From Baghdad to Basrah — A vivid, boots-on-the-ground chapter by PSD operator Andre Els In the meantime, there was a war in the Middle East after the 9/11 attack on America in 2003. I heard that there were a lot of South Africans operating as contractors in Iraq and earning good money. The contractors were mostly South Africa's former security forces personnel that
The offer I received was from an old gentleman. A Geologist involved with investors listening to his expertise on certain areas, for instance, where to mine. At this time, they wanted to start a mining operation in Swaziland and he wanted me to do the Security for the mine. He wanted me to survey the area and give him feedback on all the
After three months in my own Touring with Protection business, I received a call from a very wealthy businessman in Umtata (now known as Mthata). He said he heard about me from a police friend of his and that he would like to talk with me concerning business. I met with him, and he offered me a job at his company as his
What was also happening in the Police was that a lot of white senior officers were seeing their posts being advertised and at the same time, they were offered voluntary retrenchment packages. It resulted in a lot of these senior officers accepting the package. The result was a huge lack of expertise in different sectors of the police. I was thirty-five years old
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
I was told to identify a house, to serve as a covert office, where we (the guys I indicated that I had identified in Chapter 22) could work from. After I found the right house, the four of us moved there. We started working on our strategies for various operations from the house. I was still an Inspector (warrant officer) in rank and busy
Return to East London I was sent back to SANAB East London. Some of my old colleagues were happy to see me back, and I was happy to be back in East London. I was anxious and eager to share the new techniques I had learnt. But, as always, there were the old school detectives. Those who were not very keen on changing
At the end of 1992, I was approached by the Intelligence Commander of the then-newly formed Organised Crime Intelligence Office in Cape Town. I was offered a position. I accepted it and was transferred to Cape Town, where I joined up with the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit. The unit exclusively worked on investigating crime syndicates. After a crime syndicate group was identified, they
During the first week in March 1992 my friend and Second in Command called me into his office. He said that I had to be in Port Elizabeth during the following week and that I had to report to a certain warrant officer that would be assisting us with a two weeks’ fitness training camp. The fitness camp was to prepare for the
I enjoyed my career at SANAB. I wanted a promotion, wrote exams which I passed and was promoted to a warrant officer. I also got married a year or two earlier and everything was good, but now problems started brewing. Problems with the in-laws and my brothers- in-law. The one brother-in-law had a drug problem. I arrested him twice before for possession of
Amouré Kleu, born in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, enjoyed a dynamic career spanning journalism, law, and paralegal practice before retiring in 2019.
First published at age 15 in August 1974, Amouré in 2018 decided to study creative writing. She did the Unlocking Creativity course with The Writers’ studio in Sydney and found a spark that ignited her dream to write into a goal that she would write and publish a novel.
Having always had a very vivid imagination, she now finds herself in the enviable position of being able to pursue her endless passion for creative writing. She loves taking long beach walks at sunrise. She loves cooking and finds that it alleviates stress when she experiments creatively with different flavours, cuisines, and textures. – Amouré now lives on the Gold Coast of Australia.
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