An alleged gang boss from Woodstock accused of being behind the botched hit on top criminal lawyer William Booth has launched his bid for freedom.
This emerged at the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court as Moegamat Toufiek Brown appeared alongside his alleged henchman Ziyaad Poole on attempted murder charges.
The 35-year-old, known as Bubbles, is the alleged leader of the Terrible West Siders gang and is accused of being the middleman between suspected underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, and the shooters.
Bubbles’ wife Kauthar Brown, as well as Ebrahim Deare and Riyaad Gasant pleaded guilty to the attempted murder charges and were sentenced last year.
All charges were withdrawn against the fourth accused, Kim Smith.
At the time, Bubbles was in prison.
In their plea and sentencing agreement, the trio admitted to being members of the TWS gang, which operates in the Woodstock area.
The trio revealed that the leader of the TWS, who is in prison, had instructed Deare and Gasant via Kauthar to arrange a hit on Booth at his Higgovale home.
Deare was set to be the hitman, while Kauthar provided the address and getaway vehicle to a state witness who was instructed to drop Deare and Gasant close to Booth’s home and pick them up after the deed was done.
But the dom hitmen ended up making several botched attempts as they first went to the wrong address and when they returned the next day, Deare smoked a button and was so dikgerook that he fell into a hole, injuring his leg.
On Thursday, it was revealed that Bubbles’ lawyer had withdrawn from the case and he would be represented by a new attorney on 21 July when his bail hearing will proceed at the Cape Town Regional Court.
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