The alleged R3 million bounty to murder criminal lawyer William Booth came under scrutiny at the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
A self-confessed hitman was grilled on the second day of cross-examination in the mammoth underworld trial against Nafiz Modack and several others.
Over the last month, the witness known only as “Mr A”, who boldly admitted to killing the father of a Hawks detective in a botched hit on his son, was made to answer questions on his evidence about the plans to murder Booth.
In his testimony, the witness claimed he was given various addresses on where to find Booth by Ziyaad Poole and was allegedly told he would be paid R3 million.
Mr A claimed the hit was funded by Modack. He claimed Poole acted as a middleman and handed him a car and a gun to follow Booth and then kill him.
He also alleged that the motivation for the hit was a retaliation for the murder of Advocate Pete Mihalik, who he claimed was the lawyer for alleged Sexy Boys gang leader, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen.
Questioning the witness, Modack’s lawyer, Advocate Bash Sibda, asked the hitman how he could agree to kill Booth for R3 million when he also the court that Modack had failed to pay his earlier debts.
This related to the murder of Nicholaas Heerschap (Hawks officer’s father). The hitman had told the court the job was worth R60 000 but after killing the elderly man, the gang only got R25 000 and despite being the shooter, he had pocketed just R5 000.
“You were paid a meagre R5000 and you see there is no attempt to settle the debt, but you want this court to believe that you took on a new job of this fantastic amount. How did you even know he would pay,” Sibda asked.
The state witness said after allegedly meeting the ‘’big boss“ and being given a car and a gun he believed Modack would pay him.
Confusion reigned in the courtroom when the state witness claimed that Modack’s co-accused had nothing to do with the planned hit on Booth and that he acted on his own.
Shortly after the lunch break, Modack caused a stir in the courtroom when said he was never able to pay R3 million for a hit as he was in debt.
“My house was then in arrears,” he said followed by chuckles.
The case continues.
monique.duval@inl.co.za