SA couple 'has history' in US

2005-06-14 08:37

Abigail Isaacs

Cape Town - Two South Africans recently arrested in the USA for alleged visa fraud, had been detained on similar charges in 2001.

Pieter Botes, 50, and his partner and girlfriend, Joyce Coetzee, 39, were apprehended by the US department of immigration and customs law enforcement two weeks ago.

Before their departure for the US five years ago, the couple had apparently lived in Johannesburg.

Botes is being charged with the unauthorised signing of an application form for a work permit on behalf of an employer. He is standing trial with Coetzee on charges that they encouraged South Africans to remain in the country as illegal immigrants.

Ken Wasserman, legal representative of Coetzee and Botes, said the State had at that time withdrawn nearly all the charges against them. "But my clients admitted guilt to one charge concerning the circumstances in which they entered the USA. They were fined $1 000."

PJ Services, the employment agency of Botes and Coetzee, recruited South African workers for the American agricultural industry. Several South African farmers and their families were stranded in the US in 2001 after the couple were arrested the first time.

The families had sold all their possessions and property in South Africa after promises that they could earn up to R16 000 a month in the US.

Magda van der Westhuizen, manager of Euro Personnel, a firm in Pretoria with links to PJ Services, said she had visitors' permits for South African workers but she dared not send them overseas because Botes and Coetzee were not there to support them.

"I was shocked when I heard the news of their arrest. It is beyond my understanding how they could be apprehended on similar charges. They knew they were being watched and would not have made the same mistakes again. It seems as if there is a personal vendetta against them."

Wasserman also found it "highly unusual" that his clients were being detained on similar charges. "They were apprehended three weeks before they were due to leave the US."

- Die Burger