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The two men are desperate to get their vehicles back and claim they borrowed only R10 000 from Colonel Biggs Govender last year.
They claim they had agreed to pay him the 30% interest he wanted. But when one of the men was ready to settle his account, he said the amount owed suddenly went up from R13 000 to R25 000.
But Govender, who told News24 he earned about R700 000 a year, has pleaded innocent, saying he was merely helping out friends in need.
While he admits taking the vehicles, he has denied ever charging them any interest. He says he lent them R13 000 interest-free.
The men have since laid complaints with the provincial police. News24 has seen the letters they submitted to the office of Lieutenant General Lesetja Mothiba.
Mothiba’s office had not responded to queries from News24 by noon on Tuesday.
Car repainted
In the interim, however, Govender has repainted one of the cars, a VW Jetta 2, something he believed he was entitled to do as the vehicle now belonged to him.
He said the body of the car was in a terrible condition. He gave it to his nephew for a facelift.
According to Govender, the vehicle was not even worth the R13 000 the man owed.
The officer said all he wanted was his money back. He would not even add charges for repainting the car.
But one of the vehicle owners, who asked not to be named, was fuming that Govender had painted his car.
“How do you go and repaint a car that does not belong to you?” he asked.
Asked how Govender had got hold of their cars, the men claimed the police officer lent them money last year and had kept documents for their vehicles as collateral.
Govender, however, was alleged to have gone back on their arrangement and demanded money from the two sooner than was agreed upon. When the two failed to pay, he seized their vehicles. The other vehicle is a Mazda.
One of the men said Govender had humiliated him when he stopped him on the side of the road and forced him out of the vehicle in front of his son, whom he had just picked up from primary school.
Both men claimed to have been devastated by the incident, adding that they were suffering greatly after losing their cars which they used to conduct their businesses.
Internal hearing
Govender said as a result of their complaints he was now facing an internal hearing.
He said the two men just wanted to ruin his reputation and were using tactics to get their cars back without paying him the money he loaned them.
Govender said before this there was no bad blood between him and the two men.
He claimed they went to the same church and he had used their business services on several occasions.
It is not the first time that Govender’s integrity has been questioned.
According to a local Boksburg paper, police officers demonstrated against him outside the police station in January calling for his immediate removal.
They accused him of being “useless and corrupt”.
It was unclear what the officers based their allegations on.
