one of those dirty tactics.
Whilst still working from the SANAB offices, I had recruited a young guy who did very well as an informer. He always passed on precious information concerning drug dealers and their drug dens. He was also used as a trapper (police buyer). We had a lot of success with the information he supplied.
Working at the Organised Crime office, I still made use of his services. East London was getting too small for him, so I took him to Johannesburg and left him there with the instructions to sniff out some drug dealers. A week later, he contacted me and informed me he had met up with a big drug dealer in Johannesburg and that he could buy LSD from this dealer.
At that stage, I had already identified an investigating officer from the Organised Crime investigation office. He was a detective that came from a little farming village in the Eastern Cape where he investigated stock theft cases. He was keen to learn all about the drug investigations and I trained him in this field.
The two of us travelled to Johannesburg and met up with my informer. He told us he met a person who will sell him a vast amount of LSD and Ecstasy tablets.
We told him to keep the dealer interested. Once back in East London, I arranged for Police funds (Trap Money) as this dealer wanted the money paid into her account before releasing any of her drugs. We were too happy to oblige. The money was arranged and after my informer set a date and place for him to receive the drugs from the dealer personally. The money was paid into her account. It was a Johannesburg bank account.
We drove back to Johannesburg and after the dealer withdrew her money at the bank, she met up with the informer at a restaurant and handed the 600 LSD units and 177 Ecstasy tablets to the value of R53 000 to my informer. The arrest was made by my investigator and the dealer was charged. It was a nice bust. Back in East London, I applied for a financial reward for my informer. A few weeks later, I was told that the money was ready for collection and that I could come and sign for it.
East London Newspaper clipping of LSD Bust
I must just mention that this reward was not applied for through the Organised Crime head office. The application was done through the police financial head office in East London. Arriving at the office, I noticed that the amount I applied for was brought down by over three quarters. This was done by a Major in uniform that sat at his desk all day. All he did was to decide where and how he could cut down expenses. He had never worked as a detective and never dealt with informers. He did not know of the risks the informers took and by taking that risk, they endangered their lives working for the Police. Although the reward was sent in with a motivation, he had no interest in making a fair decision on the amount.
As a narcotics investigator at SANAB in the previous years, some of my colleagues and I always had this problem with this same officer. He would cut down the amounts for the informers’ claims considerably.
I told him I was unhappy and would go to see the District Commissioner in Port Elizabeth. I did not take the money. I went back to the Offices of the Organised Crime investigators, where I met up with my investigator. I informed him of the shit claim they wanted to pay our informer. I further told him he must accompany me to Port Elizabeth as backup, where I was going to take this matter up with the Brigadier, the District Commissioner. I had a plan. We met with the informer in East London and I gave him instructions, as well as a tape recorder.
The following day, I made an appointment to see the District Commissioner in Port Elizabeth. Our meeting was set for three days later. As I have mentioned before, this informer had been working with me for a few years. All his results and previous claims were recorded and kept in an informers’ file.
With the informer’s file and a tape recorder, my investigator and I left East London early on the morning of my meeting with the Brigadier in Port Elizabeth. Arriving at the Brigadier’s office, it was clear to me that he would not raise the amount. Not even after I showed him the informer’s file and detailing his previous successes. With that, I realised I will have to use my last resort. I asked him if he would like to listen to a conversation on the tape recorder. He agreed.
The conversation started with the ringing of a telephone. A person answered and said, ‘Good day, Carte Blanche office. How may I help you? ’Carte Blanche’ is a South African investigative journalism television series. The dictionary definition of Cart Blanche is to have full authority and freedom to act as you want to, or do what you want, without limits or restrictions. And this program did exactly that.
The informer explained he would like to share and discuss a certain matter with a well-known female presenter of Carte Blanche. It was a known fact that she was not fond of the police, and any matter that could place the police in a bad light, she would follow up on and air on television.
My informer was put through to the journalist. He explained to her he was an informer for the police, and had been working with the police for a few years supplying information to the police, and buying drugs from drug dealers he informed on during police actions. He told her that resulted in his life being in constant danger. He further said that he would like to tell her about how little the reward is he receives in return from the police.
Needless to say, the presenter was excited. She wanted this interview on camera. She asked the informer when her team and she could meet and interview him. He did not give her his name or his location, but she became like a hound dog, having sniffed at a delectable morsel of information that could become huge. He said that he would get back to her and hung up.
After listening to the conversation, the Brigadier looked at me and said,
‘Captain, you are blackmailing the state.’
I responded by saying that it was not me blackmailing the state, it was the informer being mistreated by the state. The informer could easily turn around and become a drug dealer himself, but he was doing the right thing by helping the police.
The reward was raised, not to the amount I applied for, but very close to it. I was happy with that and so was the informer.
This specific LSD case was still being investigated by my investigator and we had to travel back to Johannesburg for some evidence we needed. The evidence was the footage on the CCTV tape of the drug dealer going into her bank and withdrawing all the money we paid into her account. My investigator grew up in a small Afrikaans farming town. He was not very well-versed in the English language.
As we stopped at the specific bank in the Sandton area and got out of the vehicle, he said to me that if the bank manager is English, I should do the talking. We entered the bank and introduced ourselves to the receptionist, and asked to speak with the bank manager. We were told to wait as she would call the Manager.
A very attractive lady approached us and introduced herself as the bank manageress. She asked us to follow her to her office. And yes, she was English. In her office, I explained the reason for our visit. We needed the footage of a specific day that was captured on the bank’s cameras. Being helpful, she arranged for the footage to be handed over to us. During all this time, my Afrikaans investigator did not say a word.
The Manageress ordered coffee for all of us. After I took her statement, she asked us if we knew the Johannesburg area, as she could tell us where to go if we were looking for an excellent restaurant. She was very friendly. After I thanked her for all her help, she asked if we were finished with our investigation in Johannesburg. My investigator now felt very comfortable in the presence of this nice lady and answered,
‘No Miss. We just need two more hand signs.’
Now in Afrikaans, a signature is a ‘handtekening’ and the direct translation into English is a hand sign. I thanked her, and we left the bank. As soon as we walked outside. I smacked him hard on the back and showed him a vulgar sign with my two fingers and told him.
‘This is a hand sign. I am sure you meant to say we need two more signatures.’
Anyway, we got a conviction on that case and the drug dealer was sentenced to a few years in prison.
A year later, I was fed-up with the bureaucracy and the lack of funds that hampered law enforcement. The way we operated was to identify a crime syndicate. Then draw up a budget and a plan of action to address this syndicate. Infiltrate the syndicate and investigate before making an arrest and break them up.
All this planning was sent to our headquarters for approval. If approved, there were always drastic cuts in the required budget. We started feeling that our hands were tied.
Disillusioned, for the first time ever in my career, I felt negative about my job.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION: