You can't clean up a street when the guys with the badges are sharing bank accounts with the cartel. For years, the Western Cape high court has been trying to untangle a messy, violent web connecting South Africa's most ruthless gang bosses with the very police officers paid to lock them up. At the dead center of this disaster sits Nafiz Modack, an alleged underworld kingpin currently fighting over a hundred charges, including racketeering, extortion, and the brutal 2020 assassination of top anti-gang detective Charl Kinnear.
But if you think this is a simple story of bad guys versus good guys, you don't know Cape Town. If you found value in this piece, you might want to check out: this related article.
The trial exposes an open secret. The barrier between organized crime and the South African Police Service isn't a wall. It's a revolving door. The recent sentencing of a high-ranking police brigadier for taking Modack's money proves that the rot isn't accidental. It's structural.
The Bribe That Exposed the Shield
Let's look at the hard facts. In late 2025, the Cape Town regional court sentenced former police Brigadier Kolindren Govender to a real prison term after he admitted to a corrupt relationship with Modack. Govender pocketed nearly R150,000 in bribes. What did the mafia get in return? Absolute protection. For another angle on this story, refer to the recent update from Associated Press.
Govender used his authority to shield Modack from police action, even stepping in to block his own colleagues from seizing a Mercedes-Benz that was vital to an active investigation. When a senior officer actively stops other cops from doing their jobs, the entire justice system collapses. This wasn't a case of a rogue cop looking the other way. It was an active, bought-and-paid-for operational intervention.
The Puppet Master Tactics in Court
If you watch how Modack operates in the Western Cape high court, you see the same arrogance that defined his time on the streets. The state recently moved to force the closure of Modack’s defense case because of what prosecutors called a brazen abuse of the court process.
Modack keeps demanding postponements to call mystery witnesses who never show up. His lawyer traveled to Goodwood Prison 33 times for over 75 hours of consultations, yet the defense remains an endless loop of delays. Judge Robert Henney openly admitted the court is losing its patience. It’s a deliberate strategy to drag the trial out, wear down the state, and keep the full extent of the underworld’s police network from coming to light.
Buying Lies to Break the Good Cops
The most toxic part of this ecosystem isn't just the cops who take money to hide cars. It's how the underworld uses corrupt setups to destroy the honest detectives who actually fight back.
During the trial, a wild paper trail surfaced showing R1.2 million moving from Modack’s Empire Investments Cars account. The money went to bank accounts tied to the wife of a middleman named Mohamedaly Hanware. Oddly, the payment references were marked "Gen V" and "Jeremy V"—clear nods to former Western Cape detective boss Major General Jeremy Vearey, an officer known for taking on the gangs.
Modack claimed he was running an "undercover operation" to prove Vearey and the late Charl Kinnear were extorting him to give back seized firearms. But the financial audit trail blew that story apart. The money never reached Vearey. The middleman duped Modack, pocketing the cash while using the names of top cops as leverage.
Think about the psychological warfare here. The mafia actively creates fake paper trails to frame honest cops for corruption, destroying their credibility and making it impossible for them to build tight cases against the syndicates. Kinnear was gunned down outside his Bishop Lavis home in September 2020 because he was getting too close to the truth. Before they took his life, they tried to take his reputation.
The Multi Million Dollar Criminal Architecture
This isn't small-time street crime. This is a massive corporate entity fueled by tax evasion, protection rackets, and violent extortion. Modack and his 14 co-accused aren't just defending themselves against a murder charge; they're fighting a massive racketeering indictment under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
The state relies on vast mountains of digital evidence, cell phone tracking data managed by co-accused debt collector Zane Kilian, and bank records to show how money flows from legitimate-looking businesses straight into the pockets of hitmen and compromised police officers.
What Needs to Change Right Now
Fixing this requires more than just arresting one kingpin or convicting one crooked brigadier. The entire system needs an overhaul.
- Independent Financial Oversight: The South African Police Service cannot be trusted to investigate its own high-ranking officers' finances. An independent, external anti-corruption unit must have permanent access to bank audits for all senior police staff.
- Aggressive Witness and Prosecutor Protection: When detectives like Charl Kinnear can be assassinated in broad daylight outside their homes, the state is failing its frontline defenders. Security for specialized anti-gang units must be non-negotiable.
- Stop the Courtroom Stall Tactics: Judges must use their statutory powers to deny frivolous postponement applications. Letting syndicate leaders turn trials into multi-year circus acts devalues the justice system and exhausts state resources.
The Cape Town underworld thrives because it bought the keys to the police station. Until the state completely cuts the financial lines linking the mob to the badges, the violence on the streets will never stop.
