Alleged perlemoen kingpin Julian Brown admitted in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Wednesday to knowing several poachers whom he had bailed out of jail on condition they paid him back with interest.
Testifying, Brown, 32, weaved numerous tales together of how he had got to know people involved in poaching activities, yet denied any involvement himself.
At one stage, judge Mandela Makaula reprimanded Brown for not answering questions put to him by the state. “You forget the questions. “You go on a tangent and forget what has been asked,” Makaula said.
Brown admitted to knowing his co-accused, Eugene “Boesman” Victor, for more than a decade, and conceded that he knew Victor was involved in perlemoen poaching.
He said he had tried to steer him away from this.
“I am always trying to help people,” Brown said.
He denied knowing third co-accused Brandon Turner.
Brown told the court he knew Victor’s brother-in-law, Renier Ellerbeck, who was arrested while driving on Marine Drive in April 2015 for possession of perlemoen, but again claimed he had tried to steer Ellerbeck away from criminal activities.
Ellerbeck turned state witness and assisted the police in the investigation into Brown.
Prosecutor Martin le Roux pointed out that on the day of Ellerbeck’s arrest, Brown had been in contact with him several times, including at the exact time he was arrested.
Brown had also been in contact with alleged perlemoen transporter Sheron Smith.
Asked why he had been in contact with the two, Brown first said he could not recall, then said both men owed him money.Although Brown’s company, J&B Construction, had a monthly turnover of between R400,000 and R500,000 a month, he said he did not have enough money to pay his R800,000 bail after his arrest in June 2016, and had to borrow from friends.
“A lot of people know me. I know a lot of people. I have over 5,000 friends on Facebook,” Brown said.
After numerous denials of involvement in perlemoen poaching, Brown said he was a police informant but received no compensation.
He claimed a close relationship with investigating officer Captain Kanna Swanepoel, to whom he gave information.
However, he said his relationship with police investigator Captain Nicky Erasmus was strained, claiming Erasmus had a vendetta against him.
“Captain Erasmus taunted me . . . he said he will not retire until I am behind bars . . . guilty or not guilty he will make me guilty,” he said.
Brown said Erasmus’s alleged vendetta stemmed from the murder of his son’s friend, Garth du Preez, who was gunned down in 2015.
Brown and Du Preez were allegedly fighting with two other men on the night Du Preez was shot.