Beleaguered Dirk family hit by fatal car accident

A DEADLY car accident close to Namibia’s southern border late on Sunday added to the series of misfortunes with which the family that owns one of Namibia’s largest importers and distributors of fresh produce, Dirk Fruit, has been cursed this year.

The patriarch of the Dirk family, Sulaiman Dirk (67), and his brother-in-law, Ebrahim Eksteen (54), were both killed when a vehicle in which they were on their way to Namibia left the road and overturned about 20 kilometres south of the Vioolsdrif border post on Sunday afternoon, a South African Police Service spokesperson, Inspector Gerrit Cloete, told The Namibian yesterday. Cloete said it appeared that both men had been thrown from the BMW 530i in which they were travelling when the car left the road on a slow bend and rolled several times.The Police at Vioolsdrif were notified at about 18h45, and both men were found dead at the scene, Cloete said.He said it was suspected that the car might have left the road as a result of a strong wind.Dirk and Eksteen both died from head injuries sustained in the accident, it was found when post-mortem examinations were done on them at Springbok yesterday, before their family had their remains transported to Cape Town, Cloete said.The two men’s deaths add to the tribulations with which the Dirk family has been beset since late last year.On December 16 last year, a son-in-law of Dirk, popular South African composer and theatre personality Taliep Petersen, was murdered by intruders in his home in Cape Town.Six months after his death, Petersen’s wife, Najwa Petersen (45), who is a daughter of the late Sulaiman Dirk and also a co-shareholder in Dirk Fruit, was arrested on a charge that she had hired the killers who murdered her husband.She is still in custody in the Western Cape on that charge, and is at this stage set to be tried with three co-accused in the High Court in Cape Town.In Namibia in the meantime, one of Dirk’s sons, Shamil Dirk, had been arrested on June 12 on a charge of corruption connected to allegations that he had paid bribes totalling some N$700 000 to a customs officer at Noordoewer in order to evade paying customs duties on produce that Dirk Fruit was importing into Namibia.Shamil Dirk (34) was released on bail of N$100 000 on June 13.Just less than three weeks later, he was back in Police custody, where he stayed for the next three months.Shamil Dirk’s bail was revoked on July 3, after a Magistrate had been informed in the Noordoewer Magistrate’s Court that Dirk had tried to persuaded a secretary employed at the Anti-Corruption Commission, which investigated the case in which he is charged, to leak ACC documentation on his case to him.Dirk made his latest court appearance in the Karasburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday.According to his Keetmanshoop-based lawyer, Callie le Roux, his N$100 000 bail was reinstated, and one of the bail conditions was changed to require him to report to the Police at Oshakati, rather than at the offices of the ACC in Windhoek, from now on.Dirk may not leave the country, according to another of his bail conditions, and he will as a result not be able to attend his father’s funeral in South Africa, Le Roux said.He added that Sulaiman Dirk had been on his way to Namibia for his son’s latest court appearance when the fatal accident happened.Cloete said it appeared that both men had been thrown from the BMW 530i in which they were travelling when the car left the road on a slow bend and rolled several times.The Police at Vioolsdrif were notified at about 18h45, and both men were found dead at the scene, Cloete said.He said it was suspected that the car might have left the road as a result of a strong wind.Dirk and Eksteen both died from head injuries sustained in the accident, it was found when post-mortem examinations were done on them at Springbok yesterday, before their family had their remains transported to Cape Town, Cloete said. The two men’s deaths add to the tribulations with which the Dirk family has been beset since late last year.On December 16 last year, a son-in-law of Dirk, popular South African composer and theatre personality Taliep Petersen, was murdered by intruders in his home in Cape Town.Six months after his death, Petersen’s wife, Najwa Petersen (45), who is a daughter of the late Sulaiman Dirk and also a co-shareholder in Dirk Fruit, was arrested on a charge that she had hired the killers who murdered her husband.She is still in custody in the Western Cape on that charge, and is at this stage set to be tried with three co-accused in the High Court in Cape Town.In Namibia in the meantime, one of Dirk’s sons, Shamil Dirk, had been arrested on June 12 on a charge of corruption connected to allegations that he had paid bribes totalling some N$700 000 to a customs officer at Noordoewer in order to evade paying customs duties on produce that Dirk Fruit was importing into Namibia.Shamil Dirk (34) was released on bail of N$100 000 on June 13.Just less than three weeks later, he was back in Police custody, where he stayed for the next three months.Shamil Dirk’s bail was revoked on July 3, after a Magistrate had been informed in the Noordoewer Magistrate’s Court that Dirk had tried to persuaded a secretary employed at the Anti-Corruption Commission, which investigated the case in which he is charged, to leak ACC documentation on his case to him.Dirk made his latest court appearance in the Karasburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday.According to his Keetmanshoop-based lawyer, Callie le Roux, his N$100 000 bail was reinstated, and one of the bail conditions was changed to require him to report to the Police at Oshakati, rather than at the offices of the ACC in Windhoek, from now on.Dirk may not leave the country, according to another of his bail conditions, and he will as a result not be able to attend his father’s funeral in South Africa, Le Roux said.He added that Sulaiman Dirk had been on his way to Namibia for his son’s latest court appearance when the fatal accident happened.