Rugby thug's other life
2002-08-15 07:32
Jan Taljaard and Annelie Muller
Humansdorp - "Rugby thug" Pieter van Zyl apparently spent three years as a chokka (squid) fisherman on the Eastern Cape coast while, allegedly by his own admission, hiding from his creditors.
At the time he was not known by the name under which he gained world notoriety on Saturday when he tackled a rugby referee, but as John, or Jonathan, Smith.
One night about 10 years ago he unburdened himself to his friend and fellow fisherman Piet Smit.
"I'm really Pieter van Zyl," he said, showing photos and press clippings of his rugby-playing days in the then northern Transvaal.
Van Zyl and his wife refused to comment on these allegations on Wednesday. Rosemary van Zyl said her husband has forbidden her to say anything. "The whole thing has been taken out of context," she said.
Smit said on Wednesday at his home between Oyster Bay and Humansdorp that Van Zyl's admission was made one night when Smit wondered aloud why his wife was known as Rosemary van Zyl, but he was called "Smith".
"Let me tell you the truth," his friend said.
Smit said according to Van Zyl's story, he had been a swimming pool builder on the Witwatersrand, but got into difficulties.
He allegedly owed several people money, and many pools were never finished. That was when he arrived in Humansdorp in about 1990.
As "John", Van Zyl acquired a skiboat from the fishing company Lusitania. He and Smit often fished together in their two boats. Later "John" got a bigger boat and things seemed to be going well.
Only after Van Zyl and his wife left Humansdorp did the debts that he ran up there come to light.
His house and plot were auctioned, and Smit heard that the Van Zyls moved to Durban where he apparently worked as a messenger of the court, serving summonses on debtors.
People in Humansdorp didn't hear of him again until Saturday when he appeared on television - and then they recognised him immediately. "It's him," everyone who knew him there confirmed on Wednesday. "The same man and the same woman."
At a news conference on Tuesday when Van Zyl was first confronted with the rumour about his other life, his lawyer Bertie Grobbelaar denied that he ever lived in Humansdorp or the Eastern Cape.