Cape Flats skollies parading their gang tjappies on social media took centre stage at the Western Cape High Court yesterday as the murder trial of alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, continued.
At the centre of the controversy is denials by Modack’s co-accused, Moegamat Toufeek Brown aka Bubbles, that he is the leader of the notorious Terrible West Siders gang in Woodstock.
According to the state’s case, Bubbles is accused of aiding Modack by procuring the services of hitman to shoot and kill Hawks detective Nico Heerschap.
The shooter, Mr A, has since turned on his former gang friends and taken the stand to piemp them, outlining how he had instead killed Heerschap’s 74-year-old father in the botched assassination.
Among the evidence shown by the state prosecutors is an extensive photo gallery of tjappies on the body of Bubbles proving his gang affiliations.
During proceedings, a visibly upset Bubbles was heard addressing his lawyer, Advocate Nazeer Parkar, saying; ‘Hoe kan jy sê ek issie ’n West Sider nie, ek is dan getjap’.
Parkar clarified that his client did not deny being a skollie but denied being the gang’s boss.
Addressing the witness, Judge Robert Henney said skollies have been taking to social media to brag with their gang flags and tjappies, and meanwhile slim cops have started using this as evidence against them.
Parkar told the hitman that if Bubbles was indeed the gang boss, as stated, he would have taken a bigger share of the R25 000 allegedly paid for Heerschap’s murder and not R5000 as the witness claimed.
‘Bubbles is not a coward. He is a people’s person and likes to share. The Bubbles I know would not have taken the bulk of the money,“ Parkar said.
The trial continues.