Cape Town - “If I had gone to the police, I would have been a dead man.”
This was the confession of the driver who admitted to transporting the hitman sent to murder criminal attorney William Booth.
The driver, who is in witness protection, continued his testimony in the Western Cape High Court yesterday via an online platform.
The witness, who can only be identified as “Mr D”, testified for the second day to tell Judge Robert Henney he was well acquainted with members of the Terrible West Siders gang, who are on trial alongside alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack.
The group, allegedly led by Moegamat Toufiek “Bubbles” Brown, face a plethora of charges linked to the botched hit on Booth and the murder of a Hawks detective’s father, Nicholaas Heerschap.
In his testimony, the driver told the court how acting on the instruction of Brown’s wife, Kauthar, he met with Modack’s alleged middle man, Ziyaad Poole, who took him to Lansdowne to collect a white Hyundai Creta for the shooting.
He said that after the shooting, he was instructed by Kauthar to remove identifying stickers on the vehicle after pictures of the Creta surfaced on social media. While parked at a filling station with Kauthar’s sister, Kashiefa, he said police pounced on him while buying milk.
“The police did not know I was the driver. I chose to tell the truth.
“If I had gone to the police, I would have been a dead man.”
During cross-examination, attorney Nazeer Parkar questioned Mr D after he identified Poole’s wife as the woman who gave Kauthar money after the shooting. Parkar told the court that Poole believed the money exchanged between his wife and Kauthar was related to a business deal between the two women involving the sale of cigarettes during the national lockdown, and not the shooting.
Brown denied ever placing a call to the hitmen while in prison, but the adamant driver insisted he heard the call.
The trial continues.