Cape Town - The alleged R3 million bounty to murder criminal lawyer William Booth has come under scrutiny in the Western Cape High Court amid claims by a self-confessed hitman.
Returning to the stand for a second day of cross-examination in the mammoth underworld trial of Nafiz Modack and several others, more questions have arisen about the claims made by the witness.
Over the past month, the witness, known only as “Mr A”, 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.
He said the hit was funded by Modack and that Poole acted as a middleman and handed him a car and a gun to follow Booth and kill him.
He also stated the motivation for the hit was a retaliation attack for the murder of advocate Pete Mihalik amid claims that Booth was the lawyer for alleged Sexy Boys 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 told the court that Modack had failed to pay his earlier debts.
This related to the murder of Nicholaas Heerschap, where the hitman 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 walked away with just R5 000.
“You were paid a meagre R5 000 and you see there is no attempts to settle the debt but you want this court to believe that you took on a new job of this fantastic amount,” Sibda said.
The State witness said after allegedly meeting the “big boss” and being given a car and a gun, he believed Modack would pay him.
Defence teams were seen smiling from ear to ear as the State witness claimed he never communicated his plans with the Terrible West Siders gang.