Bully nail-boss trilogy: Acrylic-nail boss has a controversial past (Part 3)
"Criminally charged, sequestrated, separated from wife and disbarred attorney" is how he is described on Twitter
MBOMBELA – Mr Peet Viljoen, the CEO of Tammy Taylor SA, has always been a controversial figure. In Gauteng, he was known as Pretoria’s “celebrity lawyer” representing the likes of the late Springbok rugby star, Joost van der Westhuizen, and Afrikaans singer, Steve Hofmeyr. He fell from grace as a result of a multimillion-rand fraud case against him, and was finally struck off the roll as an attorney.
In earlier days he also associated himself with the one-legged gang boss, Ralph Haynes, who disappeared under strange circumstances in 2011. Viljoen’s career as an attorney came to an end in September 2011 when two Pretoria High Court judges concurred that it would be in the best interest of the law profession and the public for him to be barred from practicing.
The Law Society of the Northern Province brought the application after complaints from former Springbok rugby player, James “Bullet” Dalton, Hofmeyr, and his former friend and business partner, the Pretoria diamond dealer, Mr Visser du Plessis. Du Plessis was, in his younger years, the presenter of the popular SABC Afrikaans youth programme, Tekkies.
Viljoen was arrested in August 2010 for his involvement in an alleged fraudulent sale of prime Johannesburg municipal land. The properties, worth millions of rand, included a section of the Norscot Koppies and Kingfisher Nature Reserve.
Viljoen is said to have handled the transfer of the deals, of which well-known Johannesburg businessman, Mr Zunaid Moti, financed two of them. The court case is ongoing. Nowadays he sells himself on his website www.peetviljoenlaw.co.za, as the first “law broker” in South Africa, offering his services as a person who “assists individuals who are searching for a lawyer”.
On Monday Amanda Watson of Lowvelder’s sister publication, The Citizen, reported that on January 31 Viljoen laid criminal charges at Sandton Police Station. He has accused a host of individuals of orchestrating “an attempt or attempts” to induce him to become part of a special project aimed at adducing false evidence against the private investigator, Mr Paul O’Sullivan “for the purpose of criminally charging him”.
According to The Citizen, the list of accused includes Gauteng Hawks head Lt Gen Prince Mokotedi, Hawks detective WO Kobus Vlok and private investigators Mr Chad Thomas, Ms Glenda Paul, Mr Mike Bolhuis, Mr Hugo Wolmarans, as well as another police general, a brigadier and a “blonde, skinny” colonel with “bright fingernails” whose names were unknown to Viljoen.
In about mid-November last year, Viljoen stated according to The Citizen, Vlok called him to say a project was authorised to “specifically target Paul O’Sullivan and others involved with O’Sullivan”. Viljoen stated further that “Vlok reported to the whole meeting I was to be his star witness against O’Sullivan and others and that a letter had been issued stopping the prosecution against me. I took this to mean there is quid pro quo in so far as I would help them against O’Sullivan and the case against me was already gone; the generals present were clearly in agreement with this.”
Viljoen said in his statement that an argument between him, Thomas and another investigator broke out and he left, as it was “clear they did not want me present”. Thomas, the non-executive director of IRS Forensic Investigations, told Lowvelder on Wednesday that seven private investigators met with Mokotedi, but not for reasons alleged by Viljoen.
He added that the meeting was convened by seven of South Africa’s most well-known high-profile investigators to discuss the lack of cooperation between the SAPS, Hawks and private investigators. “The meeting had nothing to do with Paul O’Sullivan,” Thomas told Lowvelder. “Peet Viljoen is well known to me. He is in all probability the vilest person I have ever had the misfortune to meet.”
He added that Viljoen has previously attacked the characters of many senior politicians, investigative journalists and law enforcement officials, including Gen Shadrack Sibiya and DA MP, Ms Dianne Kohler-Barnard.
