Cape Town - A self-confessed hitman has fingered alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen as the mastermind behind the assassination of top criminal lawyer advocate Pete Mihalik.
The shocking claim was made in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday in the mammoth underworld trial against Nafiz Modack and his co-accused.
Taking the stand, the hitman, who can only be named as “Mr A”, revealed the chilling murder plot to kill William Booth.
The 38-year-old gunman, who has already been sentenced for the murder of Nicolaas Heerschap, 74, in Melkbosstrand, claims he was congratulated by Modack for murdering the father of the Hawks detective and later contracted to carry out more hits.
He claimed that at the instruction of Modack’s co-accused, Ziyaad Poole, he received instructions to kill Andre Naude - an associate of Booysen and businessman Mark Lifman - at his home in Bellville.
But the plan to kill Naude failed when a woman opened the door to his home and later it was found that the gun the hitman had obtained from his friend had no firing pin and would not have fired. He said he was later contacted by Poole to kill Booth and told that the bounty on the popular lawyer’s head was R3 million.
The hitman says he was sent to a hotel in Newlands, where Booth’s Mercedes-Benz had been spotted, to kill him, but the hit failed when the hitman fell asleep on the job.
He waited until 1am and fell asleep in his car and then realised Booth had left.
He was later given an address in Bishopscourt and despite staking the property out, he failed to get Booth.
The hitman said that he even went to Worcester to shoot Booth there as he attended a trial, but a large police presence scared him off.
Asked if he was told what the motivation for the hit was, the hitman claimed that Poole had revealed that Modack wanted revenge for Mihalik’s death.
“He said Modack believes Donkie killed Mihalik and because Booth was his (Donkie’s) lawyer, hy moet gly (he must die). It was an eye for an eye.”
Mihalik, 50, was killed on October 30, 2018, while dropping off his two children at a school in Green Point.
The accused - Sizwe Biyela, 31, Nkosinathi Khumalo, 28, and Vuyile Maliti, 40 - were found guilty of Mihalik’s murder, two counts of attempted murder on his two children, and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition in August last year.