Meet Errol Velile Present‚ the ANC man arrested for Soweto cash heist
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“Everything in life can be taken away from you and generally will be at some point.”
In what are perhaps prophetic words following his arrest on charges of being involved in cash-in-transit heists‚ now-fired ANC man Errol Velile Present mused these words in an April 17 Facebook post.
Take advantage on the chessboard. This my everyday game playing it alone in my mind. Depend on your own arms. In the...
Posted by Errol Velile Present on Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Pictures of Present‚ seemingly naked‚ with a cake and a present in hand‚ are prominent on his Facebook page. A source at Luthuli House confirmed to TimesLIVE that the pictures were‚ in fact‚ of Present.
The man‚ who was‚ until Wednesday‚ an ANC employee at the party’s Luthuli House headquarters‚ stands accused of being involved in a cash-in-transit heist in Soweto. The ANC confirmed he had been fired and would face disciplinary charges as an ordinary party member.
But his arrest and court appearance about two weeks ago‚ and now his dismissal and pending disciplinary hearing‚ are not his only controversies. A fact that he seemed to reference himself.
Present wrote on September 18 last year: “When you show yourself to the world and display your talents‚ you naturally stir all kinds of resentment‚ envy‚ and other manifestations of insecurity. You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others.”
When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and...
Posted by Errol Velile Present on Monday, September 18, 2017
That post came just seven months after a February 2017 article in the Sunday Times which linked him to a controversial farm deal in Limpopo.
The Sunday Times reported that then Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti introduced this Luthuli House comrade to one of his top officials at a land summit when Present was “shopping” for a thriving Limpopo farm.
Just eight months after the meeting‚ Bekendvlei Farm was bought for R97-million and handed over to Present - who had been working at Luthuli House for more than 10 years - and his partner‚ businessman Moses Boshomane‚ to manage.
A senior departmental official had prioritised the deal by bypassing required procedures. A day after the deal went through‚ Nkwinti was the speaker at Present’s lavish wedding.
Neither Present nor Boshomane had an ancestral claim to the farm. They also had no agricultural experience‚ the newspaper reported.
Present was one of four men arrested after a heist in Dobsonville‚ Soweto‚ during a raid by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and the South African Police Services.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba said in a statement on Wednesday morning that he was shocked to discover that one of the four men arrested on July 7 in connection with a heist was reportedly an employee at Luthuli House.
A crackdown on cash-in-transit robberies‚ driven by Police Minister Bheki Cele‚ has resulted in numerous arrests that have revealed suspects from a variety of backgrounds. TimesLIVE reported earlier how police had smashed a syndicate arresting 23 people in raids across Pretoria and Johannesburg‚ including a Tshwane metro police officer.
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