O1B2F9E. GAMBLING 1995

MOMENTS IN OUR LIFE-1 2026-03-30

O1B2F9E. GAMBLING 1995

INTRODUCTION

Life does not always follow the safe, well-trodden paths of logical decisions. Sometimes one's judgment is blinded by the glare of success, the apparent integrity of a well-known friend, or the allure of a "golden opportunity." In this chapter I look back at two specific moments in our lives where our trust was abused. It is not easy to write about one's own mistakes, but for posterity it is important to understand that even the most cautious people can be victims of sophisticated deception. This is the story of how charisma and rich imaginations have cost us dearly.

The Sarel du Toit Pyramid

Rinie has a slight gambling streak in her. Maybe it comes from her Dad. She said that he always put a few Rands on a horse in the Durban July, which is held every year on the first Saturday of July. Just for fun. Then he also gave each child 50 cents to also put it on a horse.

When Rinie had her Crafty Kids franchise, she was paid almost exclusively in cash. Periodically she went to Standard Bank with the pile of notes to pay it into her savings account.

We had known Sarel du Toit from earlier. He was an extrovert with an open hand and a very good insurance broker. Among other things, he negotiated a group policy for the Wellington municipal employees with an insurance company. His office walls were covered with awards from all the big South African insurance giants such as Sanlam, Old Mutual, and Liberty, for his excellent policy achievements. His integrity seemed beyond suspicion, so I had every reason to believe in his sincerity and in his knowledge of his profession. He also made generous contributions to the Mother Church, Silwerkruin nursing home, Wellington Service Centre, and the Murray Children's Home, to name just a few.

The day he pulled up in his BMW in our front yard and convinced Rinie to invest her Crafty Kids money with him for "better interest than the bank," the road to a big loss began. He jumped out of his car and greeted Rinie cheerfully. After chatting with her for a while, he asked her what she was doing with all the money she earned from Crafty Kids, which was about R3,000 a month. When he heard she was banking it in her savings account, he said she should give it to him - he could give her much more interest than the bank. Rinie was hesitant at first, but then gave some of the money to Sarel.

The first month she got no interest, and told him about it. The following month, a significant amount was paid into her savings account, which of course allayed her doubts. After that, she went to Sarel’s office every month and gave him almost all her cash. She later said that he gave her a hug every time, and then said, “Where are we going to eat tonight?”

When she asked him how he managed to pay such a good interest rate, he said it was because he worked with warrants. He then showed her an electronic device with a screen on which share prices rose and fell in real time. The device was set to sound an alarm when the share in question, which he was watching, rose or fell by more than a certain percentage. He then estimated that that share would rise or fall even further, and put his estimate into the stock exchange. If he was right, he made a profit; if he was wrong, he lost. He said that he had recently placed a bid for R200,000 that Dimension Data, a top IT company, would go up. Then DiData fell, and he lost the R200,000. He then stayed on DiData, and placed a bid for R300,000 that it would go down further. Then DiData’s share price fell and he made R300,000. Wow, that’s a lot of money, and so fast!

Rinie continued to give Sarel her ±R3,000 monthly, on which she was then paid hundreds of rands in interest. She also gave him some of her other money that was invested. Christiaan also gave Sarel his money, including the few thousand rands that he earned by painting Emsie’s big house just across the street from us. He also painted Sarel’s big rental house at the end of Blouvlei Road. He gave all of this money to Sarel. I once took Rinie's money to his house, and he played some of his music for me through his very expensive sound system, very loud and beautiful.

Then one day after work at Paarl Municipality, while everyone was going down the stairs, Sam de Kock said to me, "Sarel is dead." My heart sank for a moment, but then I remembered that Sarel had given Rinie a written certificate that, if he died, she would have a guaranteed claim against his estate. Apparently he had committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

Shortly before his death, Christiaan gave him R30,000, and for some reason I also gave him a R30,000 cheque, the only time I gave him money. Christiaan also encouraged Marinus to invest his money there, but fortunately he is more cautious by nature and did not invest with Sarel.

Events then followed one another in rapid succession. Sarel banked at Standard Bank, but the bank refused to administer his estate. I remember that there was a judicial inquiry, where everyone who had invested money with Sarel had to be present. We filled the banks at the magistrate’s court. Sarel’s minister who lived opposite him was also persuaded to invest a lot of money. The minister kept saying “Sarel was my friend. He would not have done this to me.”

Willie le Roux was also one of Sarel’s friends, who invested a lot of money with him. I still remember that Willie, who had already invested a lot of money with Sarel, wanted to invest his entire pension of R1,500,000 with him. Sarel said to him “Shouldn't you rather invest it somewhere else?” To which Willie then said to him “Where will I get as much interest as with you?” Willie then invested his entire pension.

It turned out after the court case that it was a “ponzi” pyramid scheme, where Sarel constantly had to get new clients regularly to use some of their deposits to pay the so-called “interest” of previous clients. He apparently lived luxuriously, had an expensive boat, and also gambled considerably.

We think what led to his suicide was that he could not keep up with his “interest” payments. He was constantly looking for new clients all over the Boland, and a few farmers from the Swartland apparently threatened him to pay their money back “immediately”. So his road came to an end.

Bankruptcy lawyers were appointed, and everyone who received the so-called “interest” had to repay the full amount. They drew up complete bank statements from everyone and marked all payments from Sarel to them. The combined amount invested by the three of us was about R160,000: Rinie R60,000, Christiaan R30,000 and myself R30,000 - the other R40,000 was the so-called “interest”.

When we asked them what we would get back, they said about 80%. I think in the end we only got back R26,000. Sarel’s pyramid scheme swallowed R26 million. The vast majority of it was simply gone. The Bankruptcy lawyers were only able to get a portion of this back from the investors.

“Vrotmelk King” and the Garies Project

A second scam we got into was with the infamous “vrotmelk” king, Andre Nienaber. As if we hadn’t lost enough through Sarel, we responded to an advertisement on TV, where Andre made promises of a development in the Northern Cape, on a farm near Garies.

The first meeting was in a business centre in Wellington Street, Durbanville. There were probably between 100 and 200 people. Andre’s daughter, a lawyer, sat in front. She was the chairman, and there was also a le Roux, who was an accountant. Andre sat among the people. The proposed project was then presented by means of a Powerpoint presentation, which showed footage of the farm where heavy metals were found.

Andre and his team had big plans to mine the heavy metals with an open pit mine. Initially, the result would be taken to the nearest railway station with large trucks, until a railway line was built to the farm. They wanted to export via Saldanha Harbour to abroad, where there was a big demand at that stage. There was also discussion about how we could participate in the venture. A name for the firm was decided on - I can't remember it, I can't find it under "Andre Nienaber", so it was apparently not considered a scam. Later they got a black partner, as required by law, but with all the meetings where he was present, he never said anything - just sat there.

We took participation forms, and after we discussed it at home, "He seems like such a good man", we both paid in a small amount of money - I don't think it was ever more than a few thousand rand. I think the meetings were about every six months, where they gave progress reports. The company handled the trading of their shares themselves. Because the price per share had dropped to R1, I saw this as an opportunity, and bought R2,000 worth of shares from an old lady from the West Coast.

Afterwards there was little progress due to, among other things, deteriorating world markets. Because steel prices fell sharply, it was decided to sell the entire business to Exxaro, a top coal-producing South African company. Andre promised that everyone who had invested would get their money back. Rinie got all her money back, but I lost about R1,500. This was before the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.

In 2018, Andre launched a plan called “Eureka” to sell plots on the farms Klipkuil and Dikdoorn in the Kamiesberg municipality in a security village, only for Afrikaners. Because it did not comply with building regulations, and was also an unlicensed stock market, it was later liquidated in 2023. This is typical Andre Nienaber - he has a very rich imagination to see gaps in legislation and exploit them.

CONCLUSION

It is a bad testimonial for our judgment, to do business with a proven fraudster. In the 1980s, he operated Kubus, the so-called “vrotmelk” scheme, in which people all over the country invested R140 million. The State stopped it as an illegal lottery.

Doing business with figures who are later exposed as frauds leaves one with many "if only I had known" thoughts. Yet these experiences teach one that integrity is not measured by the awards on an office wall or the size of a donation to the church. It also reminds us that "fast money" rarely comes without a dark side. May this writing be a warning to my children and grandchildren: be vigilant, ask questions, and remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.