Cape Town - One of the accused in the murder of lawyer Pete Mihalik – Nkosinathi Khumalo – has taken the stand in the Western Cape High Court to testify in his own defence.
Three men, Khumalo, Sizwe Biyela and Vuyile Maliti, are charged with murder, attempted murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Thus far all fingers have been pointed at Maliti by his co-accused as being the brains behind the operation.
On Wednesday, Khumalo upgraded his usual laid back blue and white checked shirt to include a striped brown tie.
Khumalo testified that he came to Cape Town with Biyela and they travelled by bus on October 28, 2018.
He said he was a taxi driver for the “Ndlangubo taxi association” in KwaZulu-Natal.
Khumalo has been the cause of many painstaking delays for the State.
A disputed warning statement recorded during an interview between Khumalo and an Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) member after he was pulled over by a traffic officer on the day of the lawyer’s killing has resulted in a fired lawyer and a number of high-ranking police officials testifying about the work of a dead colleague.
When his lawyer asked him, “who was present?” during the interview by a slain AGU detective, he stuck to his version that it was “Charl Kinnear and other police officials”.
After he said he was not informed about his constitutional rights as a suspect, he looked towards the gallery where relatives of both Mihalik and the defence were seated.
He denied that he was ever questioned or answered anything, after he said that he was interviewed by Kinnear. His lawyer went through every question, asked and answered, to which he replied, “I have no knowledge about that”.
When questioned about Biyela, however, he corrected his lawyer with a sigh and said: “They wrote the wrong information and Sizwe is my cousin.”
As he concluded his evidence, Khumalo said: “What I would like to tell the court is that I don’t know about the death of some person.”
Acting Judge Constance Nziweni asked Khumalo, “what do you mean?” He said: “I am saying this simply because the police are saying to me, they are suspecting me of killing someone”.
In the statement taken by Kinnear, Khumalo allegedly said, “Maliti told me a white man must be killed.”
The trial continues today.