Cape Town - About 50 protesters turned up to support fraud accused Arthur Brown outside court on Wednesday, but several said that they didn’t know who he was and that they had been paid to protest.
One Mitchells Plain man said he was part of a group who had been “randomly selected off the streets” to take part.
He said that they were “obviously” not willing to do it for free and that they had been paid “a fee”, but he would not say how much or by whom.
He then pointed out former Fidentia employee Mogamad Salie, saying he would have more information because he had helped organise the protest.
Salie denied any knowledge of protesters being paid.
“Most of these people are investors or they worked for Fidentia,” he said. “I was a delivery driver.”
The protesters gathered outside the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday for what was to be the start of Brown’s criminal trial.
But Judge President John Hlophe postponed the case to November 6 because the judge to whom the trial had been allocated, Judge Daniel Dlodlo, had previously handled a matter involving Brown.
As Brown left the courthouse, another of the protesters – who confirmed he, too, was being paid to be there – asked whether Brown was “the man this is about”.
He said that none of the protesters knew what they were protesting about or who Brown was. They brandished posters, some of which read: “Brown is innocent”, “Curator is a crook”, “Curator stole my money” and “Fraud Services Board”, referring to the Financial Services Board (FSB), which placed Fidentia under curatorship in 2007.
One of the protesters also handed out four-page, colour-printed comic booklets to people coming to the court.
The contents of the booklet, titled The Tale of the Two Curators, appeared to mock the board and Fidentia curators Dines Gihwala and George Papadakis.
Among the protesters were former SA Nylon Spinners employees. One, Woodrow Christian, who said some of the workers had invested money in Fidentia through the Antheru Beleggings Trust.
“We received payouts from 2004 to 2007, but we haven’t got anything since,” said Christian. He believed Brown was innocent.
Approached inside the court after the proceedings, Brown said that he did not know anything about a protest outside because he had arrived at the court early.
After he left the courthouse, he addressed the media, saying it felt “good” to have supporters.
“These people aren’t wrong to blame the curators for losses [of Fidentia money],” said Brown.
He said he had filed criminal complaints against the curators about such losses.
Eric Ntabazalila, regional spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, could not confirm whether charges had been laid against Gihwala and Papadakis.
Brown faces nine criminal charges: four counts of fraud, one of money laundering and two each of corruption and theft. His case has been on the court roll for two years.
When he last appeared in court in August, Judge Hlophe warned Brown his R1 million bail would be forfeited if he was not ready to proceed with the trial.
Speaking after court proceedings on Wednesday, Brown’s attorney, June Marks, said they were ready to go to trial.
Cape Times