De Wet Potgieter

Dead bodies of those connected to South Africa’s underworld gangsters are piling up, with police making little progress so far to solve the controversial murders.

Seven high profile murders, all since 2007, are connected in some way to each other in an intriguing web of prostitution, drugs, money laundering and scams run by mob bosses with links to international syndicates.

The latest victim is Ian Jordaan, 55, lawyer for slain Teazers boss, Lolly Jackson.

Jordaan, who was wrapping up Jackson’s estate after he was shot dead in Kempton Park in May last year, was himself found dead on Tuesday night on the Broederstroom road, between Krugersdorp and Hekpoort. His charred body was found in the burned-out wreck of his Rodeo bakkie at about 9pm.

Police will not be able to make a positive identification until DNA tests have been done and dental records analysed.

“We prefer not to comment on the ongoing investigations into all these crimes,” Hawks spokesperson Col McIntosh Polela told The New Age yesterday.

Jordaan was allegedly lured away from his office on Tuesday afternoon, kidnapped and forced to transfer R1.8m of Jackson’s money to another account.

According to reports, a messenger arrived at his offices and told staff he was sent to fetch Jordaan’s laptop. When Jordaan did not arrive back at the office to pick up his fiancée, the staff became suspicious and reported him missing to the police.

Andrew Philips, owner of the upmarket club, The Grand, in Rivonia and former owner of The Ranch – an arch-rival of Jackson in the business – yesterday said that Jackson’s legacy of deceit and double-crossing people in business continued to haunt him and people close to him long after his demise.

“Lolly dabbled in other things apart from his stripping business,” Philips told The New Age yesterday, referring to the money laundering and suspect business deals he ventured into with gangsters.

“When Lolly died he left a lot of people who did not get their money back,” said Philips.

Jordaan was a confidante and legal adviser for Jackson’s business deals. He would have been the obvious target of people who wanted their money back from the millions left in Jackson’s estate.

The death toll now of associates of Jackson includes:

• Yuri “The Russian” Ulianitski died in a hail of bullets late in May 2007 as he was leaving a restaurant with his family in Milnerton, Cape Town. One of the city’s most feared crime bosses, Ulianitski owned The Castle strip club. His daughter, Yulia, 4, also died and his wife Irina was wounded.

• Kevin Trytsman, a notorious self-styled private investigator was shot dead in December 2009 in the office of his lawyer, Chris Michaelides, in Bedfordview.

• Lolly Jackson, controversial strip club franchise boss and money launderer, was gunned down on May 3 last year at the house of a friend in Kempton Park. His body was riddled with 15 bullets fired from a .22 calibre firearm.

The man suspected of killing Jackson, Cypriot George Louka, allegedly contacted former Gauteng Crime Intelligence boss Joey Mabasa within minutes of the murder. He fled South Africa and has since turned up in Cyprus.

• World renowned German Porsche converter Uwe Gemballa disappeared in February last year after arriving in South Africa eight months earlier. His body, wrapped in cellophane, was found buried in a shallow grave near Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria. In a most unusual way for the South African judiciary Thabiso Mpshe, 28, was arrested, tried and convicted within a day, and sentenced to 20 years in jail. Two more men who were allegedly involved in kidnapping Gemballa from the airport are awaiting trial.

At the time of his coming to South Africa, Gemballa was involved in deals with Krejcir and Jackson. They aimed to set up a branch of Gemballa’s Porsche conversion business in South Africa. The people who ordered Gemballa’s assassination are still at large.• In December, Chris Couremetis was gunned down at a lavish wedding at the