66CASES characters continue2.

JEREMY CROWDER: ACTOR NUMBER ONE
JEREMY is a young man who’s been doing theatre since his teen years. He used to perform under the watchful eyes of theatre experts like JOHN KANI and MBONGENI NGEMA. Somehow, between then and now he can’t seem to tell what really happened. All he knows is that he got left behind when success came around to get ‘some people’.

On rare occasions JEREMY appears on television commercials as an extra. Though this is not really paying a lot, this is truly a great brake for the guy. This gives him a sense of confidence. When he discovered SEAN, or when SEAN discovered him, he thought success finally came back for him. SEAN is the theater’s big dreamer and JEREMY is a great actor. Sometimes JEREMY thinks SEAN is taking too many risks. But he will follow SEAN to the ends of the world. PETER BROOK in Soweto…How about that.

JOHANVOS: The taskmaster
Johanvos is the guy that has done and lived it all. A scruffy looking middle-aged man, who mutters to himself at times but still, manages to talk sense. He is the man of the streets who can fix situations and manipulate people without any trouble. He appears and disappears, leaving a trail of utter awesome ghetto genius-ness that the rest of the people just stand, look, and act like they know his game.

After a good day’s work at his Shisa’nyama, he goes to the Hillbrow streets to catch up with his old buddies. He usually keeps it short and drive back to his business to continue either creating or solving another hectic street problem that's got everybody on the edge. Problem like these are usually like a walk in the park. Captain Andrew hates this guy with a passion for this very reason.

Johanvos chooses no sides. He can help both the honest and the crooks. As far as he is concerned his services see no colour, no gender, and no criminal record. Being friends with Jono The Judge he knows who’s dirty and who’s clean. He rubs shoulders with both the corrupt cops and the honest attorneys. But as far as he is concerned, they are ‘the same difference’. Law is just the game to keep people on their toes. But not him. His claim is that if one is smart enough, the law can never bugger him. That’s the kind of attitude that earned him powerful friends. As a result these friends earned him the right to open a Shisa’nyama directly in front of the gate of the prison and named his place after the prison: Sun City. This place is on the Southern outskirt of Soweto, about a mile behind Baragwaneth hospital.

JONATHA COMMERFORD: The judge
JONO The Judge is the man who earned his success in two opposing strategies. On the one side he was studying to become an attorney. And on the other hand he was a subtle drug lord, who got his supply from the Chilean illegal immigrants. On those days he was working with both JOHANVOS and ERIC The Mafia. The latter is currently the big enemy, while the former is still a business partner, only subtle. As soon JONO became a qualified attorney he got new connections and got involved with the Nigerians. While he thought he got rid of ERIC, ERIC mysteriously disappeared with the Chileans for fifteen years.

When JONO became an attorney he represented the Nigerians at the court of law as his big clients. He learned their way and their drug business while he kept close to their plan. They offered him some good deals and opportunities for wealth. He would kindly say no when it was too much, but take note of the weak points of these clients of his. They introduced him to LUCAS who was also just learning the Nigerian ways of raising capital, through his friend’s brother, ROWAN. JONO and LUCAS came up with the business for the black market to contravene the foreign exchange act after realising that there are more than 34 nationalities living in Hillbrow alone.

When JONO finally became The Judge he exposed the Nigerian’s boss, ROWAN, and took the power for his own use. At that point LUCAS realised he had to change his hustling plans and walk from direct involvement with The Judge.

JONO is the man with a solid principle of ‘take as much as you can’ and he’s done that for the most part of his life. The one thing he could not take or keep was his book of 66CASES which can expose his criminal history. It’s still a wonder as to who had the guts to brake into his home while he was busy in court.

KEENAN DANIELS and LUNGILE MCOSO: Street Wise Contacts
LUNGILE and KEENAN are the two ghetto contacts with flashy Gusheshes (BMW320is). They are available for any job from car theft (their specialty) to heists (they are mostly terrible at this). They see no gender, color, or age. All they see is money coming. Their shared policy is: “a job is a job”. Their life plans are usually short term based that go as long as a week. Beyond a week is a bridge that’s going to be crossed when they get there. They have been in the criminal game for more than a decade. It all started in high school with stealing the school stationary to make money for buying three-five (ALLSTAR shoes). They moved on to bigger things and started their franchise of Spaza robbing at night. CHRISTOBEL hates them with a passion because she was once a victim of their silly franchise.

They moved to working with BRANDT and IMRAAN back in the days when these two were confused by their boss’ disappearance. The four of them did some strange jobs like highjacking with one knife between the four of them. They had more trouble than money in those days of their crime career. LUNGILE and KEENAN found a solution to their problem: let loose of the two confused ERIC’ loyal criminals. Besides, they had no idea how to play the criminal game without the boss shouting at them. As soon as they ‘fired’ these Mafia-wannabe morons LUNGILE and KEENAN bought a broken gun from their friend (MARIO). MARIO told them that this gun would do the trick as long as they do not pull the trigger. True enough, as soon as they show the gun to the car owners (in the case of highjacking) the whole crime becomes easier. There was no need to pull the trigger at all. People are simply freaked out by the visual of the gun. When money started coming in they bought a used up Gusheshe and pimped it up to share between the two of them. They got the second one within four months after getting the first. These days they got a little more dangerous in their crime game. Somehow they learned that killing is not really as bad as people warned them against it. A job is a job, they persist.


KEVIN DUKE and KEVAN ASPOAS: KEVIN&KEVAN FHAFI INC.
FHAFI is a Chinese betting game played mostly by the retired and unemployed in most parts of Soweto. It’s actually for grandmas’ entertainment. The gamblers drive around in their bulletproofed bhaki and stop at specific corners for the grandmas to bet. This must be official, as the police do not heed these daylight gamblers. KEVAN and KEVIN make most of their money by disappointing the players. The funny side of this is that the people who bet, they do this according to their most recent dreams. If a player did not dream anything, which rarely happens, it is better for them not to come close to the fhafi people. Every now and again somebody does win.

KIM HENSHILLWOOD: The Pimptress@Sandton
KIM is a girl from Albertan, on the South of Johannesburg. She is the child who grew up alone at home and became extremely rebellious when she became a teenager. As a result, as soon as she finished school she immediately moved to town. She has been hustling for all her twenties. But the hustling sure has paid off. Their company, Pimptress@Sandton, is growing exponentially. More and more men not only enjoy the service provided, but also enjoy the idea that it is run by women. She and HELEN are friends from high school, though she was a grade lower. They started out as smoking buddies with similar life desires. Their original idea was to some day buy Sturbucks and open a brunch in Soweto. That was apparently too big a dream to follow through. They worked at the saloons, restaurants (met BABA and CLAUDIA in this industry), promotion companies, etc. It was KIM who suggested that HELEN approach ERIC’s surviving company for the resurrection of their pimping business after MARIUS pulled the plug. Though HELEN got more and more corrupt as they grew, KIM still keeps it clean. As a result she knows not what is HELEN cooking up with MK.

LUCAS VAN VUUREN: The Attorney@Hillbrow
LUCAS is the man who has a full right to the words: ‘I came I saw I concord…with a little help from friends’. He is originally from a small town called Ladybrand in South East of Free State. He moved to Jo’burg ten years ago. He hustled from the days of not having so much as a rand to buy bread up to the days of his current wealth. He is almost a millionaire thanks to his entrepreneurial skills that helped him start a law consulting business. It’s also thanks to the Nigerians, lead by ROWAN (his friend’s brother), for their remarkable skills of selling drugs to the people.

His business is going smoother than it used to in the beginning. Like MARIUS, he is boss to only female employees and they are extremely competent and demanding. They share a philosophy that men are hard to handle professionally. LUCAS usually says there can never be more than one bull in a kraal. His company handles all kinds of cases with no specifics with regards to either representing the criminal or the innocent.

MAKOSHA MAJA (MK): Private investigator
MAKOSHA is a hard working, self-employed private investigator. She studied law at Harvard University and she couldn’t take the politics involved in the South African practice of law. Having decided to quit she figured it was only right to practice law in her own American-motivated way. Though it was hard to establish this kind of business, she got the right formula to keep it standing and making her clients happy. She is one who will do anything to please the client. She may even be a bit of a vigilante provided that is what is required of the case involved. She claims that the law is at the hands of the people. Her understanding is that if people could realize this the whole struggle with life would vanish.

MAKOSHA’s practice of the law is very wide and she has no employees of her own. All she does is figure out what the needs of the case are and then start looking for the people according to the needed skills. Like her practice, her network is wide and she owes loyalty to no one. She can easily work for enemies and get away with it. She always makes this fact known at the very first meetings with all her clients. Some back off, but most take her services for she has a great reputation. To some she is simply the mediator on the criminal issues.

MANDY HENDLER: The first lady and The Pimptress@Sandton
MANDY is a creative woman who plays it cool and rough at once. She is divided into three lives. On the one life she is with HELEN and KIM at the Pimping business. On the second she is working for Eric as his liability for the R3mil debt their business owe him. The third, and most interesting is that she is directly connected to the Chilean underworld. There are various reasons for this. The outstanding one is that she simply loves cars and the Chileans are bringing a lot to Mzansi. Though illegally. She takes her chances by ordering cars that are out of the normal production line. Her previous order was the Bugatti Veyron16.4. She was told that this order is too hot; there are only a handful of them in the world. That’s definitely going to attract unnecessary attention. That’s when she settled for Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 Superveloce because there were only three hundred and fifty of those in the world and it was easy for the Chileans to organise.

She loves her first car (the dolphin: BMW 1990 M3) so much that she does not want to see the end of it. All she does is make it better and better while she tastes all the new and concept cars. If she wanted to leave ERIC’s crew she would, but she has a mysterious business under her nose and is comfortable taking orders from a boisterous IMRAAN. Following them is the story for another day.

MARCELLE DU PLESSIS: Bartender @ SunCity
MARCELLE is a German-speaking fellow from Windhoek Namibia. He moved to South Africa for his film studies, which are not going so well. He is currently having what he calls a gap year though he’s been out of campus for seventeen months now. He managed to get hold of the film practical job as a ‘cables guy’. He hates electricity with all his might, but this is the only job he could secure to get him close to the world he wants to meet. He mostly likes to work night shifts at Sun City so he can be available for any film shoot taking place during the day. He has to manage these two jobs while he decides whether to go back to studying or not. His main reason for the confusion is that he doesn’t really know what is it he wants to do in film. He likes editing, writing, and the camera work, but he wants to choose one of them and move on with his career from that decision. Until then, he can only be as close as a cables guy to the film world.

MARCELLE works hard at JOHANVOS’ Sun City (a.k.a Shisanyama) under the supervision of both SELENA and ROBIN. He is a bit of a shy guy, but extremely observant. He can see all the strange behaviors of the boss and his dealings with both the police and the criminals. He is the only one who knew about the relationship between ROBIN and MAKOSHA. MARCELLE is actually writing a fictional story about his bar job for pitching to the eTV producers. He believes he can make a fortune out of the experience he’s had with Sun City.

MARIO ARROW: FRED's wingman
MARIO is the bar manager in one of FRED’s Soweto Club called The Rock. This is a shisanyama bar and is a major competition to JOHANVOS’ Sun City shisanyama. This club brings in all kinds of people from as far as Soshanguve, Pretoria, which is the same for Sun City. MARIO promised FRED to bring in customers and he delivers on that promise. MARIO is great with the ability to hire the right people for the job. This club is practically his own as FRED only comes in to either hang out or just get what he needs and leave.

Sometimes FRED comes around to present MARIO with jobs that are outside the bar managing category. Though he fears going back to jail, he finds these jobs exciting. These jobs include looking after some drugs stock, stealing cars, and even house braking. The reason FRED feels that he can use MARIO like this is because they met in prison some years back and MARIO owes him for saving his life. When FRED got arrested he made it clear to all the inmates that he was there temporarily and he wants no trouble. Some took their chances and got hurt for doing so. One time he decided to fight for another person, since the constant bullying disturbed his peace of mind. This person was MARIO. MARIO was released five years ago and still feels like he owes FRED. Him friendship policy with FRED is simple: always keeps my end of the bargain.

MARIUS SCHREUDER: The Genius
MARIUS may look serious, but when time calls for it, he becomes Wolverine. He is the hero that has more under his skin than meets the eye. Though not involved any more, MARIUS is the man behind the secondary or underground economy booming in Hillbrow. He may be the attorney, but he is more a businessman than an attorney. He knows when to walk in and when to get out. He is a careful calculator with regards to everything he does. IVAN, the kid, is his personal accountant and is bringing a lot of great ideas on how to build an awesome empire.

MARIUS inherited both power and respect from his father, who was a well-known man in the whole of Jozi. Like his father, MARIUS owns property, people and some businesses. All this is mostly within Hillbrow. He is an attorney who never loose to the law as he can buy the police, the lawyers, and the judges themselves. Besides, he has the ladies to do both hard work and flattery.

MARIUS was a best friend to LUCAS until the ‘Bro Code’ was compromised. MARIUS is actually the guy who picked up LUCAS from the streets and showed him the world of opportunities around them. He also showed HELEN (his then girlfriend), MANDY and KIM how they can come up with a business that men would enjoy more than anything ever. He was in business with them for a year then they had a fight. He pulled his money and left them bankrupt. They had to find their own way.

He is on the board of directors at the public hospital (Baragwaneth hospital in Soweto). He’s been on this board for seven years now, and this serves as a good cover, though he does not really need it. To him, this is one of the ways he can give back to the community. A third of the Baragwanath financial sponsorship is from his own pocket. According to him, this is how James Bond would live if he was real.

As another tool to give back to the bigger community, MARIUS is also spreading the gospel of science in changing the world for the better. Archaeology and global cooling are among his best interests with regards to science. DAVE, TIM, MARK and STUART are his best contacts with this regard. This aspect of his life is his direct connection to the political world, He needs the political connection to help him avert some situations to suit whatever result he desires for the people.

MARK BLAND: The good scientist
MARK is a brother to LUCAS the attorney. He was once a doctor at Baragwaneth hospital thanks to MARIUS. MARK is the one man who will not do crime, but will not stop it from happening either. He went to school with FRANS, who turned out to be a drop out. He is now a physicist and FRANS works at the bank as a mere teller. FRANS changed MARK’s life when they were younger. Now all Mark needs is to give back the gift to the struggling FRANS. But FRANS is really irritated by this.

MARK’s goal is to become a successful physicist that can lead the community out of its self destruction. To do that he has to go to the planet Jupiter and find the proof of life he claims exists there. But he is a man with a lot of internal conflicts and arguments that almost always leads him to not taking any action, hence original work is a rare occurrence. His major character uplift came after TIM joined him as a fellow scientist on the mission to the planet Jupiter. He regards him as his ‘wing man’ and they are struggling with geology when we meet them.


MICHELLE KLEIN: Receptionist @ Marius’ Office
MICHELLE is a lady who used to be in the call center business before she came to work for MARIUS. She has a live, warm, and delightful personality that easily attracts the strangers’ trust, both telephonically and physically. It takes a lot, if at all, to get her angry or upset. She even believes that she does not know how to be angry anymore. She claims that when she was a teenager she listened to the words of the Dalai Lama and she got a beautiful spiritual life after that. Her favorite quote, especially with regards to anger management is: “when you are given a gift, you can choose not to take the gift”. She believes that as the people we are constantly giving each other gifts of anything from love, hate, rage, strength, hope, etc.

Most people who know MICHELLE treat her with a respectful and delightful energy and this is only because she gives only that with a generous smile. MARIUS always appreciates his choice with regards to her as the first face that meets troubled clients.

MICHELLE KOBLISCHKE : Officer with a mission
MICHELLE is from Protea North in Soweto. She always takes a ride on BRETT’s taxi coming to work in the morning. He always has stories to tell her during the journey and she likes that. She is the most humble and silent in the usually noisy and chaotic police station, but she has her moments. When those moments come no one wants to be near her. ANTHEA and SARAH are the only two who understands her properly. Perhaps that’s because they share a house with her at the moment. JAKKIE despises MICHELLE because of her unpredictable ‘personality shift’. Captain ANDREW, who is not good with people, had a problem the first time he met her and he figured he should avoid this girl. He has reasoned to himself, without any investigation, that she is either schizophrenic (if he even knows what that means) or always high on something. If need be, he speaks to her through other people. GINO is very useful with this regard. In MICHELE’s mind, Captain ANDREW is the crazy one.

MICHELLE is a last born from a big house of boys only. She and her mother were the only two females with five males in the house. She chose the police force because she wanted to prove a point to her brothers that she is as tough as them, perhaps even more. She hasn’t seen her brothers since she started serving as a police officer. They all left the country for New Zealand when Mandela became a president, back in 2004.

SBU and MPUMI: Windscreen experts
MPUMI and SBU are brothers and business partners with BATHANDWA., their older brother. They are both trying to convince their older brother that it is time to reshape their windscreen business and introduce new concepts. But BATHANDWA is stuck in the past and he loves this business just the way it is. This is one reason they almost always find outside opportunities, which mostly force them to steal from their family business. SBU is the true hustler of the two as he is always the one that finds the people to make deals with. FRED’s chop shop (next to their business) is one big land of opportunity on that regard. FRED’s employees are a bunch of easy money chasers who never calculate the long-term of their actions. And this is like a gold mine to SBU.

MPUMI is the youngest and silent one who only follows SBU if he is promised that BATHANDWA will be okay. But BATHANDWA has never been okay with anything they did without him. MPUMI lacks the upfront confrontational quality that his brother, SBU, uses to manipulate people. As a result he is always either finishing or correcting some details of SBU’s sentences at any given opportunity, except when it comes to the ladies. In situations like that he usually walks away from the task of shadowing his brother and get busy with something else. SBU is so smooth with ladies he even managed to get MANDY the pimptress to give it up to him. After she made it clear that it was a one-time thing, he started pursuing his next fantasy lady, the boss pimptress, HELEN. He is currently daring himself of such a big goal while MPUMI is trying to win his big brother’s trust once again.

NADIA HUDDLESTON: Le gintsa lady
Nadia is originally from a little town called Bulawayo. That is the Ndebele side of the country that used to be called Rhodesia, now know as Zimbabwe. She left home in the late seventies in search for a better life in the Republic of South Africa. After trying a number of many options given to her by her parents she ended up joining ERIC’s crew. Because of her loyalty to IMRAAN’s orders she got herself promoted quickly, which BRANDT did not like. She works closely with IMRAAN in all the areas of ERIC’s business. She can easily shift from the nice pretty lady to a tough ass-kicking girl that can take three guys down at one time. She is one person who vanished around the same that ERIC vanished. Her disappearance confused IMRAAN because he thought she was his ‘squizz’. Some say she followed ERIC, wherever he went, if not dead. Some say she went back home since she disappeared at the time when Robert Mugabe claimed independence and renamed their country to what we know today: Zimbabwe. Many stories, but the fact is she is gone and probably ‘moering’ even more men as we speak.

NATALIE KINGWILL: FRED’S LADY
NATALIE is a true French lady who would do her best not to speak a single word of English. That worked in France, but not easy in South Africa. After trying many times to bring FRED back to France, she decided to come and join him in his ‘Mzansi Dream’. Back home they had a winery business, which she tried to manage after FRED left her alone. When that business was put under threat and she failed with all she could do to save it, she had only her man to run to. FRED was not impressed with her sudden arrival because he had to explain himself to his local squizz, INGRID CROWDER. The wife is here to stay, the squizz had to bugger off.

Though FRED would not admit this to her, he is glad that she is here because he needs her accounting skills and she is the only person he can trust. The numbers for his many ‘unofficial’ businesses get a little too much and that is where she comes in. She is particularly taking care of ERIC’s mysterious account that FRED runs. She hates the idea that he is playing with the law, but she has no intention to start another fight like the ones they had when they lived in France. She is standing by her man through it all. SEAN is her major problem in this life because he is always bringing problems to her husband. She tries to be rude, but SEAN always beat her on her own game.

NICK GORDON: GANG OF BARA OFFICE
NICK is considerably the closest guy to his boss’ standard of handling both people and the business. According to MARIUS, NICK is by far the most serious guy in the Bara office. Whenever the two of them are in the same room they both seem like they are competing for who can out-serious the other. He is the main eye to the stock market performance with regards to MARIUS’ business. NICK is highly clued up with regards to the concerns of the money and the behavior of the stock market. Using the advices coming from IVAN (who is great with numbers) and MARIUS he is always in the position to take well-calculated risks to buy and sell in the stock market.

NICK has a conundrum he’s never had before: he has a crush on two ladies (Sue&Sue) at once. He is a proud man who would rather keep it professional than give in to his ‘silly emotions’. He blames staying single for too long for such a conundrum. His solution is to find himself a lady to escape all this and be able to respect his colleagues properly. He is busy trying to ‘hook up’ with the striper, TALYN PERDIKIS.

Nikki, the Russian: Criminal Attorney @ Lucas’ Office
Nicky is originally from Russia and whenever she mentions this people ask her about the likes of Mavericks, Teazers, Hustler or anything to do with the porn industry. In the beginning she couldn’t understand this confusion from the people. Then she learned the Russian girls’ reputation in South Africa. She now gets the stereotype. It is actually helpful to her because she can differentiate between a gentleman and a pervert as soon as she meets a man.

Nicky was among the first group of people that started with Lucas when he opened his business (Attorney@Hillbrow). She and Rowena were the only ladies back then, with four men including Lucas. She is currently the lead attorney on all the cases involving car thefts and house braking and the insurance there of. Second best to her line of office is Ingrid, who handles similar cases. Nicky had lots of trouble practicing law in this country before she met Rowena, who is powerful in her own way. It did not take Rowena much to avert that problem. She simply (mysteriously, to be precise) came up with some papers that allowed Nicky to be a permanent resident until further notice. And just like that, she was a qualified South African attorney. And she is a hard worker at her profession.

NICOLE REDELINGHUYS: The tough cookie
She is the youngest and physically quickest in the whole ERIC crew. Some people confuse her for an Asian girl because of her moves, the only bugger with that is that she is blond and look nothing like an Asian. She tries to keep to herself, but being surrounded by intimidating men at all times she has to prove her worth by acting a bit tough. They respect her when they need to. Otherwise they mostly disregard her for the fear of being kicked randomly.

NICOLE adores and respects RACHMA for her bravery among these men. She went to the same school as MK who is currently LUCAS’ spy. The two of them are two sides of one coin. They were best friends at school. MK chose law and education while NICOLE chose the pursuit of martial arts in Asia. She traveled the whole East continent in five years. She can now read and write in three different scripts (Western, Asian, and Arabic). When she came back she had no intention to work a formal job. All she wanted was a job that would allow her the opportunity to keep her martial alive. She clearly made a wrong choice when she joined the ERIC crew.


PHIWEKE NQEZO: The lady with the grand plan
PHIWEKE is originally from Kimberly. She moved to Jo’burg after getting into some trouble with the municipal officials with regards to the housing deals. She is a lady who always knows how to manipulate the life situations to serve her best. She believes that where there are enemies there is always a potential to make a fortune. She has lived by that rule and it has paid a great dividend over the years. This is no surprise that her daughter, MAKOSHA, ended up practicing law the way mama does her business.

PHIWEKE may stand out as a simple lady who simply likes shopping and spending her time with her daughter. The truth is that she is anything but. She is the silent smart lady who always has a grand plan. She was at the heart of the 1976 youth struggle and she made money from the enemy (then government). After realizing that the people were connecting dots with regards to her conduct she figured it was time to leave the country. She conceived and raised MAKOSHA while she was living in the United Kingdom. When MK finished high school PHIWEKE got her favours from her mysterious political friends. These connections are the ones that got her daughter to Harvard. Harvard wasn’t really smooth sailing for MK but she got through because her mom did something to get her that degree. They both moved back to South Africa after MANDELA’s office time. Somehow PHIWEKE knows THABO MBHEKI personally. Perhaps from her UK life. This explains why she thinks there is no way anybody can touch her for whatever she did with regards to the 1976 youth struggle.

RACHMA EBRAHIM: The feminist
RACHMA is the lady who kicks a lot of ass. She is half sister to both ROWAN and MARIUS through her dad and she does not appreciate being associated with them. She is her own heroine, even though she takes orders from a boss. She is a silent woman who keeps to herself and takes orders directly from ERIC, not from a clueless man like IMRAAN. More often than not she has something to counter on whatever IMRAAN suggests. In people’s terms, she’s always right. Some even call her ‘Miss Always Right’. But rightfully, she is Miss Eye-opener or open thinker. She does not always oppose, but often offers options to arrive at the same or better solution. As far as she is concerned she is surrounded by a bunch of lunatics. But she sticks around anyway.

ROBIN NIXON: The bigger swindler
ROBIN is the assistant to JOHANVOS and the bar manager at the Shisa’nyama business. He runs his own sub-businesses, which includes stealing from JOHANVOS and dealing with the Harvard graduate, MK. He is extremely quick with numbers and reading people. He can tell a con from a mile away. Perhaps that’s because he plays that game himself. ROBIN is truly the silent killer, for he can smile with one while he is destroying the very idea of one’s existence. JOHANVOS picked this young man back in the days when JONO decided to split ways with JOHANVOS and pursue a career as a judge. ROBIN learned a lot of tricks from the man he spent most of his days with, JOHANVOS.

ROGER WILLIAMS: The forensic expert
If it’s anything to do with the physique, be it dancing, karate, kickboxing or any kind of martial arts, ROGER has tried it all. The trouble is… he thinks they are all nonsense. He wants to start his own kind of martial arts, which can combine more than two of these martial arts together. He has little time to work out exactly what it is he wants with regards to that since his profession always consumes his time. He is a Wits University Forensics graduate at a master’s level. He has a bit of interest on the political world and knows how the country’s system works. CAPTAIN ANDREW often calls for him on crime scenes because of his expertise on finding the overlooked details. It is his small magical device that always helps him to figure out the details that are usually overlooked by others.

ROGER is a social friend to TIM and MARK through the science’s network community. Their common social topic is quantum physics, which has a lot to do with their wonder about the existence of life on other planets. For the two physicists, ROGER is a good source of the chemical information.

ROWAN EVA: Nigerians’ King
ROWAN is the only South African who can control the stubborn and mostly corrupt Nigerians. He got the training of control from his father who was a highly influential man in the whole on Jozi. While his brother, MARIUS, went to school and study the law and order of the society, ROWAN followed his father like a shadow. He observed all the tricks of power and influence. After proving his worth to his father he found his own field of interest. This field is to dominate all the Nigerians who are taking control of the economy and streets. He got control of their drugs businesses and their pimping joints. When some of them moved to better business territories like black-dollar and 419 scams they thought they were free from him. He sent them a message that he is still in control by showing them his total understanding of their scams.

The Nigerians respect ROWAN for two main reasons. One: his brother is a big attorney in town and can get them exposed and deported anytime. Some run to LUCAS’ company for protection with this regard, but he can only do so much. Two: some of them know him from the days when he was the shadow to his father, who originally orientated them in Jozi. His father was like a god to them with his corrupt business ideas. He would go all the way to Nigeria to recruit the ‘managers’ for his shady businesses. He really liked their will to try anything to make money. The Mzansi black brothers just didn’t have enough spirit to carry a business. All he saw among them was what he labels as PHD (Pull Him Down). The irony is that the PHD happened on him from the hands of JONO The Judge, whom he thought was on his side. When Rowan got to business with JONO in his mature days he has one intention, which is to avenge his father’s death.

ROWENA FESTER: Corruption attorney @ Lucas’ Office
ROWENA has been in the game of law since before LUCAS could even think of leaving Free State. She goes far back with JONO The Judge. It was she and JONO who came up with the plan to take control of the dubious apartheid laws. Experience has convinced her to believe that the politicians can be easily manipulated with the right law tools.

In the early days JONO and ROWENA had the power and influence and did not need to hide who they really are. But now the new democracy is buggering them. As a result she has to hide behind closed doors and stand as a ‘clean’ law firm partner. In the twenty-first century she is known to us as Lucas’ business partner in Attorney@Hillbrow, protecting anyone from corrupt politician to small time CA’s. It was she who resurfaced the business after LUCAS had a clash with MARIUS. ROWENA and JONO jointly funded this resurrection with their old dirty money. The dramatic question concerning her is: Can corruption really fight corruption?

RUTH CHOWLES: Chief justice
RUTH is originally from Menlyn, Pretoria. She moved to Jo’burg after she got her PhD from Oxford University. She started practicing law from as young as twenty-four and worked her way up. Her career was almost disturbed when her daughter’s father, who did not know about her pregnancy, suddenly left for Brazil. She pulled through and got her pride and respect back. Now she controls every court from the constitutional court down. Being a single mother with such a powerful position, RUTH believes in empowering women starting with her own daughter, HAYLEY.

She does not hate men, but just bothered by the patriarchal society. She is careful not to seem sexist lest she looses her high position. She would rather be pro-women empowering, rather than be anti-patriarchal. She may feel that way, but that does not affect her law practice, as she is a loyal server of justice. Most of the corrupt high court judges including JONO do not like her at all. They named her ‘Ruthless’ as some of their fellow court members fell on the bang of her hammer. JONO might act like he knows it all and not scared of her, but deep down he is, and she can see that.

SAMITHA BRIJLAL: Criminal Attorney @ Marius’ Office
SAMITHA, also known as SAM, is an absolutely ‘no-bullshit’ lady. She always speaks with a straight, expressionless face that commands seriousness from the recipients of her words. At times people confuse her for an angry woman with the grudge on… well, everyone. Deep down she a fantastic woman. The only trouble is that each person has to earn her expensive (and beautiful, really) smile. Not only does she have an expensive smile, but she also speaks when she absolutely have to. She is mostly working hand in hand with DOMINIQUE and MARIUS. She handles cases ranging from divorce settlements to murder. She has a well crafted mind for the practice of law. MARIUS values her honest criticism when need be and her commitment to the firm. He is the only one who ever saw SAM smiling. That being said, he’s seen this smile not more than the number of the fingers of his one hand. SAMITHA is respected by all her colleagues simply because they can’t figure her out. And that is making life easy for her because everyone seems to understand her formula: leave me alone.

SARAH PILLAY: The heroine cop
SARAH is the first lieutenant at the Meadowlands police station. She's Jon of arch of the police department. She protects her officers from the roaming teeth of the law and the streets. She's argumentative but never loses her sense of fairness. Her only trouble is that she is mostly protecting the troublemakers. Most officers simply do not deserve to be police officers. She loves the lady power in the office and would really like to lead the station one day. Under her belt she has twenty officers. She know that ANNE is half clean and half dirt. But in her view, justice is sometimes served like revenge… cold. She hates the attitude of their new captain, ANDREW. To her he seems like he is here to get rid of all her officers. She believes there is something about him that is wrong and she will find it and prove to him that we are only human and just trying to get along. There should not be any room for the heartless like he is proving to be.



SEAN HANEKOM: The theatre king
SEAN is Mr. Local Celebrity with one bugger in mind. He is extremely devastated by the new theatrical genres that took all his audiences. He is trying to make it through the days, but the new theatre is really big and outrageous. He only has two options: join the new crowd or do old tricks with new tools. He has a great idea, and that’s to either build a theatre house in the middle of Soweto; or take PETER BROOK’S Rough Theatre to the streets of Soweto.

He believes this theatre will be a success in a sense that it will encourage local talent from the ghetto and attract the tourists visiting Soweto. SEAN chooses to keep his involvement with the drugs business as subtle as possible. He is one of the clients in Mandy, Helen, and KIM Company and Fred is trying to use him to get closer to the ladies. His ambition is a really big drive in his journey to do the impossible. He is often lucky because of his followers: SHAMEEMA, CLAUDIA, BABA, JAMES, CANDICE, and JEREMY. SEAN’s favourite quote from a ‘Big Theatre Book’: “…for when they believe in you, they help you believe in you”

SELENA ABELSE: Lady bartender @ SunCity
SELENA is the lady who came down to South Africa after leaving Kenya in the early nineties. She is the trusted assistant bar manager at Sun City, The TASKMASTER’s shisanyama. She used to work at FRED’s bar, The Rock, in Rockville. She quit that place after MARIO asked her to do him a favour outside her job description if she wants to be promoted. When she moved to JOHANVOS’ bar she made it clear to ROBIN, who hired her, that she will not be taken for granted because she is a woman. She got promoted after five months of working there. She suspects that there is probably a lot going on around her but she likes the fact that the boys keep their business to themselves. She applies herself in her work with a bit of flirt and tease at the boys who come to the bar for drinks. But she knows her limit.

SELENA is studying a Humanitarian course through UNISA. She wants to go work in an impoverished country like Afghanistan. The reason she wants to specifically go there is that she knows poverty from first hand she wants to help the ones that are most affected by it. She claims South Africans have no idea what true poverty is. She believes in the balanced good for all and the good of that country is taken away from its people. This is one of the reasons she hates the Americans (bloody Yankees, in her language). She will finish her corresponding in a year’s time and she is already working on the funding for her trip to Afghanistan.


SHAMEEMA ISAACS: Movie star (Love interest)
SHAMEEMA has a goal to become the movie star regardless of the surrounding actors’ failure in SA. She is an ex-girlfriend to LUCAS, who is avoiding her these days. While LUCAS avoids her she is keeping a close contact with MARIUS who is mentoring her in her dubious mission to survive the tough actors’ world. She was there before LUCAS became the Attorney@Hillbrow. She’s been with MARIUS since she broke up with LUCAS. She was the main reason for the end of their friendship. It still beats her how MARIUS left HELEN for her.

SHAMEEMA recently made new friends with BABA, the siren and CLAUDIA, the lady on the fast track. These two follow her word gullibly, just as she does that of SEAN. She saw an opportunity in this and proposed that they be bad girls with the mission to take their careers into a bright future. But things are simply tough. This is where a new friend comes in as a helping hand. ANINE is a friend who offers direction to SEAN the director. This helps SHAMEEMA see the career direction clearly.


SHARON HENDRICKS: Corruption attorney @ Marius’ Office
SHARON is one tough partner in MARIUS’ firm. Her breakthrough was when she busted the corrupt police officers that were selling the evidence back to the criminals. She has been in the practice for twelve years now. She bought the business partnership about a year ago. She has always worked closely with MARIUS in cases of fraud or corruption and she enjoy these. She has got a lot of experience from him since he invests a lot of dedication and sensitivity to cases of this kind.

SHARON is brilliant in the art of dealing with people. They can come in whatever class, race, age or attitude and she comes with a humble people’s skill and break them down to just being normal people. She knows a thing or two about the corrupt nature of JONO The Judge and shares this with MARIUS. She and MARIUS have been waiting for the opportunity like this to present itself for a long time. Maybe this time around they will catch this dirty judge.

SPENCES HOLMES: Long-time novice
SPENCER is one man who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Firstly, he was just lost when IMRAAN confused him for the new guy they were expecting. Apparently IMRAAN was waiting for him for a while when they were recruiting. SPENCER saw an opportunity and kept the truth to himself. God knows what happened to the guy they were waiting for.
Secondly, SPENCER always has trouble figuring out the character of BRANDT, which makes his job really difficult. In as much as this is difficult, SPENCER would rather be here than go back to his previous life. When asked where he came from, he usually make up stories that are self-contradictory. The truth is that he is from Snake Park, which is located on the North West of Soweto. His reason for leaving that place was that everybody firmly believed that they are close to the “Tornado”. Tornado in this context is a snake the size of the anaconda, or bigger, with the spiritual powers and the ability to fly. Hence, the name: Snake Park. People just disappear and the remaining people just blame that on the “Tornado” as they point towards the mining dumps. This was too much to handle. ERIC’s crew is SPENCER’s home now

STUART RANDALL: The novice physicist
This is a trained scientist who just recently started working with TIM and MARK. MARK, STUART and TIM form a team that tries to see science where there isn’t. According to them science is everywhere. STUART is a man who enjoys the company of the Soweto Banyana (girls). He just realized that while studying he lost a lot of time with the ladies. Now he’s trying to catch up. He keeps this information from his fellow scientists, who are clearly not into laides. He always finds time to make work wait and serve his ladies curiosity first. When on site he just vanishes then reappears after hours. On the serious note, he is the one who seem to have fresh original ideas at all times. He just never sees them through, which is where MARK comes in. MARK lacks originality these days, but he has enough patience to see all the projects through. This kind of tenacity is absolutely absent in STUART’s personality.

SUE DICKSON & SUAAD LEVY OR SUE&SUE: GANG OF BARA OFFICE

SUE&SUE are the only ladies in MARIUS’ team of trusted Bara gang. They would really rather not be labeled as the gang as they both consider themselves as professional ladies. They claim that ladies do not join gangs, but get into business. They both used to be in MARIUS’ law office of only ladies. They wanted the spotlight that was scares in that office.

After proving their accounting and investigation skills they were grunted permission to work in the only-male office at Baragwaneth hospital. Before this transfer, MARIUS had no need to label this office as ‘The gang’ because he would just distinguish the two with gender. These ladies are proud to call themselves Sue&Sue as though they are a company on their own. They are well respected by the four guys they work with. They are adored more than they are respected and they know it. They are even aware that NICK, who will not admit it, has a crush on both of them. The man wants to die with his pride and they respect that.



TALYN KWELI: JOHANVOS’ SQUIZZ
TALYN is an Irish lady who came to South Africa after her grandparents gave her their house in Bezvally, east of the Jo’burg. She is a shy person and very sensitive about how the locals make fun with her Irish accent. TALYN is the only child to her parents and the last grandchild in her family. Her parents are based in Mumbai India as they claim they are on a spiritual journey to help them deal with their mid-life crisis. She honestly thinks they should just divorce and stop being in denial. But she still appreciates the effort to hold on to one another. She has been living with her grandparents for the most part of her teenage years and she spent a lot of time thinking about how she would like her life to be. Africa was the first move on her calendar of the pursuit of happiness.

She lost her grandparents’ property through a boyfriend who was in the drugs business. After they lost her house he just vanished and she was left stranded. FIEZEL met her when she was almost on the verge of a breakdown and offered her a showgirl job at Teazers in Rivonia. He told her that he expects to be paid back for offering her a chance at having her life again. The pay back was when he offered her to JOHANVOS as his Squizz whenever JOHANVOS visited the club. Apparently FIEZEL owes JOHANVOS and TALYN is the perfect payback tool. She is looking for a way out of this mess. She chose not to ask her family for any help because of shame. She has not heard from her parents for the past three years and this is not a problem to her at all. She talks to her grandparents every Wednesday morning and lie to them about the house whenever they ask. All she wants right now is to get that house back and go back home. Home is Cork in the southeast of Ireland.

TANIA COETZEE: The receptionist @ Lucas’ Office
TANIA comes from Germiston on the east of Joburg and she has been in the city for the past four years. She did an office management course with Boston College. When she finished she just didn’t want to go back home. After campus, she worked in the call centre business. She only started at LUCAS’ office a year ago after she tried to sell a cell phone to YUMNAH. YUMNAH, who was new at the time, did not want to disappoint the nice person on the other end of the call and she made an offer instead of buying the cell phone. Before she knew it she was helping TANIA apply for a job at the office.

Ever since she’s been in the office, she has no weekend, holiday, and not even public holidays. There seem to be a lot of work pouring from all directions and she is not even complaining. She is a smart lady and she likes this pressure because it helps her to catch on the law practice. She is trusted to always go an extra mile. LUCAS is a little too much with regards to sending her around and he would rather not be the guy who teaches her the game of law. She figured his attitude: “catch on or get a grip”. She presently has a bigger dream than the one she had when she came to town. And this dream is to become a law partner when she’s old enough.

TASNEEM HIGGINS: Corruption attorney @ Marius’ Office
TASNEEM is among the hardest working attorneys who has her own high ambitions with regards to the law practice. In her career, so far, she managed to get involved with big cases involving the politicians and other corrupt business people in the public eye. It was very hard to get to doing that, as MARIUS personally likes to deal with cases of this nature. After proving her worth while working with SHARON she finally got a case of her own, which got her the approval she needed from MARIUS. This was a great move since she honestly could not wait to see something happen with regards to the success ladder.

She recently applied to become partner, as she believes that she has the right skills and is ready to buy in. The trouble is that she still needs to grow up a little bit. MARIUS explained this to her after her father told her hundreds of times. She needs to be older than thirty-five. Coming from a wealthy household, TASNEEM cannot wait to start contributing towards her own wealth. This thing of receiving a salary while the firm is making millions does not really sit her well. With that trouble in mind, she keeps her focus sharp and she has not lost a case for the past two years.

THERESA LOZIER: The producer.
THERESA is originally from Mamelodi, Pretoria. She has been in Jozi for the past decade. She is the current manager of SEAN’s label and is lately doing a terrible job. SEAN has fired her sixteen (16) times in the past eitght years and just could not live without her. This goes on until he meets ANINE, who manages to change his theatrical arena. THERESA had many theatre successes with SEAN, but she just can’t help with his new PETER BROOK delusion, which seems to be steering everything around. She tried to creatively reproducing some of SEAN’s old material. But the audience turnout was just bad. SEAN wants his fame and fortune, but THERESA knows not how to give it to him. She has great social friends that help her through the tough times. These are SUE DICKSON and CECELIA, who are both law professionals. These friends always remind her to never go back to theatre, let alone going back to the mad director like SEAN. But she always finds a way to forgive him and start afresh. Educationally, THERESA did psychology and continued with a post-grad in theatre at Wits University. She is the producer in the making, though her talent is buggered by the wild creativity of SEAN.

TIJEN LIVENT : The insurance attorney @ LUCAS’ Office
TIJEN was born into the business culture. Her dad was an adventurous entrepreneur who always started businesses that kept failing. He finally got it right. In his experience with life he can probably claim that he has more business ideas than Richard Branson. At one point he wanted to adopt the American idea of the burgers business. He just wanted to do it the local way with the boerewors rolls. TIJEN’s mother has always been a business accountant through all these business attempts. This woman has always been patient and supportive of the big dreamer husband and father. TIJEN has always been close by her mother. As a result she learned the power and behaviour of money. She got herself a bursary to study B.Com at Wits University.

It took her two years to figure out that she does not really like what she is doing. When she realized this she had a chat with her lecturer at the time. After explaining precisely what she likes to do with her life, they came to a conclusion that she should do Business Law and add two more years for the LLB. she will then need to write two articles. She just finished all of those studies two years ago. The job with LUCAS’ firm is her first job. She sometimes represents big clients like grocery store owners with their money troubles. However, on a day-to-day basses she deals with a lot of ROWAN’s boys and girls with their scams. This is mostly hard since she is always in a compromising position of representing the guilty parties. She is doing it for the love of it and she has to take it as it comes

TIM YOUNG: The physicist
TIM is the only son of ERIC and they are both not aware of that. It’s only JONO who knows about this connection between the two. TIM had a lot of hustling and struggling through his studies. But he kept his vision clear to himself thus graduated top class as a physicist at Wits University. He had to work through a number of jobs just to survive the years of varsity. Even after graduating it was still hard to get by as he is in an unusual industry and reached the Masters level. Usually companies reject people who are ‘too qualified’.

He was personally hand-picked by MARIUS from one of his energy-consuming jobs as a barista at the corner shop in Hillbrow. MARIUS saw a great kid with a potential. He discovered that he could use his influence to put TIM’s skills to a good use. He has been working at the hospital under the rule of various people who respect MARIUS. TIM was doing a variety of researches on a number of scientific issues. Recently, he and MARK (together with the new guy, STUART) started studying the content of the soil in the whole of Soweto. He believes they are up to something big.

YUMNA SADAN: The girl with vengeance
YUMNA is a lady from the South parts of Jozi, Glenvister, to be precise. She has a masters’ degree in arts and culture. She has excelled in her career as one of the top creative individuals in the broadcasting world. She is the one who initiated the Mzansi’s coming together of art and architecture. Some of her great work is appreciated by JZ himself, who is all about collaborating his Zuluness and a laany life of a president. It was always a great opportunity for YUMNA to shine on the spotlight. However, she crumbled down after the death of her sister, who was her only family. She just vanished from the creative world.

YUMNA is currently a member of ERICS’ crew because she is planning to take down BRANDT. Back in the day when BRANDT was a small timer and confused by the disappearance of ERIC he killed YUMNA’s only sister. This is the time when he and IMRAAN joined forces with LUNGILE and KEENAN. YUMNA is extreme patient and is a careful planner. She has nothing else to live for rather than prove her worth to her late sister by killing the dubious character of BRANDT. Justice is to be served her own way even though she consults the law (MK and INGRID) for advice.

YUMNAH DAWOOD: Criminal attorney @ Lucas’ Office
YUMNAH is a lady from Jabulani, at the center of Soweto. She is one of the six junior attorneys in LUCAS’ office. She is working terribly hard just to move from the junior classification. She has a dream to become her own boss some day. The big plan is to have a consulting firm with a ‘women first’ code of conduct. LUCAS usually gives her cases that involve petty crimes like the street boys and girls breaking the windows of the cars just to get the items left on the seats. These cases usually have a dead end since her police contacts are a lazy bunch and she has no energy to tell people how to do their job. Whenever LUCAS involves her in the big cases like murder and robbery she always makes an impression with her work. According to her, that promotion is on its way.

ZUMMI RINQUEST: Corruption attorney @ LUCAS’ Office
ZUMMI is a lady originally from the retail business. She only started practicing law about six years ago. She started by working for the government in the district offices and moved on to private companies after she realized that it was time to make money and practice real law. She is presently the student of law serving ROWENA and LUCAS’ firm. Her speciality is with the corrupt business people. She is particularly responsible for representing the corrupt world of the Hillbrow Nigerians. She was approached by LUCAS for this job after ROWAN figured he needs to have some kind of second opinion company. After ROWAN made this move his brother, MARIUS fired him as a client. That’s when ROWAN started taking chances with the law and the game of the pimping business.

While figuring out how to best represent the people she was originally afraid of, ZUMMI studies the Nigerian’s dealings with all her might. Among other things, she understands their different processes of contravening the Foreign Exchange Act. She knows these shady businesses so much that some of her clients confuse her for one of the original engineers of the black-dollar and 419 scams. To some she is practically the law face of their world. She enjoys this credit because it testifies to her that she is in the position to manipulate the manipulators when need be. If at all asked, she would probably testify that she is more loyal to the streets than the law. In her time of serving ROWAN and his streets she is learning that in this world one has to fight for her will and survival, lest people take it from her hand. This is one reason she is not scared to take risks of leaking private company information for her own advantage. She is the main source of information for ERIC who is trying to get to JONO through ROWENA and this firm.

A taste of the story:
INT. MARIUS' NUMBER ONE OFFICE DAY
MARIUS is in his office with the three ladies he is leading the MANDY case with, CECELIA, DOMINIQUE, and SAMITHA. All three of these ladies are dressed in tight formal skirt-suits that reveal both the legs and the cleavages with some standard generosity. MARIUS is perusing through papers as they come in. He looks up from the documents to first appreciate the way in which the beauty of these three ladies compliments each other. Dark, SAMITHA; creamy CECELIA; and fare, DOMINIQUE. They all have brown eyes complemented by their true facial beauty. These ladies are standing in a manner that only allows one to appreciate the whole package as one. CECELIA is in the middle, she is the color cream in between the fare to her left and dark to her right. Both the white and dark are of the same height just three inches bellow her. Thought SAMITHA doesn't smile much, when she does she makes the whole room shine. And today she did as she was trying to show her sympathies to her boss who was contagiously attracted to smiling back. As gorgeous as these ladies may look, they are equally professional as they take instructions from MARIUS. He is leaving the office at their hands, as he wants to focus on a case of his brother's death, though not quite legally. He paraphrases as he reads the current leading case to them.

66CASES characters continue.

Please be sure to note that the characters presented below are real people featured in a fictional story. They lead no life as described in these pages. Rather they are staff members of The Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town.

Anine Scholtz: The PA

ANINE is a girlfriend to MARK, the physicist. She is also a sister to HELEN, the Pimptress. She was in the television industry and it turned out too hard for her. The radio industry was too confusing to even fit into her career pocket. She had no career direction when she suddenly met the egotistical SEAN, who liked her from day one. In all his dubious attempts to make Peter Brook’s theatre alive in Soweto, she is there and patiently learning from him. Like her sister, she is a great businesswoman,  innocently though.

In terms of her personality, she is like Natalie in Love Actually but the only difference is that she is smart and often more helpful than SEAN expects. She is the only answer to the problem SEAN is facing: new theatre generation. She might be from the old school, but she is familiar with the new school theatrical world. She can combine the two to compliment both generations. She is also clued up with regards to the Soweto mix cultures. Perhaps after proving herself to SEAN she can earn her right to finally become a theatre producer.

Anne van Resburg: The Balanced Cop

ANNE is the loudest cop in ANDREW’s confusing police station. She sees no fault in her loud spirit for she grew up in the house of noise. She is from a big farming family in Zuurbekom, on the far South West of Soweto. She’s been in the police department for thirteen years and she wants to be a captain soon. She is the second lieutenant after SARAH. They both take orders from the president, JAKKIE, who is almost as loud as she is.

ANNE is an honest cop when it suits her. Otherwise, she is a corrupt cop who can make the streets for for her advantage. She takes bribes, she kills criminal, she arrests corrupt officials, she works hard, then she goes lazy. It is because of this mix of the both worlds that Andrew is having a hard time getting rid of her. She fknows this and dares him to speak. She says until the day he faces her and shows her where she is going wrong, she will continue to do her work the way she does.  This is helpful because ANDREW never faced any of the 27 cops that he got rid of. They were all dealt with by the higher office and just vanished, without ANDREW so much as mentioning to them that they are in trouble. He may be a silent killer, but not to ANNE. She is simply a tough cookie who knows the rules of the game. And she wins all the time… according to her, anyway.

ANNESA LIMBADA: Corruption Attorney @ LUCAS’ Office

ANNESA is counted among the toughest students of the law. She serves law with the most basic principle: Win the case! Whether her client is guilty or not she always finds a way to win… eventually. In her career so far she has political clients like Tokyo Sexwale and Tony Yengeni among others. This explains why the latter is walking free (and drunk) when he is supposed to be serving his time in jail. The former (Tokyo Sexwale) is not even close to being investigated because of ANNESA’s deals. She’s pulled a lot of these for him behind closed doors. The people who know the truth about Tokyo’s sudden jump to wealth keep coming with threat. But she can handle them on his behalf. HELEN likes her reputation. She might just need ANNESA to protect her with regards to the pending  pimping problems.

ANNESA  does not care about working for the truth more than she cares about how to turn it to her advantage. She likes CECELIA from MARIUS’ office for they have one thing in common: strive for the deal and avoid going to trial. However, when she does go to trial she takes cases with enthusiasm. She trusts no one in her office, including her bosses. Not only does she distrust them, she specifically hates ROWENA who is always making sure that she knows who the boss is. In good time she will get out of this firm and start her own empire.

Anthea Ross: The Cop with the Spiritual Talents

ANTHEA claims to be the spiritual adviser from the far lands in the East lands. Whenever asked which East lands she gets irritated and never answer that question. Some think she is merely from the East city called Pietermaritzburg. She has clients from all the corners of the ghetto world, but is confused half the time on her private practice. For this she blames her mentors who took her to Ekuthwaseni (Initiation). Apparently she had a false alarm about having ‘the calling’. She claims she has served an Eastern royal family for a ‘long time’. But if one was to do the math of her claims, it would prove her much older than she is. So people choose not to dig on that sangoma topic. They just take her word for it.

However, on a daily bases, she is your ordinary police officer who does her job with absolute precision. Though he won’t admit it himself, she is  ANDREW’s best officer. ANDREW is a hard man to please, but she can get a smile from his always-scrutinizing face. Under her control, she has the novice officer, GINO, who is almost always confused by the rules of police conduct.

ANTHONY PASSIER: Private Investigator

ANTHONY is a skillful silent investigator working from his house’ basement. He got his training from Eastern Cape Police Academy. He  then got a law degree at UCT after trying the service of a regular police officer. Like MK, he enjoys working for himself and dictates the terms of his job. He never needs her, but she often call for his help. He is a very private man with a generous smile and not many words. He has no time for chitchat, but would endure listening to the participants of this ‘pointless activity’. With regards to the study of the streets, he was trained side by side with ROWAN. This training was conducted by ROWAN and MARIUS’ father who was the king of the streets at the time.

Though he sometimes works with her, ANTHONY differs with MK on many issues. He thinks her American ideas of running things are going to get her in trouble someday. On the contrary she likes him for his commitment to the job and presenting the results with perfect professional handling. ANTHONY does not like being in the scene of things and mostly keep to himself and his work. Sometimes he randomly helps Captain ANDREW, especially when he thinks that they need him. He prefers they don’t mention his name when they solve the cases he helped with. He says people need to believe in the police so the police can be motivated to do better work. 

Baba and Claudia: Former Teazers Dancers

BABA and CLAUDIA are old time friends who went to school together from as early as the third grade (standard one). They are originally from Greenvillage, on the far west of Soweto. After completing matric they tried all kinds of life skills to make a living. They worked as waitresses at a number of restaurants; petrol station baristas and served a terrible coffee; and they tried modeling, which resulted in them working at Teazers as exotic dancers. It was thanks to Faizel’s greed and the damn Russian girls that these two left Teasers. The Russians are crowding the exotic dance stages. There is no place for ‘Local is Lekker’, which was Faizel’s motto. So they reclaimed their acting talents. SHAMEEMA found them in one of the auditions for a television commercial and invited them to meet SEAN. SEAN had no work at the time. These ladies will stick together under any given circumstances. They are like family to each other and there is no one that can brake this twenty-four years bond.

Bathandwa Alperstein: Car Windows Expert

BATHANDWA is a man living and working in Pimville, Soweto. He runs a car window fitting business with the help of his two brothers, SIBU KOLWAPI and MPUMELELO NGEWU. He is the oldest and the owner of this business. His brothers are welcome to do other work besides working for him. The business he runs is next to FRED’s car dealership, where both legal and illegal cars are modified or given a ‘face lift’. BATHANDWA always sees strange things happening in that Frenchman’s business. Usually he put the blind eye to it all since some of FRED’s customers come to his business too. Besides, FRED is a very friendly man to his neighbors.

BATHANDWA is only troubled by one thing only, and that is MANDY being on the receiving end of the merciless hand of FRED. BATHANDWA and MANDY are apparently connected and have been doing something for the past year. The two of them have some kind of the scheme to take ERIC. He did them wrong before he vanished with the wind years back. The trouble with this is that they do not know that JONO The Judge is still around and is now the real Judge. MANDY and BATHANDWA share a great loss in which both ERIC and JONO had a hand in.

Brandt Botes: The Swindler

BRANDT goes a long way back with IMRAAN. Where IMRAAN would chicken out, which is in most cases, BRANDT would act bravely and get the results. Unlike IMRAAN, this man is loud and serious. He is a smooth talker who is good with both numbers and words. He has the ability to work with everyone and assume the boss position at his will. IMRAAN understands his ego, but he would rather not encourage it.  IMRAAN prefers to call him his best man or handy man, if you will.

BRANDT used to work for FRED till he tried to steal some money from him. Real recognises Real: FRED saw this plan from a mile away and kicked him out. That’s when he joined the crew through his cousin, FRANS, who’s not in the crew.

Brett Netherton: Taxi Driver Two

BRETT rides a Bling-bling 2009 Toyota Quantum. He works for the Taxi rank operating between Pimville town, via Bara. His final stop is ‘End’ (that is the far East of the city). From his route, he enjoys passing by Bara (short for Baraguanath Hospital) for this is where he gets a lot of commuters. He is seriously buggered by the people still riding in the oldschool taxis. He calims the ‘Zolabhad’ time is up and the drivers need to realize that and catch up on the smooth ride of the Quantum. He works for a very demmanding boss who does not want anything less than fifteen hundreds per day. BRETT meets this target every day and rarely makes extra cash for himself.

BROWNWEN PHILIPS: PROUD MOM

BROWNWEN is a lady from Rockville Soweto who tried her best to shield her only baby boy from the harm of the ghetto. Though she has always lived in Soweto, her manner is that of a countrywoman who treats her neighbors with a humble and respectful manner. She tries to meet as much people as she can in her life and she remembers them even after decades of not seeing them. She retired early because her late husband left her a fortune to last her for a very long time. She considers herself successful with regards to the money in the bank and an educated child. In her opinion her boy is doing a fantastic job in the police force. Looking at GINO, the captain wanted to correct her, but he stopped himself and spared her the misery.

BROWNWEN is constantly at GINO’s place of work to offer him and his ‘good Captain’ some lovely home made cookies. She has high presence in the police station; she could practically be part of the police staff. GINO does not have the mother-at-work embarrassment anymore. When he tried to stop her from coming she asked him if she embarrasses him and he had no words but a smile. She took that as a no to her question. He is now equally appreciative of her as she is of him. And when asked about his mother always coming by he sometimes responds by saying that she makes him feel safe while he works.

CANDICE HATTING: The Struggling Actress

CANDICE is from the heart of Ndofaya (Meadowlands) and has been in the acting business since primary school. Her mother always told her that it was important to make your name in the world of art otherwise you are nobody. She also told her that making it does not come easy. CANDICE thought her mom was wrong on that when she secured a big acting role for TV immediately after graduation. When SABC’s bosses started firing one another her TV program fell with the unfortunate crowd. She was a ‘struggling actress’ for two months then met SEAN after reading about his recruitment on Sowetan. She enjoys his free spirited creativity that almost always gives a new meaning to theatre. She just can’t figure out his obsession with PETER BROOK.

Since she started working for SEAN, her main competition is SHAMEEMA who always ends up getting the lead roles. She suspects that SEAN has a thing for her (SHAMEEMA), but then again he seems to have a thing for all the ladies he meets and work with. CANDICE was in the same class with JAMES, the supposed acting expert.  She is privately trying to get back to TV and make her mama proud again.

CARYN BRITS and DONNA ASHBY: Officers On ANNE’S Wing

CARYN and DONNA are both from the city of Pretoria and have been in the police force for seven years. They started serving in the Meadowlands police station around the same time that ANNE moved there from Hillbrow. These two have always operated as sisters. They were next-door neighbor back in Menlyn, Pretoria. They were classmates in school from the very first grade through to matric. They went through high school with flying colors in terms of performance. They were even prefects at their matriculating year. When everybody was expecting them to do something as attractive as accounts, medicine or engineering, they simply chose to be police officers. Nobody really knows their reasoning behind this decision. All people know is that they behaved like the two rebels with a ‘focused cause’. It’s been seven years and the cause is not so innocent as it was in high school. They have seen no recognition or promotion since they started, but their practice has evolved through the years.

DONNA is always the responsible one while CARYN allows her noise and charm to attract the unnecessary attention. They report to LIEUTANANT ANNE (The Balanced Cop) who helped a lot in the evolution of their police practice. ANNE practically gave them her own version of conducting the law and dismissed everything else. DONNA and CARYN have learned to use tricks of getting away with a lot just because they are cops. The three of them recently organized the disappearance of MANDY’s BMW (Dolphin) from the holding deck and sold it back to the criminals.  In their own time they engineer a way to make money from the streets by threatening criminals with anything from a time in jail to paying a fine greater than their asking price. EUGENE is among their victims because of his history and street reputation. Though he claims that he is a changed man, they don’t believe him. KEENAN and LUNGILE have mixed emotions with regards to these ladies because they are sometimes business partners while at other times they pose a threat to their criminal empire.

Cecelia Barron: Criminal Attorney @ Marius’ Office

CECELIA is a former employee of the government law firm. She was there when Thabo Mbheki took office for the second time. She only started working in MARIUS’ office about a year ago. She takes orders directly from DOMINIQUE who is among the senior attorneys in MARIUS’ firm. Her job usually entails protecting any big shot criminal who has the guts to look for a lawyer. She usually avoids going to court. Rather, she would have her client reach some kind of settlement with the plaintiff involved. This usually works when the client is avoiding jail, which might happen if they go to trial. She is not keen on winning the cases, but keen on saving the clients from going to jail. That’s her mission. At times this mission is disturbed when a client does not want to settle. MARIUS trusts her nigotiating skills and her soft personality when dealing with major issues. She is the direct opposite to SAMITHA in terms of the smile generosity. CECELIA is originally from Diepkloof, Soweto, but now lives in town and hardly sees the ghetto.

Christobel Koul: Businesswoman (Spaza Owner)

CHRISTOBEL is a lady of value and standard. She has no tertiary education, but her matric. She is a self-taught academic individual. She loves accounting, which was the first subject she taught herself. Through her hustling, she extended her parents house to a three bedroom, huge lounge house. She is a sibling to two other girls (CORLIA, the reporter and COLLEEN, the bank manager). These two sisters got married and left home after their parents past away.

CHRISTOBEL always knew she was destined for greatness because it was always hard to keep a job. She would either quite because the boss was stupid, or that she saw no growth in the job she’s in. Or any number of reasons that only proved to her that she is better off without the job. After enough times of re-writing the CV and knocking at the doors, she started the ‘mkhozi’ bussines of selling fruits and vegetables. She did this just outside her mom’s house. It was strange to see a younger lady doing this kind of mundane job. But she had a vision and she is living the vision when we meet her in the story.

Claire Kobledick: The Judge

CLAIRE is the judge who just does her job in the most strict and easygoing way. Some people like to think that she is up to no good while some take her seriously for her work. As an applicant or the respondent one cannot afford to easily think they got her on their side. Many have made that mistake and lost their cases under her hammer.

CLAIRE is skilled with the art of turning tables during the court proceedings. Trusting her during court proceeding is as good as jumping into the fire. She did psychology alongside law and she is brilliant with reverse psychology. She enjoys reminding people, even the attorneys themselves, about the basics of the law: no favors, just justice.  She serves the law with no siding at all. She is always fair. As far as she is concerned, skipping some details is as good as lying. She was among the first group of female judges in the federal office, which explains her conduct. She knows no friend in her practice. She DI, and RUTH are in the same office at the Rivonia court.

COLLEEN CHRISTIANS: The Banker With A Dirty History

COLLEEN is the first born of the three C sisters (CORLIA AND CHRISTOBEL). She is a diligent and successful bank manager at standard bank in Hillbrow. She has been working for the bank for as long as her memory can serve her. She got the job from JONO’s connections of old. She is the one who hired the criminal-look-alike, Ngamla Stooks (FRANS). She did this after everybody rejected him with the claim that he could be a potential threat. She believes in giving people a second chance since that was what she got after getting involved in the drugs business. She was in the production line of JONO’s drugs business in her youth. She bought her first car with the money she made from his business. Though she was the second to move from her mother’s house, she was the first to drive a fancy car, which she loved with a passion. Back in those days she was the only lady in her neighborhood to have a Gusheshe (BMW 325is).

She admires what her little sister, CHRISTOBEL, did to their home through her hard work at the, now, spaza. COLLEEN is doing her best to avoid her other sister, CORLIA, who is very keen on finding out how she was involved with JONO in her youth. COLLEEN claims that she has buried that past and has no intentions to talk about it, especially to her ambitious reporter sister. To the contrary her past is seeking her because she is not only managing the bank, she is also handling JONO’s non-taxed and unexplained profits, which ERIC knows about. 

Collette Cruywagen: The Chile Queen

COLLETTE is the silent lady who is always close to ERIC wherever he goes. She’s not always attentive towards everibody else. She always seems to be solving some imaginary mathematical problems in her mind. However, she always responds very quickly to any request from ERIC. IMRAAN’ crew does not interact with her at all. They just guess a whole lot of crazy things about her. Some think she is ERIC’s ‘chick bodyguard’, some say she is his girlfriend, most believe that she is the one who does all the dirt of the Mafia. If this last part is true, it would explain why they are not as criminally active as they used to be before ERIC went over seas. All they know is that ERIC picked her up in Chile. They are dreaded by her, especially when she points her penetrating eyes their direction. She actually enjoys the idea that they are afraid of what they don’t know. At some point she actually believes that tthey are afraid of her beauty. She is simply a Chilean girl with not much English to offer. She just happens to have met a Mafia wanna be, Eric, back in her home town.

CORLIA PETERS: News Reporter

CORLIA is one of the C sisters (CORLIA, CHRISTOBEL and COLLEEN) and is the middle child. She was the first to leave home to pursue her dreams. She started with journalism through Boston College while she stayed in Melville. When she finished she was hired by Yfm as a newsreader when the station was starting up in 1997. While reading the news every morning and evening, she got her media degree through corresponding with UNISA and she started writing articles for The Star. She quit Yfm so that she can be in the making of the articles she writes. Her work has improved so much after she chose that strategy. She was offered a desk job as an editor and she declined it with the argument that her passion is in the adventure of meeting the news as they happen.

Her goal is to write for TIME magazine and her main interests are the corrupt politicians and the economy. She firmly believes that the revolutionaries had a plan to take on the country’s economy during the struggle days. Her argument is that if the fight for freedom failed, we would know ANC differently. This argument is backed by their apparent corrupt behavior while power belongs to them. She is privately writing a book on this subject. She hopes it will shed some light to the public regarding the consistency of political corruption we experience on our daily lives. During all this she met and married a man who is the editor of Sunday Times.

Dave Mackay: Environmentalist and investigator.

DAVE is privately involved on the mission to save the planet. Global warming is almost always on top of his life agenda. He has a plan to propose to MARIUS, his boss, with regards to recycling bottles.  He got this idea after he discovered that billions of bottles enter Soweto on a monthly bases. According to DAVE, almost two thirds of this number never leaves Soweto to be reused or recycled. Rather, they end up on the ground. Walking in some open spaces of Soweto, the green bottles are close to replacing the green grass. All he wants is to change this so there can be a kind of an environmental responsibility around Soweto. DAVE would like to involve MARK, the physicist in this mission to save the planet.

His traditional job is at MARIUS’ Bara office (number two office) as part of the marketing team. He works closely with IVAN who is the most trusted in that office. Together they form a team that only maximizes the private business running in that office. But unlike IVAN, DAVE is good with the art of investigation.

DEBBIE SHER: The Police Contact

DEBBIE is the most senior lieutenant at the Hillbrow police station. She recently started specializing in corruption investigations within corporate businesses. She is a former partner to the newly promoted CAPTAIN ANDREW. She has a bit of history on the criminal world and ANDREW always held this fact against her with the claim that once a ‘Pirate always a Pirate’. She never cared for his stubborn ignorance and his crazy motives of trying to fly solo while they are supposed to be partners. She is not interested in the Captaincy, which was given to him. She was delighted to work alone after her new partner quit when the going got tough.

DEBBIE got her interest in corruption after she noticed the consistent growth of the corrupt people who were trusted by the law to get rid of corruption in the first place. She hates a law twisting MAKOSHA (MK) who is turning this town into New York with her not-so-trustworthy-investigating habits. DEBBIE does some private investigating work with help from law firms, especially that of MARIUS. This is one reason why ERIC also knows about her. Jointly with SHARON and TASNEEM from MARIUS’ office, DEBBIE is able to work on political corruption cases. This partnership started with a win-win situation when they were working on separate cases that were indirectly related. They each needed something from the other. Trust was built as a result of this win-win situation. And it continues.

DI FRASER: The Judge

DI is a leading lady of the law in the high court of Johannesburg. She has been practicing law for the past two decades. She used to work with JONO The Judge at a certain law firm on an internship after studies. She is a firm ruler of the law and gives her sentencing generously, now of late. She used to believe in giving people a second chance and not allowing them too much prison time. Whenever she sentenced these boys and girls, no matter how small the sentence is, they would just come back to the society with more means to do damage. She learned from that mistake. Now she just wants to keep them in jail for as long as she can. She is harsh and terribly generous with her years of sentencing (min.25yrs). She earned herself a fearsome reputation in the general public and she likes that. However, deep down she is only serving the law. These days she only handles the cases of those who do more damage to society (heists and drug/people trafficking). She is the most trusted by the high court; hence she is a good friend with RUTH the Chief Justice.  She often partners with CLAIRE when need be.

Dominique Gomes: Criminal Attorney @ Marius’ Office

DOMINIQUE is the one lady that puts LUCAS off his balance since she used to work in his firm and knows the dirty business involving ROWENA and the rebirth of their firm. MARIUS hired her for two reasons, one of which is her knowledge of the competition. The other being her ability to see the case through with absolute diligence. She know that  she is used by MARIUS to satisfy his ego. Above that  he is trying to get back at his former friend, LUCAS, for something in the past. But she does not worry about that. Her attention is mostly consumed by sharpening both her skills and those of the junior lawyers. She has her own ambition of getting out of the law practice and start her own beauty product shop. She admires the strength of the Pimptresses (HELEN, MANDY, and KIM) for venturing on something totally foreign to them and yet have so much success. She owns about ten percent of the MARIUS’ firm’s shares.

Eric Frank: The Mafia

ERIC  is the man who’s done it all, paid for it and vanished. He is the underdog that disappeared with the Chileans fifteen years back thanks to the wrath of JONO The Judge. JONO thinks that ERIC died in those years, but he is going strong and is back in the neighbourhood to claim his respect. He is more of a fallen hero with a good cause. His goal is to become the hero by changing both Hillbrow and Soweto for the better. However, he is still linked to the underworld (a man’s gotta eat). He is the man of surprises. His central goal is to get back at JONO The Judge. Whether he gets him behind bars or gets him killed it really doesn’t matter.

ERIC has a totally gullible team of confused people who still treat him as they did back in the days when he was bad. Those are the days when he was at the  gang of both JONO and JOHANVOS. Like Russians, this team keep as tightly loyal to him no matter how crazy the requests may be. They trust him with their lives as they believe he feels the same about them. This team is lead by IMRAAN, the spectator, who always tries to paint an impression that he and his crew are dangerous and badass people. ERIC is the brother to the late father of both MARIUS and ROWAN. He is currently their only family since their father died in the eighties.

ERIKA STAUNDACHER: Accounting Director

ERIKA is from a household of seven girls. Her six sisters are all successfully getting about their businesses. She is the last-born, but she grew up wanting to control instead of following after her sisters. She almost always has the controlling hand over men, which is one reason she finds herself successful today. She had her educational training at Wits University and started her moneymaking mission while she was in her second year.

She is currently dating LUCAS the attorney. She tries her best to control the guy, but he has his own stubborn nature.  She thinks that she got him all figured out and will eventually get him under her arm. This is possible in a sense that he chooses to rather trust her before anyone. Even before his ‘most trusted’ attorney, ROWENA. When he is scared or nervous about something, ERIKA is the first person he talks to. She looses her temper sometimes, but she always finds a way to compose herself and show him the care that she feels for him. Her goal is to get the world to recognize that women are, indeed, taking over.

Eugene Davids: A Reborn Criminal

If there is one man who understands how hard it is to live after you give up the art of crime, it is EUGENE. He used to be a well-known criminal who did any criminal job from the small time ghetto jobs to the big cash and car heists in Limpopo. The number one reason he is well-known was that he drove the cars that inspired the guys to be like him. Another, which brings in the older fans too, was that he bought his mother a house with the money he made through his criminal endeavours. The people claim that he bought the house for cash. As dangerous as he may have been back then, he still had the best interest of his queen at heart. He showed this by providing to his mother ‘s needs with the most generous hand. In support of this fact about women, he does not believe in the concept of ‘fut en set’.

The reason he gave it all up was because he made a deal with the law after they arrested him. He had to sellout his friend to save himself. His friend was a wanted fugitive, who was creating mess everywhere he went. The police promised to take nothing from him as long as he gave them the details of this fugitive, LUNGILE. He did so and now he’s unemployable. Not only that, his ‘fans’ think he was bewitched by some sangoma. This is quite a satisfactory explanation to the simple-minded ghetto folks. Only he know the truth.

FAIZEL VAN WYK: The Owner Of Teazers Rivonia

FAIZEL is the middle child from a wealthy family that came up with the Jub-Jub candies in 1983. Both his siblings (one sister and one brother) got their tertiary education and are happily married. He is just a different child. He always ventured on strange life adventures. He spent a year and a half traveling through Asia with just a backpack and he used up all his savings. He was too proud to ask for help from his family and found a newspaper delivery job in Russia. Daddy had to go get him out of there after tracking him down through his own contacts. When FAIZEL came back he got a job with a Production Company that produces porn movies. He soon got tired of this because he just could not stand the tedious movie-making processes.

FAIZEL figured he should just get into the showgirl business and spare his family the humiliation they seem to have had when he tried his luck with the porn world. After a bit of struggling and confusion he went to Amsterdam for his “education in the business”. His father did not like the idea because of his previous experience with traveling. But he left anyway. He stayed there for two years. He came back home with enough power and influence to earn him the right to buy into the Teazers business. On top of being a hundred percent owner of the branch in Rivonia, FAIZEL is a twenty percent shareholder of the whole Gauteng Teazers business.

Frans de Villiers: Ngamla Stooks (Tsotsi)

FRANS is a man who works at the Hillbrow standard bank as the regular teller who counts and organize your shrunk hundred rand notes. He has not moved from this position for the past five years. He is both a loud and dark character at once with a generous smile. As far as he is concerned he is a good man. School was great back in the day. Then the world turned on him when both his parents past away. He quit school and every other thing that was important to him. He is mostly confused with criminals as he has the same choise of clothes as them. He would really like to get KIM as his girlfriend but he thinks she’s too for him. Therefore, she only remains his fantasy idol. His neurotic nature cannot help but stare at her whenever they are in the same room.

Working at the bank is the great opportunity in terms of selecting the people he would like to date someday. Alternatively, he thinks about LUCAS’ employees (“amaloya”) for they are all gorgeous and always smile whenever he is there. He hates JONO The Judge because of his corrupt behaviour. His best friend is the ever silent JAMES who is trying a career in acting. His other friend is EUGENE who is a former criminal.

Fred Benistant: The Clubmaster

If FRED cannot sell it by word of mouth, he can bribe you to buy it. This is the man that rubs shoulders with the ministers and presidents. He has a number of businesses including drugs (both legal and illegal), property and clubs. With regards to the drugs, he offers a combination of good and fake drugs. The trouble is with his suppliers as they are all in the East of Asia (or East of East as he likes to put it).He owns seven night clubs, two of which are in Soweto. He is renting some of LUCAS’ dodgy Hillbrow properties for four of his clubs.

Though a French man, FRED has no connection to France at all. He is the only family in South Africa and is close friend with a dubious local theatre director, SEAN. They go way back and… way bad at times. So far life is good for Fred though he was almost killed in Rockville when he just opened his club ‘The Rock’. He believes FRANS (Ngamla Stooks) was behind this. But can’t prove that.

FRED is extremely interested in the business run by MANDY, HELEN and KIM. He wants to work with them, but he has failed with his endeavours so far. He knows they owe ERIC, his banker or money launder, and he thinks he can use this information to get them on his side. He has a secret crush on HELEN and is shocked to realize that she wouldn’t even dare consider him like that.

GARRETH SKIBBE: SPECIAL AGENT

GARRETH is originally from a little town called Pucon in the south of Chile. He has been in Jozi from his early youth. He arrived with both MICHAEL and BEN, who were both from Putre, north of Chile. They all came to Africa in search of the Kimberly blood diamonds. First, they had to learn the English language, which cost them a lot of time. To buy some time, they had to disguise as the ‘special agents’ and work for the locals (JONO in this case) who gave them strange tasks. GARRETH learned most of his English from ERIC who was a really good friend. He believes he owes ERIC a great amount of loyalty as he receives only that from him. For this reason or another, GARRETH is betrayed by his fellow ‘brothers’ when they suddenly leave this country for better adventures. He suspects they may have found the blood diamonds and just didn’t want to share with him. Their sudden want to leave the country is all too confusing to him. But he does not really give a damn. Every man is for himself. He’s from the south and they are north guys. Who knows what goes on in the north of Chile anyway.

Gino Reagon: The Novice Cop

GINO is the only new officer at Captain ANDREW’s police station. GINO is very keen to learn everything. The trouble with that is that he wants to consume all the information at once, which usually results in a lot of confusion. He is ANTHEA’s ‘stuur-boy’ (the boy she can send around) and he likes it for it gives him that edge to feel like a responsible police officer. He is the only boy to his mother, BROWNWEN. She is as equally proud as he is about finally becoming a police officer. This is the reason she mostly comes to visit. She comes with her home baked cookies to give to all the police. ANDREW is not tolerant of GINO much, but he loves the cookies from his mom.

GINO’s mission is to impress the captain so he can be promoted to something good like a lieutenant. However, his problem is that he did not get proper training at the police academy. ANTHEA teaches GINO as much as she can, but the man is a bit of a slow learner. The other officers and people on the higher posts seem not to have time for a novice, if at all they notice him. This is the reason that he is usually in the presence of either ANTHEA or the Captain himself. According to his calculations, he is growing in this tough police job. And he is proud.

HAJIRAH DAWRAY: STUART’S Squizz and Business Lady

HAJIRAH resides in Orlando, within the vicinity of the two famous cooling towers. She has a spaza shop that’s currently growing into something that can actually be labeled as grocery store. She sometimes hangs out with CHRISTOBEL who has her own spaza shop. They usually talk about common problems and solutions with regards to their businesses. Unlike CHRISTOBEL, though, HAJIRAH got her spaza business from her parents. She got it at the point where she had to decide what she wants to do with her life after completing tertiary. Her parents have now own a NANDOS franchise in Southgate mall. Her spaza business has suffered a bit, but it’s going very well at the moment.

The only problem at the moment is the novice scientist who is taking her for granted. STUART met HAJIRAH before even starting the work between the two cooling towers. He used his trickery and charm to cast the spell that got her to love him instantly. At the moment the poor guy is freaked out at her. She means business and he has never been in a formal relationship before. Perhaps the future will answer to this conundrum between a novice scientist and a spaza entrepreneur.

HAYDN FAIRMAN: The Silent Master

HAYDN is a mysterious man with an exelent amount of loyalty to the deserving individuals like ERIC. This is an individual with no words to spare at all. He just turned up during the time IMRAAN was recruiting the new crew. He showed his skills: how to quickly paralyse a human body. He demonstrated to both IMRAAN and ERIC without so much as mentioning one word.  They understood his message, just as SPENCER was about to collapse from his own voluteering. When asked questions he HAYDN confused by either the language or the reason for the questioning. What they figured about him is that he speaks with actions and they probably do not want to be on his bad side. It became apparent after a while that his actions are always preceded by his life-consuming glare that gets even big boys running for cover. IMRAAN convinced ERIC that they might need a no-questions guy some day. ERIC figured he should keep HAYDN closer to him for that very reason. A mafia needs a bodyguard anyway. HAYDN is tactful and very observant with regards to human behavior, which might explain why he chooses to keep his silence.

No one knows from whence he came. Only he knows that he is from a small country called Slovenia in the North of Italy. Apparently he left his country after understanding that the translation of Gauteng is gold. Therefore, he is here in search of gold and hasn’t seen any so far. IMRAAN claims that he once heard HAYDN’s speak the following words: ‘Živim v zlato mesto’ (Slovenian for ‘ I live in gold town). From the dialect he picked, IMRAAN has been claiming that HAYDN is from Russia.

HAYLEY DE VANTIER: Attorney In Training

HAYLEY is a final year law student at Wits University. She is currently working on her second article for LLB. She has worked hard all her years of undergrad with her mother’s help and she got A’s throughout. If there is a profession better than law, she is still to know it. She was influenced by the beauty and power that comes with law from as young as her first grade. She is the only child to her mother and she never met her dad. All she knows is that she has no father and her mother will not tell where he is or who he is. The best thing she learned from her mother is not to allow any man to take advantage of her, especially in this new generation.

After school she always went to her mother’s office where she could do her homework and learn something or two about the law. By the time she was ten years old she knew the whole costitutional procedure. At times she would influence her mother’s decision, especially when her mother was a Judge at Meadowlands court.  These days she helps in her mother’s office and sharpens her own skills in the practice.

Helen Qually: The Boss Pimptress@Sandton

HELEN is the majority owner of a ladies-only pimping company: ‘Pimptress@Sandton’ Her onther partners are KIM and MANDY. Lead by ladies, run by ladies, employees are all ladies. This is a great business adventure since it targets men only.  A lot of people, including LUCAS, confuse this company with the illegal prostitution companies of Hillbrow. Those are, of cause, ROWAN’s businesses. But people just can’t know until they are clients themselves. And for that to happen one needs to be ready to spend a lot of money. These ladies’ services are pretty exclusive and pricy. HELEN is the only one who has a clear understanding of how the so called competition works. This is the front face business for HELEN. It is a mystery as to what she is doing with the untrastworthy Harvard graduate, MK.

HELEN stays with her sister ANINE who is trying to become a TV producer. They live at a posh house in Brynston, North of Johannesburg. When ANINE gets a job with SEAN and has to work with SHAMEEMA, this becomes a bit of a problem for HELEN’s imagination. This is so because she has a romantic history with MARIUS, who is  currently with SHAMEEMA.

Imraan Abader: The Spectator

The Spectator has a signature loud laughter; he is naturally boisterous and a little dubious in terms of creating an impression. When quiet he watches whatever that's happening around him, then he goes off on it. In other words he is a good observer and he is great at making the situation work best for him. In as much as he got the whole ‘Mafia’ thing wrong, he is a great team leader. He thinks himself as a serious man but he manages to say something funny at all times and confuse some of his crew members, especially SPENCER.

IMRAAN is always uneasy around the police and he claims he suffers from what he calls poliphobia (police-phobia). Often times people confuse that with polyphobia which is a sum of many phobias. If at all, he has a phobia of using the gun. He has been in the possession of a licensed pistol (.45 colt), but the man has never used it before. He is very happy to show it off, but that’s about it.

Ingrid Crowder: Criminal Attorney @ Lucas’ Office

INGRID is originally from Mamelodi, Pretoria and now living in Meadowlands Zone two, close to a circle with public service you can think of. She went to Oxford in the UK and came back to unemployment. Firms kept telling her two resounding facts: too qualified and potentially too expensive. She started doing all kinds of mediocrities just to get by. That lasted for only four months. She made a breakthrough in Hillbrow when she met LUCAS who was trying to get to her pants. He failed on his mission, she got the job. From day one in the firm she has been fruitful to such an extent that LUCAS gave up on getting to her pants, lest she buggers off to another firm.  INGRID believes there is a code in everything to do with life. She seriously hate the religious talk and prefers to look at life and the Universe through the scientific point of view. She says science is what everyone should consider as a way of life in the stead of starting stupid things like religious wars.

Ivan Ayeliffe: The Accounting Kid

IVAN is MARIUS’ accounting genius who only wants to get involved for the fun of it. Not for the money, but because he loves numbers. He quit school because it was wasting his time. He learned all the numbers from the close couching of his father. After learning all he could he went to Hillbrow, his Las Vegas, to attempt on making a living there.

He is glowing with new business ideas at all times. MARIUS loves this kid because over the two years he’s known IVAN his financial world has been making sense, and the income is growing exponentially. However, MARIUS is careful not to show IVAN the bigger picture of wealth in case he is planning to leave him to build his own empire. IVAN is blindly loyal to MARIUS and has no plan to move… yet. Under MARIUS, IVAN has a team of skilled colleagues who are as follows: DAVE, SUE AND SUE, NICK, AND ALEX. They have a little office in Baragwanath hospital. They only see MARIUS three times a month. His law profession is taking a lot of time.

Jakkie Brink: The President

Jakkie is from a small family located in Greenvillage, which is on the West of Soweto. In her teen years nobody understood why she wanted to be a cop because that was a ‘no-pay’ job. Most of the kids around her had the varying ambitions of being engineers, accountants, entrepreneurs and so on. But she always knew that crime of this country will always be a problem until somebody takes a step.

She earned her name as The President through her persistent show of leadership skills over the years. She has both a loud personality and a firm controlling hand. These are her two major tools to get work done. As savvy and sarcastic as she may seem at most times, she's the lady most people would like to learn from. Even though she values her privacy, she makes it a point that she knows a bit of everyone else's personalities, particularly the new cops. She has tremendous faith about her work, and is always available to help others. Though she is not his favourite, she is the only one who can get Captain ANDREW to speak openly.

JAMES ARMSTRONG: The Actor

James is originally from Mzimhlophe (White House) on the East of Soweto. All his siblings are out of town having a life somewhere in their own spaces. For all he cares about he is the only one who understands his mother. He claims he is taking good care of her and he just can’t leave her alone. He truly believes in his acting ability, which hasn’t been put to use that much. He’s been to hundreds of auditions and got nothing. Educationally, he only has a two years training at the drama school. He is a stubborn man that’s ready to challenge anyone who criticize his acting. He met JEREMY in one of the auditions when he shot out of the room claiming the judges were a bunch of armatures. JEREMY invited him to SEAN’s production. SEAN liked the abstract quality of his acting ability and took him in. For the first time in history, his acting will be put to a great use. He totally likes the ideas of PETER BROOK. But still he complains about wasting his talent by acting with a bunch of armatures. Poor JEREMY has to hear these words on a daily bases. CLAUDIA, BABA and SHAMEEMA do not like this guy who thinks he is an acting expert.

JARED BARBE: The Truck Driver Entrepreneur

JARED is a simple man with simple needs. He simply drives one of his own (ten) trucks for a living. He makes a fortune out of this business adventure. He inherited this business from his father after he past on. JARED was busy with his final year in the police academy when his father past away. The two were getting along very well but had one major difference. His father wanted him to take over the family business of trucks (two at that time) and he just wanted a career in the police force. He was in the same class with the current Captain ANDREW, who used to skip classes in those days.

After an extended amount of consideration and self-examination he finally convinced himself to take on the business. Besides, the two trucks were not doing anyone any good parked at the back of his house. He chose to always be hands on like his father, no matter how big the company grows. He believes in hiring smart people for his business and keep himself on the very base of the company operations. He grew the business from his father’s two construction trucks to the ten retail transportation trucks. He does not do many long distances, but every two months he wants to get out of the country and drive all the way to Zambia, Namibia, even the former Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). For the rest of the time he works around Joburg so he can be close to his new family. He married a year ago and just had a new baby boy. JARED never met his mother. All he knows from his dad is that his mother got cold feet about marriage and got back to her home in Berlin, Germany.