In late September 2008, I was no longer a shareholder of my business, the store was closing for renovations over a long holiday and in complete secrecy a close friend of mine drove me to Johannesburg with my wife. He used his credit card to buy us one-way tickets to Greece and we departed for Europe. We had previously visited the Greek Embassy and secretly arranged for the repatriation of our possessions. The items we took with us were recorded in an official register at the Greek embassy.
On the 25th of September 2008 we finally arrived in Greece safely and relieved. My parents drove us to our family home in the countryside and although confused, afraid as well as depressed for having to suddenly end a 20-year successful career and financial security, abandoning our home, our friends and our country of residence, we were relieved that we made it out of South Africa safely and unharmed.
The first days were stressful as I was still in fear of my life as Booysen knew the physical address in Greece of my parents’ home since, I had accommodated him and his family there in 2001. I kept my South African phone number active for a few days, so as to monitor messages and delay suspicions, while I was looking for a place to rent and obtain a Greek phone number in order to disappear and prevent Booysen from tracking me down.
Booysen was clearly desperate to contact me. He sent me a few sms on my South African number, that actually contradicted his narratives and many testimonies under oath later on.
For a while I kept in contact with Commissioner Brown and his wife Tilly after I left South Africa. In an exchange of emails with them as well as phone conversations, I was told the following :
Booysen was promoted to General. He tried to bully Commissioner Pat Brown into disclosing my new contact details. Pat refused to give them to Booysen. Also, Pat informed me that my promotion to Inspector had arrived. We laughed about this as I had already quit the force and I was no longer in SA.