Nothing better demonstrates how government officials were captured and manipulated by some within the cigarette industry than the case of Rollex and what was known as “Project Robin”.

In 2011 a text exchange took place between Belinda Walter and her Tobacco Task Team handler, Ferdi Fryer. Walter appeared a bit miffed about the payment someone had received after a certain “deal”.

Fryer was at pains to explain that some of the money was meant for “operational purposes” and he didn’t get much from it. Walter, on the other hand, lamented having supported the “deal” in the first place. The most telling piece of the conversation, the fingerprint on the crime scene so to speak, was when Fryer sought to placate and assure Walter what a good team they made and how capable the two of them were at manipulating the director-general of National Intelligence (later renamed the State Security Agency), the National Prosecuting Authority, SARS and a few key role-players in this saga.

Lonrho was once one of the oldest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. It first came about in 1909 as the London and Rhodesia Mining and Land Company. In 1963, it was taken over by the controversial figure of Tiny Rowland, once described as ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’, and shifted its focus from mining interests to include hotels, textiles and newspapers. In the 1990s, it expanded into seafood production and bought a stake in the low-cost airline Fastjet. In 1998, its mining assets were split off under a separate company known as Lonmin, with the remaining interests in Lonrho focusing on business operations in Africa.

Meanwhile, another company named Rollex was independently established in 1989. Rollex specialised in the sourcing, packing and delivery of fresh fruit, vegetables and fish produce from all over Africa, which was then supplied to its network of retail clients in Africa, Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East. In April 2008, Lonrho acquired a 51% stake in Rollex from the De Robillard Family Trust, paying a cash amount of R40-million for it, with two additional payments to follow based on Rollex’s performance.

The first of these payments, to the value of R33.6-million, was paid to the De Robillard Family Trust in August 2009. In May 2010, Lonrho moved to acquire the remaining shares in Rollex so as to own it completely. It announced that had increased its holdings in the issued share capital of Rollex from 51 to 100% through the issue of new shares at an agreed price of R51.45-million.

The beneficiary of the De Robillard Family Trust was Paul de Robillard, who was the founder and later managing director of Rollex. He remained on as managing director of Rollex following this transaction.

At the time, David Lenigas, who was Lonrho’s executive chairperson, said:

“Rollex is one of the cornerstones of the Lonrho Agriculture division. Since Lonrho bought a controlling stake in April 2008, it has proven its value. Given the growth opportunities and new projects being initiated by the company in this specialised niche sector, the board believed that 100 percent ownership was important and very beneficial to shareholders. The fact that Paul de Robillard has agreed to subscribe for Lonrho stock with appropriate lock-ins demonstrates his belief in the business and what it can achieve.”

Rollex was certainly a key asset in the Lonrho stable, as its financials attested.

In fact, Rollex was very likely the biggest money-spinner for Lonrho.

In July 2013, news broke of SARS detaining a few years earlier a number of trucks belonging to Rollex at the northern border of South Africa, holding onto them pending further investigation. They were suspected of having been involved in the smuggling of tobacco. Lonrho, the holding company, went mum and said not a word to the media. At the time, financial records had suggested that Rollex and certain related companies were doing off-the-books transactions in tobacco products.

Enter the spooks Walter and Fryer. Walter seems to have been acting as attorney in some way or another in the mix, while Fryer was from the SSA. Several meetings followed between Fryer and the legal counsel to Lonrho, Michael Bennett, with Walter sitting in on some of them. According to Walter’s text exchanges with Fryer, she was among those who came up with a “deal” for Lonrho and Rollex.

The plan was to treat Lonrho as the innocent victim of the “evil” Paul de Robillard. At a meeting in December 2010, Fryer stated to the Lonrho board that he was talking on behalf of the head of the SSA and explained that he had been “mandated to negotiate” a “deal” with Lonrho. According to minutes of this meeting, Fryer told Bennett that “the South African government cannot afford to burn Lonrho on its investment”, and it was agreed that Lonrho and its reputation were to be protected “at all costs”.

In April 2011, Fryer made a presentation to a South African multi-agency project team that included another SSA manager, senior prosecutor Johan van Heerden, and several senior police officers. This was the embryo of what would later become the Illicit Tobacco Task Team. Minutes of this meeting recorded that a “deal” had been struck with Lonrho.

“Fryer explained the rationale behind the decision for the co-operation, especially as a result of Lonrho’s foreign investment into South Africa and the negative impact of it suffering as a result of the rogue elements within its South African subsidiary.”

But Fryer went further. He also told all present at the meeting that SARS was “unco-operative and compromised”, and therefore should be “excluded” from this deal. Fryer confirmed the commitment to Lonrho to assist with the protection of its assets and reputation. Soon after this meeting, the SSA and the NPA officials shared detailed intelligence reports on Rollex, including confidential eyewitness and whistle-blower evidence, with Lonrho.9

Meanwhile, over at SARS, the investigation into Rollex continued as before. Investigators at SARS were completely unaware of the “deal” with Lonrho. SARS was getting ready to conduct a raid on Rollex, but before long this was placed on hold because of requests from the SSA and the NPA, without any explanation given of the “deal” that Fryer and Walter had negotiated. Instead, they gave as reason for delaying SARS’s intended raid that it might derail a “sensitive investigation”.

Months went by before the raid on Rollex happened in September 2011.96 The police conducted their raid in terms of a warrant that had allegedly been drafted for the police by a private advocate who was also representing Lonrho. I would come to learn years later that the instructing attorney in the matter was none other than Belinda Walter. Of course, the raid led to nothing. Apparently a robbery had taken place about two weeks before the raid, and it was claimed that Rollex’s computers had been stolen.

Dean Hewitt once worked for Rollex. In the course of the events already described, he was arrested by the Hawks as a key suspect in the case and charged by the NPA. How and why this happened remains unclear to me, but at that time he had a very close relationship with Belinda Walter. On 19 June 2011, Walter confirmed with Fryer that she had in fact arranged for an advocate to act for Hewitt: “If you recall – I am the person who arranged his advocate.” And then another spat started between them about money. Said Walter to Fryer: “You have no moral obligation to anybody – you just use and abuse for cash or pat on the back! Well done! Seems someone scored handsomely off this investigation!!!”

In a later text exchange between Walter and Fryer, on 2 September 2011, the origins of Walter’s becoming a spy for the SSA and Tobacco Task Team appear to be revealed. She had in fact approached the SSA at one time, and from then on she and Fryer seem to have run their own show. Fryer told her: “I did not have to pretend with you just to get info from you, you and I happened long before … when we were on Rollex … and even then I did not have to pretend with you to get info … why would I???? Remember you came to SSA and voluntarily offered info, I had no reason to pretend … why in God’s good name is/was it necessary for me to pretend with you. And do you honestly think I would risk losing my family to pretend with you, just so that I can get info from you??? … you are so wrong!!!”

Fryer then made some very incriminating remarks: “You and I know exactly what and who we are/were from the start … our ability to do what we do, I think was the initial attraction between us. We are birds of a feather. We even, around the time we nailed Dean’s ass, agreed that we make a moerse good team to push people to do what we wanted them to do … whether it was GN, SARS, NPA or Lonrho!! Our strength to get things done lies in our joint ability … why would I fuck with that!?”

The “GN” referred to here was the director-general of the SSA, Gibson Njenje. “Dean” was of course Dean Hewitt, who had been arrested earlier. Their boasting about being able to “push” the head of the country’s intelligence department, SARS and the NPA to do what they wanted seems astounding to me. DM

This extract is taken from Tobacco Wars by Johann van Loggerenberg published by Tafelberg and retailing for R310.