Cape Town - An alleged 28s gang leader whose name surfaced in the Jeremy Vearey smear campaign saga has warned he does not want to be “used” in a battle between police and politicians.
Speaking through his legal representative Pete Mihalik, Ralph Stanfield told Weekend Argus: “I will, with respect, not be drawn into, or used as a pawn in, an apparent turf war between certain senior police officials and/or certain politicians.
“If necessary I will deal with the issues in open court.”
Nine years ago it was alleged that Vearey – then head of the Mitchells Plain police station and now a major-general and provincial police deputy commissioner for detectives – was involved in a plan to protect Stanfield, who is the nephew of dead Cape Town gang boss Colin Stanfield.
At the time, Vearey denied the allegations and said there was an intricate plot by gang leaders to discredit him.
Last week Vearey repeated this and told Weekend Argus since he played a role in having gang boss Rashied Staggie arrested and convicted for rape, he had been at the receiving end of death threats from gang kingpins and smear campaigns aimed at denting his reputation.
In a separate development, Staggie was rearrested this week on suspicion of possessing stolen whisky, firearms and cigars and is expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court tomorrow with three other suspects.
Vearey has also warned gang leaders and politicians, notably Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, that the alleged campaign would not deter police from investigating matters that could lead to them.
He said the campaign against him had intensified recently after detectives arrested people accused of selling arms to gangsters.
It is alleged that members of the Central Firearm Registry in Pretoria created gun licence applications on the police’s computer system and then issued the licences to, among others, Stanfield.
Stanfield’s name cropped up in an affidavit central to Vearey’s claims of a smear campaign, claims which Plato has denied.
That was in 2013, when Plato provided some journalists with a seemingly explosive affidavit by an informer, Pierre Mark Anthony Wyngaardt, in which Wyngaardt, a self-professed prophet, claimed he’d kept tik and firearms on Stanfield’s behalf and alleged Vearey worked with Stanfield.
On Good Friday this year, Stanfield, who was out on R100 000 bail for the firearms case, was arrested on suspicion of having assaulted a police officer at his mother’s home in Beacon Valley.
In an affidavit relating to this arrest, Stanfield said police officers including a detective, Riedewaan Titus, had arrived at his mother’s home.
“Members of the gang unit, armed to the teeth with firearms, bulletproof jackets and a whole arsenal of weapons, surrounded my pensioner mother’s residence. I don’t live there.”
Stanfield said he rushed there after his mother was handcuffed and his sister assaulted. He recognised Titus.
“Detective Titus is known to me because several years ago he made the vexatious allegation that I was being protected by General Vearey.
“He testified this in court in a matter where I was not an accused,” Stanfield’s affidavit said.
“This was brought to the attention of General Vearey, who himself came to court while Detective Titus was testifying.”
A local tabloid at the time reported that Titus had been investigating the murder of Walter van Roodt, allegedly by four 28s gangsters and that Vearey had removed Titus from the case.
Titus had said this happened after Stanfield and his lawyer Noorudien Hassan visited Vearey, but Vearey testified he removed Titus because of poor performance.
Now Stanfield has said he believes Titus was “attempting to settle an old score with me” and Titus had told him he could not rely on Vearey’s protection.
“I have no relationship with General Vearey,” he said.
Stanfield’s affidavit said he seemed to be caught up in police infighting.
“It is also apparent that I’m caught in the middle of a dispute between General Vearey and (Major-General Greg Goss who heads up the Mitchells Plain cluster of police stations) who seem to be vying for certain positions in the police…
“I am not going to be a ‘whipping boy’ for either of them.”
Goss recently made the news because he was unhappy with police work on his son’s murder – Greg Goss Junior was shot in Elsies River in June 2014, but the two suspected killers were released.
Plato supported Goss on this matter.
Weekend Argus