The Joostgate files
It was the scandal of the year in 2009 – the video that sent one-time national hero Joost van der Westhuizen to the dogbox for doing naughty things with a stripper and some recreational chemicals. “I didn’t do it!” was his outraged cry for months, as he and his loose cannon of a private eye, Mike Bolhuis entangled themselves deeper and deeper in lies. Eventually the former Bok skipper crumbled under the pressure of all those porky pies, and admitted, redfaced, that he had, in fact, done all of it. heat broke the story and won an award for the scoop. See below for a timeline of the events.
If you're just looking for the actual tape extracts, don't worry - you can still view the Joostgate tape extracts here.
The Joostgate timeline
The entire saga, in reverse chronological order:
5 August 2010
- Joost van der Westhuizen files for divorce from his wife Amor Vittone.
3 November 2009
- Charmaine Weavers, formerly Gale, identifies herself as the former star athlete who anonymously admitted to having an affair with Van der Westhuizen in a magazine article earlier this year. The former high jumper said that she had sex with Joost even when his wife Amor was pregnant. "It's just such a pity that his confession was so selective, instead of rather confessing to everything," Weaver said.
2 November 2009
- South African pay TV channel SuperSport fires Joost van der Westhuizen by cancelling his freelance services as a commentator and presenter. Van der Westhuizen was initially suspended by SuperSport on 30 March 2009.
1 November 2009
- Joost’s biography, Man in the Mirror, is released, in which he makes a partial confession and admits to taking drugs and engaging in sexual activity with Marilize van Emmenis – once. In subsequent media interviews to promote the book, Joost insists that he only cheated on Amor once.
7 April 2009
- heat publishes a vox pop video recorded at Pretoria’s popular nightlife destination Hatfield Square to find out opinion about the Joostgate saga.
3 April 2009
- An unidentified school friend of Marilize's leaves a heartfelt testimonial on the heat comment page, speaking out in support or Marilize and calling her a "loyal friend".
- heat releases a video interview with Marilize where she refutes the defamatory statements made by Mike Bolhuis earlier in the week.
1 April 2009
- Beeld reveals the name and personal details of 24-year-old Anthony de Beer, the ex-boyfriend of Marilize van Emmenis who was behind the making of the video. Beeld confirms that Anthony had pulled out of his plan to get money from Joost after being violently assaulted back in 2006; and that he had been receiving threatening SMSes over the last few weeks, and was fearing for his safety.
31 March 2009
- The girl on the tape - Marilize van Emmenis – tells her story in heat. Her former boyfriend, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirms to heat that the video was his idea, and that he was badly beaten up by men at a rendezvous, planned with Van der Westhuizen late in 2006, where the video was confiscated.
- Dr Len Jansen, the same voice authentication expert which confirmed that the original tape was not altered in any way, confirms that Marilize van Emmenis is the girl in the tape after comparing voice samples.
- Amelia Griesel, President of the South African Professional Polygraph Association, confirms that she conducted a polygraph test on Marilize van Emmenis, which she passed with flying colours.
30 March 2009
- heat publishes the lowdown about CAT, the drug at the centre of the Joostgate scandal.
- Joost van der Westhuizen and Mike Bolhuis again appear as guests on Darren Scott's breakfast show on Jacaranda, and call Marilize van Emmenis a liar and a prostitute.
- After an emergency meeting SuperSport announces that Joost van der Westhuizen is suspended until further notice. The former Bok reportedly still retains his multimillion-rand contract, although he will not be on air for the foreseeable future.
29 March 2009
- Rapport reveals the identity of the girl in the Joostgate video. Marilize van Emmenis confirms that she made the video in late 2006, after Joost had been inundating her with SMSes and indecent proposals for almost a year. She also reveals that the former Bok asked her for CAT, and that the video was her jealous boyfriend's idea.
23 March 2009
- Joost van der Westhuizen announces that he is not going to sue anyone for the Joostgate video. Mike Bolhuis cites South Africa's "weak legal system" which "drags court cases out" as a reason for this decision, saying that the Van der Westhuizens would prefer to get closure rather than face a drawn-out court case that will attract media attention each time it comes before the court.
21 March 2009
- Joost once more denies that he's the man in the Joostgate video, when directly asked that question by The Weekender. "No," he says.
20 March 2009
- Joost and Amor set up a contrived PR stunt in Cape Town, posing on a boat in the V&A Waterfront with a bottle of bubbly and many public displays of affection, after first informing the media of the photo opportunity...
15 March 2009
- Rapport contacts Charmaine Gale to enquire about the rumours that she is the woman in the Huisgenoot/You article, and the former athlete answers via SMS: "No comment. Do a story about the many others". Team van der Westhuizen's response, via his new PR representative, is that Van der Westhuizen will not give any further comment, as "too much has already been said about the issues".
13 March 2009
- Huisgenoot/You run an interview with a unidentified top sportswoman, widely believed to be former Olympic athlete Charmaine Gale, in which she claims she had a five-year on-off fling with Van der Westhuizen. She claims she had sex with the former Bok when his wife Amor was pregnant with their son and again in March 2007, which would have been several months after the Joostgate video was brought to Joost's attention and violently confiscated from Anthony De Beer. The sportswoman also claimed that she knew of three other women who had relationships with Van der Westhuizen during this time.
10 March 2009
- heat makes the tape available in a series of several extracts.
- Huisgenoot/You reports on the series of tests that Bolhuis maintains Joost passed without presenting any proof, or identifying the experts who carried out such tests: the polygraph test, a blood and urine drug test that showed no evidence of drugs, and a voice test that was inconclusive. The magazine points out that CAT, the drug that was used in the video, only stays in the system for 72 hours and is untraceable afterwards, and makes the point that it is not clear why the test was then done, as long as three weeks after the news of the video broke.
- Huisgenoot/You also reveals that two women had called the magazine claiming to have had sex with Joost, but declined to be named because they were fearing for their safety.
- heat makes available online a handwritten statement by the man who came forward with the original tape, in which he explains his motives.
8 March 2009
- Rapport publishes a short, censored extract from the tape, as well as the handwritten statement by the man who supplied the video to heat in which he states his motives for doing so, and denies that Mike Bolhuis was ever in contact with him.
6 March 2009
- Mike Bolhuis tells the media that Joost will lay criminal and civil charges against heat, Rapport and the producers of the video and that proceedings will start on Monday. A Pretoria lawyer, Bertus le Roux, confirms that he will act in a civil case against the publications and individual journalists.
- It is further reported that Bolhuis had alleged that he had found and interrogated both the producers of the video and the girl in the video, and that obtained a statement from the girl confirming that it is not Joost in the video. No proof of these claims are presented.
5 March 2009
- Mike Bolhuis states that Joost van der Westhuizen has passed a lie detector test, but will not reveal who actually did the test so that its authenticity can be verified. One of the questions reportedly put to Van der Westhuizen is "Did you have oral sex with that woman in that video", when there is no oral sex in the video at all.
- heat comprehensively refutes several claims by Mike Bolhuis regarding the authenticity of the tape.
1 March 2009
- Mike Bolhuis tells Rapport that there is now a second D-Day – the following Thursday, when he will present his report to Joost van der Westhuizen. He announces that Van der Westhuizen will undergo a blood and urine test, as well as a voice test. He also announces that he has eliminated Kurt Darren, AJ Venter and Juanita du Plessis as "main players in the conspiracy", though he insisted that he knows who the people behind the video are and that "a big surprise" lay ahead when he revealed who they were...
- Rapport also establishes that Van der Westhuizen has never laid any charge of blackmail with the police, although he has maintained for years that he has been blackmailed and followed.
- Bolhuis also tells Sondag that he interviewed three Joost lookalikes, without making their identities known or revealing what the outcome of these "interviews" were.
- A Sondag columnist reports that she received a threatening SMS from Joost about phone calls she was supposed to have made to SuperSport about Joost and a make-up artist at the sports channel. She called Joost back to deny that she had phoned anyone at the channel, and reminded him that she had asked him about the rumour of his involvement with the make-up artist three years ago, and that he had told her on that occasion that it was nonsense. Upon this, Joost tells her to speak to Mike Bolhuis...
28 February 2009
- Friday, Mike Bolhuis's deadline for the producers, comes and goes, and no-one owns up to having made the video.
27 February 2009
- Huisgenoot/You carries an interview with Joost and Amor van der Westhuizen, in which Amor tells how she went down on her knees and asked Joost to tell her the truth. She tells Huisgenoot/You how he promised her that he had never done anything like that and never would.
24 February 2009
- Mike Bolhuis sets an ultimatum for the producers of the video. He tells Beeld that the producers have four days to come forward or "face the consequences", and in a somewhat contradictory statement adds that he has already confronted the producers in person, and gives his phone number so that anyone with further information can call him.
23 February 2009
- heat learns that Joost van der Westhuizen is no longer represented by his attorney, and has appointed Mike Bolhuis as his representative. heat once again invites any information or proof that would serve as evidence to support Joost's ongoing claims that it is not him in the video.
- heat's attorney learns that the CSIR expert supposedly contracted by Team van der Westhuizen to analyse it for authenticity was in fact never instructed to analyse it, but only to make a copy of the entire video, including the bit showing the girl's face.
22 February 2009
- Mike Bolhuis tells Rapport that sex secrets about two other celebrities may soon be revealed by the same "conspirators" behind the Joostgate video. Rapport also reports that Van der Westhuizen had insinuated that either Stormers player AJ Venter or singer Kurt Darren would be revealed as the brain behind the video. Both Venter and Darren responded with disdain at such allegations.
- A professor in plastic and reconstructive surgery, contracted by Rapport to compare the video with photographs of Van der Westhuizen announce that several corresponding physical characteristics, including a prominent acne scar, make it highly likely that it IS Joost in the video.
- Sondag reports the existence of a second sex video, featuring the former Bok captain and a "mom of two from Centurion". This video, it reports, was allegedly made at a wild office party in 2005, by a man seeking revenge because of a relationship between Joost and the man's wife. According to Sondag, the man had attempted to blackmail Joost with this video, and Joost had employed a security company to "deal with" the man and confiscate the video...
20 February 2009
- Team van der Westhuizen takes the original videotape from heat's attorneys to the CSIR in Pretoria, ostensibly to have it analysed for authenticity.
19 February 2009
- Beeld reports that Steve Hofmeyr had warned the former Bok against getting involved with dancer girls. The singer advised his friend to admit the truth if he were guilty and to "play the Jesus card" if he was totally innocent.
18 February 2009
- Joost's legal counsel at the time, Theresa van der Linde, tells Beeld that "the first, most important thing is to have the video forensically analysed by our experts. In this way we will hopefully be able to prove that it is not Joost in the video. If it later seems necessary, voice analysts will also analyse the man's voice to ascertain whether it is Joost's." heat extends an invitation to Team van der Westhuizen to have the original analysed by their experts.
17 February 2009
- Joost van der Westhuizen tells Beeld, "I accept that any member of the public who watches the video might easily think it was me", and adds that he knows the people in the video. Joost also tells Beeld that the man in the video has a much bigger penis than him.
- His representative at the time, Hein Kaiser releases a media statement in which he claims that "certain physical characteristics of the man in the video, while they bear some similarities to Van der Westhuizen, prove he is not the man".
- heat hands over the tape to Dr Len Jansen, a world renowned forensic voice identification, tape analysis and authentication specialist. He confirms the tape as being authentic.