Africa-Press – South-Africa. The third man accused of Cape Town lawyer Pete Mihalik’s murder testified about his business as a broker selling goods in a world where nobody asked questions.
Vuyile Maliti, 39, testified in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday that he owned three taxis in Khayelitsha, but was also a middleman for selling alcohol, jewellery and gold. He said sometimes his suspicions were raised about the origin of the goods.
Speaking in a gentle and, at times, bashful manner, he told the court that from 2016 he mostly sold alcohol brought to him for resale, and was eventually offered gold jewellery and coins to resell.
He spoke openly about not knowing where the gold earrings, chains, necklaces and rings came from when he brokered the deals.
He was questioned about when he first met his co-accused, Sizwe Biyela, alleged to be the shooter in Mihalik’s murder on 30 October 2018. He testified that he dealt with Biyela over the phone after an introduction by a person called “Nkosi” regarding the sale of gold.
When asked where the goods came from that he was asked to sell, he said he did not ask questions.
“But I had my suspicions,” he said.
He weighed the jewellery and calculated the price after pulling trinkets that were not gold off the chains. Then, he would contact three gold buyers by phone, offer them the jewellery and take the best of three offers. He took a 20% cut and gave the seller the balance.
Biyela testified that he regarded Maliti as his mentor in the gold sales business, and the only purpose for his trip to Cape Town from KwaZulu-Natal was to sell gold coins.
Maliti was asked where Biyela got his gold from and why he would not sell it in KwaZulu-Natal, but travel to Cape Town instead.
“I do not know, but as a person, you do have your suspicions. Maybe they robbed somewhere in Durban and sell it this side,” he said.
He provided background information on how Biyela and the other co-accused, Nkosinathi Khumalo, arrived in Cape Town with “fairly new” coins to sell, and explained how the “black market” worked.
Biyela and Khumalo’s alibi is that they came to Cape Town for a Kruger Rand gold sale through Maliti and had nothing to do with Mihalik’s murder.
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