Johannesburg – AfriForum Private Prosecution Unit has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), KwaZulu-Natal Division, to inquire if fraud-accused Tomas Frederik “Ferdie” Visser has escaped from prison.
Visser – who allegedly was the last known person to have seen missing Sodwana Bay skipper John “Matambu” Dercksen alive – reportedly escaped from prison while carrying out community service in Mpumalanga.
“John Dercksen was renamed John Matambu by the Zulu people of Sodwana Bay, who love him dearly. ‘Matambu’ means bones… rope… tall and thin… and to respect his friends, our John took the name Matambu,” a close family member revealed at the time.
Matambu, whom locals call the “Legend of Sodwana Bay”, went missing while on a charter with an unidentified man on Saturday afternoon, 16 March 2024.
Visser, who was arrested in Maputo Mozambique, is suspected to be involved in the skipper’s disappearance.
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Acting on behalf of Cherie Eilertsen – Dercksen’s sister – the AfriForum Private Prosecution unit has asked the DPP to “Kindly confirm if Visser remains an inmate or not”.
The letter to the DPP written by AfriForum Private Prosecution Unit Head Advocate Gerry Nel continues: “If not, he either escaped, a search must be underway, or he was released.
“Although we are of the view that he should be viewed as a suspect in a murder matter, he remains a suspect on Mbazwana CAS 01/03/2024 and Nelspruit CAS 07/09/2015.”
In that matter, Visser is accused of fraud theft, and malicious damage to property related to a fishing charter.
Several days after Dercksen was reported missing, searchers located the burnt-out remains of his ski boat on the Mozambique coastline in Dobela.
Indications were that Dercksen had been hired to sail to Mozambique by an unidentified man he met at a local bar in Sodwana Bay.
Derksen’s family, who suspect Visser may have escaped from prison and illegally crossed the border into Swaziland or Zimbabwe, has appealed to the public to help locate the escapee.
Meanwhile, a memorial service will be held for Dercksen at 11:00 on Sunday, (10 November 2024), at the Sodwana Bay Ski-boat Club.
