What is a POCA?

Court order seizes property linked to crime

When the State suspects someone of serious crime — organised crime, money laundering, drug trafficking — a court can freeze the property the State alleges came from that crime. This includes cars, cash, bank accounts, and houses. The order is called a "preservation of property" order.

The State must publish the order in the gazette so anyone affected has 14 days to give notice that they want to fight it. If nobody objects in time, the property goes to the State.

The notice gives the case number, the court, the parties affected (where named), and a detailed description of the seized property — vehicle VINs, bank account numbers, erf numbers for properties, and so on.

Statute: Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998.

Browse POCA notices

We have 992 POCA notices in the index. Browse all of them →

Search

Search just within POCA notices: