National Director of Public Prosecutions v Geyser

A close corporation, Fakkel Scrap Dealers CC, solely owned by Frederik Hendrik Geyser, purchased and renovated immovable property in Arcadia, Pretoria. The property was custom-built and operated as a brothel trading as 'Ambassadors', generating income from liquor sales and the letting of rooms for prostitution. Despite police raids, admissions of guilt by others, and formal warnings, the brothel continued operating. The National Director of Public Prosecutions obtained a preservation order under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA) and later sought forfeiture of the property as an instrumentality of the offence of keeping a brothel in contravention of the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957.

The appeal by the NDPP was upheld and the cross-appeal dismissed. The order of partial forfeiture was set aside and replaced with an order declaring the entire property and its contents forfeited to the State under section 50 of POCA, with a curator bonis appointed to administer and dispose of the property.

The case confirms that POCA applies to so-called 'ordinary crimes' and not only organised crime, and that forfeiture may extend to entire properties used as criminal businesses. It clarifies the approach to proportionality in forfeiture matters and emphasises the remedial, rather than purely punitive, purpose of asset forfeiture in South African law.