Towing man guilty
2007-09-13
THE notorious owner of Boland Towing, Jacques Terblanche, was found guilty last week of assault and malicious damage to property. But this is not the end of his legal woes.
This conviction stems from an incident last year when an opposition towing operator, Ronald Kuhn of Paarlberg Towing, was assaulted while towing a vehicle away from an accident scene.
Terblanche and various of his employees forced Kuhn off the Parys Road, beat him with a sjambuck and broke a window of his vehicle.
Ever since this attack took place, Kuhn has suffered from anxiety attacks.
Terblanche was fined R1000 for assault and a further R1000 for malicious damage, while his partners in crime, Stephen Daniels and Godleigh Dippenaar, were respectively fined R2000 and R1000, for assault.
During sentencing, Magistrate van Driel, described the actions of Terblanche and his employees as that of vultures feeding. He furthermore asked that they behave themselves more civilly in the future.
Neil Steyl of Paarlberg Towing said that he was satisfied with last week’s ruling, but added that this was not the end. Both he and Kuhn are planning civil actions against Terblanche.
“This man must realise that he cannot continue with his bullying tactics.
“I am also looking at the possibility of getting a restraining order against him and his men, because often my men are intimidated and threatened by his employees at accident scenes.”
Shortly after the incident in which Kuhn was assaulted, Terblanche and his men were at it again.
Another driver of Paarlberg Towing, Eric Coetzee, asked for Kuhn’s assistance with the towing of a vehicle which had rolled on the N1.
While they were busy, Terblanche and his men allegedly arrived on the scene and started to manhandle Kuhn once again.
They wanted to unhitch the vehicle from the Paarlberg tow-truck, but were eventually stopped by a traffic officer.
Terblanche has previously also been charged with drunken driving and the assault of a police officer.
The drunken driving charges were however dropped, allegedly due to a forensic mishap, and the assault case was settled when he agreed to replace the police officer’s glasses which he had broken.
* One of Terblanche’s employees recently landed behind bars for the possession of a stolen police radio.
Dewald Esterhuizen was arrested after the police became suspicious of his activities and set a trap for him.
The radio, which was stolen at an accident scene on the N1 near Klapmuts, was found on him.
Esterhuizen was recently found guilty of this offence and fined R1500.
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