‘Travelling Bride’ owner arrested
by Wendy Knowler
We have some very exciting feedback on the wedding planner show of a few weeks ago. Wedding organiser Renee Kotzee, who used the name Marilyn, was arrested at a tavern in Vereeniging, Jo’burg, in connection with several charges of fraud and is in custody pending a bail application next Thursday, November 17.
A quick recap:
A woman calling herself Marilyn – real name Renee Kotzee – based in Gauteng, advertised her services as a wedding organiser on a website called The Travelling Bride. She has also been connected to companies called Let’s Elope, Budget Weddings, Wedding Whispers and Island Weddings.
Marilyn, incidentally, is the middle name of her daughter – Candice Marilyn Strydom – in whose name the Travelling Bride was registered.
So Kotzee would undertake to arrange the venue and in many cases the minister, the photographer and the cake, etcetera, and the bride and groom would pay her a lump sum and supposedly save themselves the time and hassle.
But in many cases in recent months, the so-called Kotzee failed to pay her clients’ money over to the suppliers, so they were left desperately trying to come up with the money to pay for their weddings from scratch again.
We featured three brides-to-be on our show of October 13, all of whom are getting married at The Boathouse in Ballito this month. I must stress again that The Boathouse has nothing to do with Kotzee or this scam.
You may remember Uveshree Govender and her fiancé Zain’s story. The couple, who’re from Durban but are now living in Jo’burg, first contacted Kotzee on the Internet last September, and went on to pay her a total of R21 500 for their wedding at the Boathouse on the 26th of this month.
But by late August, Uveshree discovered that the suppliers hadn’t been paid by Kotzee, who was by then not making contact with her, unsurprisingly.
What Uveshree didn’t know at the time, of course, was that Marilyn was ducking and diving from quite a few other bridal couples at that point.
Kotzee didn’t respond to our phone messages or email, and a day before the show one of the brides-to-be we featured on the show received a letter from a company announcing that Travelling Bride cc was going under voluntary liquidation.
Which means, of course, that if the affected couples do get any money back, it won’t be soon, and it will be just a fraction of what they’re owed.
Our Uveshree, while planning her wedding at the Boathouse, has also been feverishly tracking down Kotzee, determined to see justice done.
And about a week ago her perseverance paid off – while searching the internet, she discovered that Kotzee performs at a tavern in Vereeniging, and that she was involved in an upcoming event. She sent the information to two other brides who were scammed.
Along with another of Kotzee’s victims, bride-to-be Monique Kleynhans marched into the Magic Tavern in Vereeniging on Saturday night, having received Uveshree’s tip-off that she would be there.
And there she found Kotzee sitting at a table outside, with three other people, including the tavern owner.
Apparently Kotzee regularly sings at that tavern, using her real name, Renee.
What makes this scenario even more riveting is the fact that Monique and her fiancé Andre van der Westhuizen had paid a deposit of R7 000 towards the wedding Kotzee was supposed to have organised at the Georgian Country Hotel in the Magaliesberg that very day!
So yes, Renee Kotzee, aka Marilyn, is currently in custody, pending her appearance in the Boksburg magistrates court next Thursday, the 17th.
Monique told me that in weeks leading up to Saturday night’s dramatic confrontation, she kept asking Kotzee for confirmation about the minister, the hotel booking, the catering, etcetera, and Kotzee had kept stringing her along, saying everything’s organised, don’t stress….you’ll have your perfect wedding…
Monique – who’d met the so-called Kotzee last year to discuss the wedding – admits to walking up to her and screaming at her about what she’d done, and when things got really rowdy, the tavern owner called the police.
When the police arrived, Monique filled them in, urged them to called a policeman who’s been investigating several charges of fraud against Kotzee relating to wedding planning, and, to cut a long story short, she was arrested.
Investigating officer Vic Victor told me that she faces seven charges of fraud relating to wedding scams in the Boksburg magistrates court, and quite a few others in the Kempton Park magistrates court.
The weddings were due to take place all over the place, he said, from beach weddings in KZN to weddings in the Free State, the Malutis and even one overseas.
Kotzee remains in custody pending her bail application in the Boksburg case next week.
Uveshree is delighted at the news, of course, as she is with the many offers of help she’s had with regards to her wedding at The Boathouse, since we aired our last show on this case.
It was fascinating talking to Monique this week – she said she has since realised that the references which Marilyn gave her at the outset – two women who both raved about the ‘extra mile’ service which Marilyn of The Travelling Bride gave them – were actually her daughters.
So the lesson here is to do a bit more checking before handing over your money – Kotzee claimed to have organised more than 200 weddings successfully – I’d have asked for contact details of the five most recent weddings she’d done, including those of the venues.
Unfortunately, references can be outdated or, in the worst case scenario such as this, horribly fake.
Anyone who has information relating to these cases or any others involving Kotzee, is asked to contact Colonel Victor on 082 465 7510.
