Tanya Waterworth
iol.co.za
Amid a storm of protest a former South African has said he would rather be in jail in Canada than be deported back to this country, where he would be a free man.
Twenty-three-year-old Francois Meerholz, who has been described by the Canadian media as “a South African criminal” with alleged gang ties, including links to the Hell’s Angels affiliate club Renegade Bikers, was due to be ordered to leave Canada on January 31.
Born in South Africa, Meerholz moved to Prince George in Canada when he was 10 years old. He has been the cause of outrage among the Canadian public and the subject of intense media speculation this week as he had already been convicted of crimes in Canada and was out on bail for seven charges relating to firearms when he was picked up by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).
He was to have been deported on January 31, but remained in Canada. The reason cited in Canadian newspapers was that the South African government still had to issue the necessary travel documents.
A spokesman for the SA Department of International Affairs, Clayson Monyela, said yesterday that while the Canadian government was well within their rights to deport someone with criminal convictions, he was concerned with the context in which the Canadian media had reported on the matter, in dubbing Meerholz a “South African criminal.”
“Why are they calling him a South African criminal when he has been living in Canada since a young age and committed all his crimes in Canada? The Canadian newspaper reports paint a negative picture of our country with these kind of headlines and it suggests he committed crimes in South Africa and then fled to Canada.
“While the SA mission in that country will be dealing with thisissue, their media need to put this story into proper context,” he said.
Meerholz is said to be a member of the hard-core Game Tight Soldiers gang and has the “bottom rocker” (part of the three-piece “patch” or “colours”) given to those working to become full gang members of the Renegades, known to be an affiliate club to the Hell’s Angels.
It appears Meerholz and his brother, Dillon, arrived alone in Canada in 1999 and originally stayed with relatives, but ended up in the foster-care system.
In 2007, Meerholz was convicted for the first time for theft and possession of stolen property and his deportation back to South Africa was ordered in 2008. But the Canadian Federal Government gave Meerholz another chance in March 2009 by staying his deportation for 18 months – as long as he lived by a number of conditions, including “not committing any criminal offences”.
But he continued to get into trouble with the law, and the deportation order was reinstated.
In October 2009, six months later, Meerholz was arrested on a series of firearms charges.
He was out on bail for these charges when he was picked up by the CBSA on the outstanding deportation order.
Last month, he appeared before an Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator and was ordered held in custody pending his January 31 removal from Canada, but in a second hearing, Meerholz was released and allowed to return to Prince George with his fiancée and brother on several conditions.
In an exclusive interview with the Prince George Citizen newspaper on Thursday, Meerholz said: “I’d definitely rather be in Canada and face those charges and if I am convicted, I’ll take responsibility and do what I have to do to get past it.”
He said he wanted to stay with his brother and his fiancée, Ashley Freake, who he has known since he was 13.
Canadian police also say Dillon, who is said to be at the bottom level of the Game Tight Soldiers, is to stand trial on February 15 on charges of aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm.
“Whatever mistakes I did make, I’m not trying to say it’s someone else’s fault because I do make my own choices, but I definitely didn’t have the right kind of guidance,” Meerholz said.
“Just family wise, I didn’t really have anybody to look up to. I felt like I got abandoned.
“I can’t explain how it affected me but when we were given up, it really just didn’t help things.”
It is believed his mother still lives in Johannesburg. - The Independent on Saturday
