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Ronny en Yolande : The new life of a former President of the IAATI European Branch
In 1976 I started a police career at the Belgian Gendarmerie (State Police) and in 1982 I became Head of the Organized Crime Group – Stolen Vehicle Squad. The worldwide traffic in stolen vehicles via the port of Antwerp gave me the opportunity to build out a network of contacts within the police-customs forces and insurance industry. I was privileged to lead several workshops and attend a lot of Interpol conferences were these contacts grow more and more. My membership of IAATI and IPA (International Police Association) also help me a lot to make new contacts all over the world. In 2000 I retired from the Police and started a new career as private-investigator for insurance fraud at ING-Insurance.
Every year we travel and visit other destinations and in June 2000 I met again my South-African colleague on an IAATI-meeting in Lyon. Although South Africa was at that time not a country on our top-list to visit – he persuaded us to come to South Africa.
In November 2000 we arrived in South Africa – a holiday that should change our life completely. Already after 2 days we felt us like home in this country, it gave us a feeling like no other country gave us before. The weather was beautiful, the nature, the fauna and flora was magnificent and the culinary experience was also great. The initiatives to attract tourists to this country were amazing and gave us the idea to take a new start in our life. Now, this is not that simple once you are over the 50-ties and you are so used to life in the Belgian and European society.
During the first week of our vacation we visit Hartbespoortdam – a big lake in the North West Province, 25 km outside of Pretoria. We admired the beautiful houses build on the flanks of the Magalies Mountains with a stunning view on the lake. After 4 weeks, during we visit another small part of South Africa, we went back home and at the airport when we left our friends – some tears appeared. This never happened to us at the end of a vacation. The South Africa-feeling was deep inside of us.
The year after we went back just to find out if that first time wasn’t just a feeling and to discover if we could and would realise our dream in South Africa.
After we landed again on South African soil we didn’t had the feeling to be on vacation but to feel home. That year we visit Cape Town, we did the garden and the wine-route and we started our house-hunting trip. We discovered that permanent living on the sea-side was nothing for us
During the last week we went back to our South African Police friends in Pretoria and we decided to visit again Hartbeespoortdam, the lake were we lost our heart the first time. Here the house-hunting started again during the last three days of our vacation. At that time we already made up our minds that in case we should emigrate to South Africa we wanted to start with a Guesthouse. Retirement-age was still long away. All houses we visit didn’t had the opportunity the make a guesthouse of till the last we visit. We saw that in that house everything should be possible. That night almost no rest, calculating, discussing and the next morning to the real estate agent to make a bid on our dream house. A couple of hours later the agent phoned back asking went it was possible for us to go to the attorney’s office to sign the papers. The owner of the house accepted our bid. Suddenly it seemed that whole South Africa fell on us, we didn’t realise what was happening. 24 hours later we signed all the papers and we took the plane back to Belgium. What happened – which direction our live should take? Back in Belgium our live started again with the daily stress and work. We realised that we had to make a good plan before moving on with this adventure.
4 years long we worked on our emigration file, a business plan and other ideas. Meanwhile every year we went back on vacation to South Africa and discovered the country more. In August 2005 the preparations were so far that we finally decided to go for it and to leave Belgium in January 2007.
All our friends and relatives were informed about our decision.
From that time we had to pass all the formalities through the South African Embassy and we can assure you that South Africa is not an easy country to emigrate to. The conditions and paper work are very strict. Because our house was located in a residential area we had to apply for a consent use of Bed & Breakfast. This alone took more than 9 months. The municipal and administrative services are not effective here in South Africa. Nobody takes initiative and everybody shift his responsibility on the shoulders of another.
On August 26th 2006 we gave a big party with our family and friends in Belgium. In November 2006 we became our Business Permits for South Africa. Meanwhile two containers with all our household were shipped to South Africa at the end of December and on January 10th 2007 we left Belgium via Athens to Johannesburg. The goodbye and farewell at Brussels Airport was hard. Our daughter and granddaughter of 2 years stayed behind. Yolande her parents died already many years ago, my father passed away 2 years ago and as only child I had to leave also my mother behind. Those days were the hardest of our live and still we have some of these days after 9 months now.
Meanwhile in South Africa we applied for our building and renovation plans. It was a miracle but already after 6 weeks these were approved and at the end of March 2007 the building of our Guesthouse started. Here in South Africa they say that there are 5 ways to finalise your building project or you get a hart attack, you divorce, you commit suicide, you fell into a depression or you get into jail for murder on your builder. We’ve seen all of them in our minds. Finally we made the finish and on August 26th 2007, just 1 year after our party in Belgium, Guesthouse Ponciana officially opened its doors.
PONCIANA – where this name is coming from? First of all it was in Jamaica at the Poinciana Resort that we spent our honeymoon and the Poinciana is a tree, family of the Jacaranda – a very popular purple tree which was imported into South Africa by missionaries. The tree has big thorns and was used as fencing to keep the cattle in the land.
Since September we run our own Guesthouse and offer Belgian hospitality and high luxury accommodation. We brought together all our travel-experience with all the positive and negative points and made a unique concept which gives you a feeling like home and make your stay with us unforgettable.
Al the time of her life Yolande has been a delicious cook and with her ideas of interior decorating she made real jewels of all the rooms.
All our en-suite rooms got a special theme typical for South Africa. So we offer the Secret Garden Room (named after the Garden Route) – The Vineyard Room (after the Wine Route) – The Sea View Room (after the oceans) – The Wild Bush Room (after the safari-wildlife) and finally the Ponciana Suite or our Honeymoon Suite. All rooms are big and are fully equipped with TV, DVD-player and DSTV connection, air-conditioning, digital safe, hairdryer. All bathrooms have rain-and hand showers and air-conditioning heating-fans. The Ponciana Suite has a private stub with deckchairs and the most stunning view on the Hartbeespoortdam surrounded by the Magalies Mountains. This room had also a all-surround hifi-system and a King Size bed with adjustable frames for the back and the feet with special tempur mattresses. The bathroom has a corner bath and a jet-massage shower.
Other facilities of the Guesthouse are : a big swimming pool, a Hot Spring Jacuzzi, private gym-room with Body Coach and Infra-red sauna, the Highlander Bar with darts and pool table.
The north West Province is completely different of the Cape and has a lot to offer. Here with us you have more the real African feeling and you are close by the National Parks for safaris.
Sun City and next to it Pilanes National Park with the Big 5 and 580 km2 is only 1 hour drive away from us. The Kruger National Park and the Blyde River Canyon is 5 hours away. Our region has a lot to offer : hiking and biking in the Magalies Mountains, wonderful golf courses, watersports, fishing and craft markets and much more.
You cannot imagine how life is, every morning you wake up with the wonderful weather, having a nice breakfast with a stunning view on the lake and the mountains and at the evening a dinner with a good glass of South African wine. Why do they always say : living as God in France ?
Now you see how the life of an IAATI-member can change and how important contacts as IAATI and IPA can be. A couple of months I spoke with a Dutch colleague who retired recently from the police. We came to a final conclusion that during our long police career in fact we had all the knowledge, all the systems and databases and we took all the initiatives to combat organized car theft on an efficient way but all that time the political and judicial system failed to take real decisions to do anything against it. After more than 30 years intense police-cooperation it is sad to conclude that up today in fact nothing has been changed. The only thing that is valuable and that we have to cherish is the friendship that was build between this police and investigators family during all these years. Nothing will ever change that. We will still remember and tell all the police-stories on the Highlander Bar of Guesthouse Ponciana.
Members of Police, IAATI and IPA will always get a deduction on their stay with us. Please feel free to visit our website at www.guesthouseponciana.co.za or contact us via guesthouseponciana@gmail.com
We hope one day hosting you as our guests. Meanwhile keep IAATI a live and kicking. It is a great organization that maybe one day your life will change.
Ronny & Yolande Van den Hoeck
Guesthouse Ponciana
Ifafi – Hartbeespoortdam
North West Province
South Africa
3/05/2007
The Government is introducing a mandatory new identification system for all new
and used vehicles imported into the country in an attempt to reduce vehicle
thefts and to catch criminals who steal cars, Police Minister Annette King and
Justice Minister Mark Burton announced today.
Called whole of vehicle marking (WOVM), the system assigns a unique 17 digit
vehicle identification number to each vehicle upon importation into
Mark Burton says the new initiative is part of the Ministry of Justice created
vehicle crime reduction programme. It will apply to all light-passenger vehicles
with nine seats or less and under 15 years old.
It is anticipated that the new system will come into effect in about a year, and
from then on it is expected that about 200,000 vehicles a year will be required
to have WOVM applied before they can be registered and sold. The existing
vehicle fleet will not be required to have WOVM applied.
Annette King says the new scheme will speed up police investigations into
vehicle theft. “It will also disrupt organised crime networks as the sale of
stolen vehicles and their parts are a major way of funding such networks. It
will also make it easier to solve other crimes, such as identifying vehicles
involved in hit and run incidents when a part is left behind at the scene”.
Ms King says stolen vehicles are often involved in dangerous police pursuits and
any reduction in the number of stolen vehicles on the road should also make
roads safer. “Sometimes we also have a situation where vehicles are partly
rebuilt using stolen parts and this can impact on the safety of the vehicle.”
Mr Burton says WOVM will result in court cases against those charged with
vehicle thefts being resolved more quickly because of the standard of evidence
that the new scheme offers. “It can be a time consuming and costly exercise now
to bring evidence before the court and WOVM will speed up the process.”
Before the new scheme comes into effect a number of changes to the new and used
vehicle entry certification processes need to be made in order to incorporate
the certification and application of WOVM.
Contacts: (Annette King’s office) John Harvey (04) 471 9305, John Saunders (04)
470 6851; (Mark Burton’s office) Kallon Basham (04) 471 9738.
Questions and Answers
Mandatory WOVM is one of six initiatives contained in the Government’s Vehicle
Crime Reduction Programme. In accordance with the initial cabinet paper for the
Vehicle Crime Reduction Programme the cost/benefit calculations associated with
a mandatory WOVM regime have been further investigated and updated. This work
was carried out by the New Zealand Police, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of
Transport and Land Transport New
What is WOVM? WOVM involves multiple copies of a 17-digit Vehicle Identification
Number (VIN) being applied in covert and overt locations on the vehicle in the
form of numerous (7,000-10,000) microdots. This WOVM technology makes it more
difficult to alter the identity of a vehicle. With so many identifying microdots
applied to the vehicle, it would be nearly impossible to remove all of them,
making it easier to recognise and identify stolen vehicles, whether they are
intact or have been disassembled for parts. No parts of the vehicle of visual
significance, such as the paintwork, need to have microdots for the successful
operation of this system.
WOVM makes professional vehicle theft (i.e. vehicle theft motivated by the
profit to be made from on-selling the vehicle or its parts) more difficult, and
increases the risk of being caught and prosecuted. In addition, the inability of
offenders to alter the identity of a vehicle and sell it as legitimate
significantly reduces the scale of their market and potential returns, as
would-be purchasers of stolen goods are deterred by WOVM.
How will
What are the benefits of mandatory WOVM? Ministry of Justice and New Zealand
Police criminal experts advise that this mandatory WOVM system will create a
strong deterrent for professional vehicle thieves and significantly decrease the
rate of professional vehicle theft in
The Ministry of Justice and New Zealand Police also advise that mandatory WOVM
will result in:
· increased road safety (stolen vehicles are often involved in Police pursuits)
· speedier resolution of court cases against offenders
· disruption of national and international organised crime networks, as the sale
of stolen vehicles and their parts often constitutes a notable portion of the
funding for such networks
· easier identification and resolution of parts/vehicles involved in “hit and
run” accidents, when a significant component (such as the front or rear bumper)
is left behind.
What does the implementation of a mandatory WOVM requirement involve? The
implementation of a mandatory WOVM requirement consists of three stages.
· First, providing enabling legislation for this mandatory requirement. This
required an amendment to the Land Transport Rule 35001/1: Vehicle Standards
Compliance 2002 (the Vehicle Standards Compliance Rule), which is now in place,
and involved public consultation.
· Second, determining compliance processes and updating the cost benefit
calculations. This work has been completed by the Ministry of Justice, Land
Transport New
· Third, commencing the implementation process. Land Transport New
Once the Director of Land Transport issues the gazette notice, there will need
to be a 6 month period before mandatory WOVM comes into effect to allow the
vehicle industry to adapt and prepare for this requirement. It is necessary to
re-design both new-vehicle and used-vehicle certification processes to
incorporate the application and certification of WOVM. Logistically this is a
significant task, and some time will be required to complete this work and fully
implement this mandatory requirement. This work must be done with due care and
precision as it will have implications for the time it takes to bring a vehicle
into the country, how soon it can be sold, and how much that vehicle costs when
it goes on the market.
When will this mandatory WOVM requirement be up and running? It is anticipated
that this mandatory requirement will be fully implemented in the first half of
2008.The final decision about the implementation date rests with the Director of
Land Transport. While it is very important that this initiative is implemented
in a timely fashion, speed of implementationcannot be at the expense of the
required precision.
How much will WOVM cost? Based on information provided by the suppliers of
microdots and Land Transport New
How is the mandatory vehicle engine immobiliser initiative proceeding? The
Ministry of Transport is actively working on the mandatory vehicle immobiliser
initiative. This initiative is part of the Vehicle Crime Reduction Programme. It
is anticipated that a Blue Draft (an industry consultation paper) of the
required amendment Rule will be ready for consultation soon. The legislative
processes associated with implementing this requirement are more extensive than
those associated with implementing a mandatory WOVM req
The President of the European Board, Antonio Montanaro, has been chosen as head governing board of IAATI.
For his outstanding work for IAATI, Ronnie van den Hoeck has been selected as a life-member. Click here for the complete list of IAATI Life-Members.