News24.com | Mihalik murder: Alleged getaway driver claims severe assault after arrest

Vuyile Maliti, Nkosinathi Khumalo and Sizwe Biyela appear at the Western Cape High Court for the alleged murder of lawyer Pete Mihalik in Cape Town.

• The alleged getaway driver in the Mihalik murder case says he was falsely implicated by Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear. 
• He also testified that he was assaulted several times and signed a self-incriminating document he did not contribute to.
• His purpose in Cape Town around the time of the shooting was to sell eight gold coins, a breakaway from his usual job as a taxi driver, he says.

The man alleged to have been the getaway driver in Cape Town lawyer Pete Mihalik's assassination says he was falsely implicated by the late Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear, and severely assaulted several times during questioning.

Nkosinathi Khumalo, accused number two in the murder trial, went up to the witness stand on Wednesday and refuted the "admissions" made in a police statement that contains his signature and thumbprint. 

He was sworn in, and began his testimony in a deep smoky voice, in isiZulu.

Khumalo, his cousin Sizwe Biyela and Vuyile Maliti are on trial in the Western Cape High Court for the murder of Mihalik, and the attempted murder of his two children while he was dropping them off at school in Green Point on 30 October 2018. All three have pleaded not guilty.

In the refuted admissions statement, Khumalo tells Kinnear that he came to Cape Town from KwaZulu-Natal to drive taxis in Sea Point for Maliti. Maliti is a taxi owner who lives in Khayelitsha.  

The crux of this statement is that on 30 October, while with Maliti, Maliti gave his other co-accused, Sizwe Biyela, a gun and told him to "kill a white man". 

After the time of the shooting (07:39), Khumalo was driving out of the CBD, and a traffic officer pulled him over for skipping a stop street. He was eventually taken to Sea Point police station and arrested, at that stage only for the traffic violation, for allegedly leaving the scene while being ticketed. In that version, Khumalo was driving a VW Polo with a "light skinned man" who spoke isiXhosa.

READ | Mihalik murder-accused alleges police assaulted his father during investigation

On Wednesday, Khumalo said that those questions were not put to him, and he had made none of those admissions.  

He said:

The State alleged during Biyela's cross-examination this week that Khumalo and Biyela were in a grey Renault Clio when they were pulled over by the traffic officer. 

On Wednesday Khumalo testified that he was tortured three times by police officers, with Kinnear present. Eventually, he signed the "admissions" form without reading it, and put his thumbprint on the document. 

This evidence has already been touched on in the early stages of the trial, where his former lawyer introduced the assault and false admissions allegations.

Kinnear was assassinated on 18 September 2020 in Bishop Lavis. Colleagues who worked with Kinnear on the Mihalik investigation vouched for him in court and testified that there was no torture. 

READ | Mihalik murder accused quizzed on luggage-free Cape Town stay

Khumalo told the court on Wednesday that he drives a taxi for a taxi association in Empangeni. He and Biyela caught a bus from Durban to Cape Town to sell Kruger Rands through Maliti. They arrived in Cape Town on 28 October 2018.

While in Cape Town, he drove a reddish Renault Clio loaned to him by his host in Khayelitsha.

He had seven coins to sell, and Biyela had 11 coins.

On 29 October, a potential deal did not work out. On 30 October, they were back in Cape Town, and their sale via Maliti was successful. 

When they were driving out of the CBD, traffic officer Boy Makhutu pulled them over for not stopping at a stop street. Khumalo said he gave his driving licence to Makhutu and parked the car. 

But, while the traffic officer was fining him, the Clio was stolen under their noses, because it just disappeared. 

Khumalo testified:

He said he and Makhutu went to the Sea Point police station so that he could report the stolen car for insurance. 

He testified that when he was pulled over, he was in a VW Polo and not a Renault Clio, as the State says. 

He was then arrested for the murder of Mihalik, and tortured, he said. 

He said on the first assault, a yellow plastic bag was pulled over his head, while he was assaulted; on the second occasion, he was hit over the head with a stick. The third time, he was taken to a house where his head was plunged into a bath full of water. 

The court session ended early because of the heat in the courtroom, and Khumalo was escorted back to prison in a convoy of specialist police officers which pressed through traffic in the CBD. 

He will be cross-examined by the State on Thursday.

So far Biyela has testified that he was also in Cape Town for a coin deal and that on the day of their big sale via Maliti on 30 October, Khumalo forgot to take his coins with him.

Biyela denied being a hired gun, saying he was offended by the suggestion.