Cape Town - Three men accused of orchestrating and executing the hit on criminal lawyer Pete Mihalik appeared in the Western Cape High Court.
Sizwe Biyela, Nkosinathi Khumalo and Vuyile Maliti pleaded not guilty in May 2022 and are charged with five counts of murder, attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition for their alleged involvement in Mihalik’s murder.
Before Biyela and Khumalo could take the stand to answer to the charges Maliti, through his lawyer, brought an application to be discharged from the counts of murder and acting in common purpose with his co-accused.
Judge Constance Nziweni refused the application and said while her ruling was not a pre-judgment, Maliti did indeed have a case to answer.
State advocate Greg Wolmarans argued that the picture created by cellphone records showed that the circumstantial evidence linking Maliti to his co-accused was “inescapable” as the raw (meta) data showed Maliti being in contact with his co-accused before Mihalik was killed.
“We have the power of raw data from cellphones which speaks better than a thousand words,” Wolmarans said in court.
After the judge’s ruling, the alleged shooter, Biyela, took the stand while being led by his lawyer, who did not want to be named.
Biyela said in 2018 he was living in uMlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, but was uncertain about his exact address.
He said he only started living there in 2010, doing general work at a warehouse. Answering questions posed by his lawyer, he was evasive about how he changed careers, going from a general worker to a gold trader.
Biyela testified that Khumalo and Maliti were his relatives and he was persuaded by a man named “Nkosi” whom he met at a tavern to trade Krugerrands. He said he immediately told Khumalo to get involved in selling gold.
“I did not have my own shop. However, I was buying them from someone else,” he said.
He said he used cash to trade.
“I was paying with money. I would take them (the gold) and come to Cape Town and give them to Vuyile, so that he can sell them, so I can get money from them (the gold),” Biyela said.
The trial continues.