Alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack ran his mouth inside the Cape High Court, making various requests.
Among his requests, Modack asked to be moved to a prison closer to home, a bigger prison cell and laptop access.
Modack was dressed in his signature Boss sweater yesterday and shared the dock with his co-accused, his mother, Ruwaida Modack, brother, Yaseen Modack, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum van der Schyff, Faried van der Schyff and Layla Bedderson, who are facing over 700 charges, which involves racketeering, money laundering, fraud, forgery and uttering and contravening of the Value Added Tax Act.
The State is set to prove the group had registered as Value Added Tax vendors and were e-filing claims for refunds which could not be determined.
The Hawks said R46 million was allegedly paid out to the group.
Inside court, Modack took his time to engage with Judge Nathan Erasmus after it was revealed his two lawyers, Dirk Uys and Irefaan Parker, had withdrawn from the matter.
Modack said he was waiting to complete an affidavit on the grounds of why he wanted to be moved closer to Cape Town while being imprisoned at Helderstroom Maximum Prison.
Erasmus said he would give Modack until June 9 to get his lawyer on record or that legal aid would be appointed based on his financial situation and that the affidavit issue would be revisited.
Modack also revealed that previous charges he was facing in Johannesburg were no longer a concern and that he had reasons why he did not have a lawyer, such as access to make calls: “Your Worship, you are aware that the charges I was facing in Johannesburg were provisionally withdrawn.
“I requested access to a laptop, and I was denied calling my mother and my brother.
“My lawyers, Uys and Parker, had not printed the documents as yet. It is on a memory stick, which I paid before between R50 000 and R60 000.”
Modack added he would have access to printed documents if he was moved to another prison, with the aid of his previous legal team.”
But Erasmus interjected that there was no need to wait and print the documents.
Modack further claimed he was told his prison cell was too small for the 6000 pages of documents and sarcastically suggested he get a bigger one to accommodate the documents - while Erasmus stated he had a record of having illegal devices inside a cell.
“I saw that one of the prison suggestions is Malmesbury. I know that Drakenstein does not want you there. Thrice, you were found with a cellphone in your cell,” Erasmus said.
Modack replied: “It was planted there.”
When he asked for Wi-Fi access, Erasmus said: ‘’Now you are pushing it.”
Erasmus informed the court that the trial could begin in October.
Erasmus said Modack’s co-accused in the tax-related case was to be back in court on July 18, with the exception of Bedderson, who lives in Gauteng and would be informed when she was to appear.
Modack and two of his co-accused, Jaques Cronje and AGU officer Sergeant Ashley Tabisher, are involved in a separate case, which had been held at the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court, and the trial could take up to three years, with over 3000 charges.
Modack, Ricardo, Morgan and Zane Killian are facing murder charges, that of Agu (Ant-Gang Unit) Commander Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear, who was shot and killed during an assassination outside of his home in Bishop Lavis in September 2020.