Africa-Press – South-Africa. The three men on trial for the murder of Cape Town lawyer Pete Mihalik made a brief appearance in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, only for the case to be postponed.
In the previous sitting, one of the accused, Nkosinathi Khumalo’s former lawyer, claimed that Khumalo had been tortured into making some admissions relating to the assassination of Mihalik on 30 October 2018.
He claimed that Khumalo was suffocated and water was poured over him, with the late Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear looking on while another police officer did this.
Kinnear can’t answer this allegation because he was assassinated on 18 September 2020.
Before he could continue, Judge Constance Nziweni raised concerns about the quality of Khumalo’s defence, as the lawyer Justin van Rensburg corrected himself on a few of the points he had raised.
At first, Khumalo said he was satisfied, but on being asked again later in the day, Khumalo said he wanted a new lawyer.
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The Legal Aid Board was contacted, and new representation was arranged.
Sizwe Biyela, Khumalo, and Vuyile Maliti face one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegal possession of ammunition after being arrested for the murder.
They all pleaded not guilty.
They were arrested fairly soon after the assassination, due to some of them skipping a stop street and being stopped for a traffic fine.
The new lawyer would need time to go through the transcripts of all of the court hearings so far and wade through all of the documents handed in, to prepare a proper defence.
For that reason, the trial was postponed to 8 August.
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