A stabbing which led to the death of a bouncer at Cubana nightclub in Green Point took centre stage in the Charl Kinnear murder trial at the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday as the owner shared the gory details of the bloody scene.
Nearly seven years after the incident which led to the death of bouncer Pitshou Falanga Ngwalo, his former boss has taken the stand at the mammoth underworld trial against alleged kingpin, Nafiz Modack.
Modack, along with Jacques Cronje and Petrus Visser have been charged with public violence, assault, attempted murder and murder for the brawl on 3 December 2017.
Owner Stanley Giger told Judge Robert Henney that on the day of the incident, he had arrived at the popular nightclub at around 10pm when he was informed that there had been a fight between his bouncers and Modack’s associates.
Giger said he tried to call Modack to find out what the issue was but was unable to get hold of him.
About three hours later, “20 to 30 men” arrived in vehicles at his club. He spotted Modack and went to speak to him.
With his back turned towards the nightclub Giger said while questioning Modack, he suddenly heard him say; ‘Oh my fuck’. As he turned he noticed a brawl had broken out.
He recalled: “There was a fight and I could not see who was fighting.”
Giger said staff informed him that his head bouncer Soho Fogang had been injured and was in his office.
He noted that the bouncer had been stabbed in the back which he deemed to be a small but deep cut due to the amount of blood.
He said another staffer rushed to him and said they needed to get the bouncer to the hospital or he would die, but Giger said he was confused as Fogang was talking to him while they waited for paramedics to arrive.
This is when he was notified that Ngwalo was also injured and rushed to a storeroom in the kitchen.
Giger added: “When I saw the flood of blood I knew it was serious and asked someone to get my car so we could take him to the hospital.”
He said paramedics arrived and he left the storeroom, but just minutes later Ngwalo was declared dead.
CCTV footage shown in court showed Cronje attacking Fogang by hitting him in the face. The cameras also place Modack at the scene but do not show him, Cronje or Visser stabbing the two victims.
Giger was not asked to clarify on what led up to the brawls.
The trial continues.
sibuliso.duba@inl.co.za