Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Pete Mihalik murder trial finally finished on Thursday, with the three accused returning to custody for their two-month wait for judgment by the Western Cape High Court.
Judge Constance Nziweni must now weigh up two possible scenarios.
One, by the State, is that the three accused worked together to assassinate Mihalik with two bullets fired at close range as he was dropping his children at school in Green Point on 30 October 2018.
The other, presented by the defence, is that they negotiated the sale of 19 Krugerrands in a car far away in the Cape Quarter Spar’s parking lot at the time of the shooting.
On Thursday, the State tied up loose ends that the defence pointed to in its replies. Notably, the CCTV footage does not show the alleged shooter, Sizwe Biyela, making the back-to-back phone calls that show up on his cellphone records at the time of the murder.
Prosecutor Greg Wolmarans countered that close examination shows that the shooter did not show or use his cellphone for the six seconds he was in the frame on CCTV footage killing Mihalik.
Wolmarans argued:
He also shot down the argument that the State should have called taxi owner Vuyile Maliti’s alibis to find out whether he was telling the truth about the gold deal he says he was doing with Biyela and Empangeni taxi driver Nkosinathi Khumalo at the time of the murder.
He said the State offered to subpoena the alibis for Maliti at no charge to himself, but Maliti never gave further details on where they could be found.
“You can play your cards as close to your chest as you want to,” said Wolmarans. “But don’t moan that no one saw those cards afterwards,” quipped Wolmarans.
Biyela, a former warehouse worker turned second hand gold coin dealer from Umlazi, and Khumalo, were arrested on the same day as the murder.
It came in a sequence of events that flowed from Khumalo and Maliti being pulled over by a traffic officer for skipping a stop street near the traffic department.
Their cars matched those seen on CCTV footage of the murder, and the descriptions by witnesses.
Khumalo’s vehicle left the scene of the traffic stop. The traffic officer said Khumalo drove off mid-fine and returned on foot. Khumalo claims the traffic officer is lying and that the car was stolen under their noses while he was getting his ticket. Plus, he added, the Renault Clio he was driving was a reddish colour borrowed from his now deceased friend, not the silver grey seen in the CCTV footage.
Nevertheless, taking Khumalo to the Sea Point police station to finish dealing with the traffic stop situation cracked the case wide open.
The station was abuzz with the murder of the feisty and well-known lawyer, and the cars the traffic officer pulled over were quickly linked to the murder.
Khumalo now had bigger problems than a ticket for skipping a stop street and was questioned then arrested. He is alleged to have been the getaway driver.
The policeman questioning him took Khumalo’s phone because it wouldn’t stop ringing in his pocket. Biyela’s number kept coming up on the screen and he was eventually pinged to a bus stop in Bellville, about to return to KwaZulu-Natal.
In the meantime, Maliti sold R200 000 worth of Krugerrands on the afternoon of the murder.
He later handed himself in to the police when he heard they were looking for him. They were charged with murder, attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Renault Clio, which the State alleges was used to get Biyela away from the murder scene and the traffic stop, and the gun, have never been recovered.
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