Cape Town - The extra-marital affair of an imprisoned gang boss from Woodstock took centre stage in the Western Cape High Court on Monday, as the plot to murder top criminal attorney William Booth was laid bare.
Colonel Eddie Clark took to the stand to detail the steps taken to uncover who was behind the plot to murder Booth.
Booth survived an attack outside his Higgovale home on April 9, 2020, when two gunmen opened fire at his home as he took his dogs for a morning walk.
Clark said the shooting during the national lockdown led him to search the area for cameras, which may have picked up suspicious activity in the area.
Clark had noticed a white Hyundai Creta had been captured on CCTV footage in the area and went on a deeper search, approaching residents and requesting to see their camera footage.
He found footage showing two suspects, namely Ebrahim Deare and Riyaat Gesant, but said he had no idea who they were as he decided to release the images to the media.
Not long after, he received a call from an informant who identified the men as “Yaati” and “Boetbul” of the Terrible West Siders gang, who also informed him of the car’s location.
A large contingent of police swooped in and arrested the driver, who has since turned state witness, along with a woman in the vehicle, and traced the origins to the headquarters of the gang in Argyle Street, Woodstock.
He said everyone in the home was arrested including the wife of alleged gang boss, Moegamat Toufeek “Bubbles” Brown, and their phones confiscated.
He said the wife, Kauthar, had already been convicted after pleading guilty at another court.
Clark said when studying the itemised billing of each of the phones, he came across two numbers which had registered at a cellphone tower near Pollsmoor Prison.
Communication with the numbers peaked his interest as the records showed that calls were placed to this number within minutes of the shooting.
As police did not know who the numbers belonged to, they further studied the most frequent contacts and that is when they discovered the details of the alleged mistress known as Naeela Meyer.
“There were more calls to her than the wife,” he said as he looked at Kauthar in the public gallery.
Clark further explained during an interview that the alleged mistress admitted to being in a romantic relationship with the owner of the cellphone numbers, whom she identified as Brown, who allegedly gave the orders from prison.