Cape Town - Bounty hunters are searching for a pre-World War 1 Cartier watch and chain, hoping to get the R300 000 reward offered by a multi-millionaire who was robbed at knifepoint by a balaclava gang at his wine estate La Roche in Franschhoek 11 days ago.
David Jenkins, who was embroiled in a murder and foreign currency investigation decades ago, and the couple visiting him, Gert Grobe and his wife Inge, were threatened with knives, tied up and locked in a room on the night of June 29.
Four men broke into Jenkins’s estate, which neighbours two estates owned by multi-billionaire and Remgro chief Johann Rupert, and one where former Olympian swimmer Ryk Neethling is marketing director.
The gang has robbed wine estates and farms in the area about 20 times in the past two years, according to a highly placed police officer working on the cases.
Jenkins’s grandfather bought the piece of jewellery in 1912, but it was stolen by the “highly educated and organised” gang known for traversing the mountain range above the Franschhoek Valley, according to the policeman.
He said the robbers gave Jenkins and the Grobes extra blankets for the cold, and fetched the oxygen tank for which Jenkins asked to help him breathe.
They then fled with cash and valuables, including a set of knives and forks worth R500 000.
The watch and chain are of great sentimental value to Jenkins and insured for R300 000, his accountant said. Jenkins told Weekend Argus on Friday afternoon there had been no replies so far to a front page Cape Times advertisement on Friday.
“I’m afraid it’s gone. I must just live with it,” he said.
He and the Grobes, who were robbed - apparently by the same gang members - two years ago on their farm Guldenheuvel in similar circumstances, were discovered at 6am the following morning by a domestic worker, sources said. Police are apparently searching informal settlements in Hout Bay following tip-offs.
The gang is suspected of committing 20 similar robberies “over the past three years in Franschhoek alone”, the policeman said.
This week detectives asked police across the Western Cape to search for the suspects.
“Every policeman in the Western Cape is looking for them. But you must catch them on the same night because they take the stuff across the border in a few days. Stolen iPhones have been traced to Malawi,” he said.
Tracking their footprints showed the gang often crossed mountains and walked for long distances to and from the robberies.
“They’re prepared to spend hours and hours in the mountains,” the policeman said.
The gang studied their victims’ movements thoroughly to prepare for each attack, he added.
Neethling said some wine estate owners from the area bought property at the estate where he worked, Val de Vie, because it was so secure. He said former special forces soldiers patrolled the area around the estate and gathered intelligence about possible criminal activity.
When Rupert was contacted, he asked: “The same gang again?” He was not aware of the latest incident.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut confirmed the robbery and said no one had been arrested.
Jenkins, who ran Multistar Container Transport, was under investigation by the South African Reserve Bank in the early 1990s.
According to media reports at the time, his business partner Simon Law was murdered at a time when Jenkins blamed Law for their business problems.
Law was reported missing on April 22, 1991. Three companies they co-owned were being investigated by the Reserve Bank at the time.
Law’s body has never been found, but two men were identified as suspects in his murder. Jenkins was not linked to the murder.
Weekend Argus