News24.com | Mihalik murder: Prosecutor disputes suspected getaway driver's 'please call me' testimony

• The alleged getaway driver in Pete Mihalik's murder says he ran out of airtime on the morning. 
• So, he sent a "please call me" message to his cousin, who the State alleges was the shooter. 
• He eventually "borrowed" airtime to let his cousin know that his car had been stolen with his gold coins in it. 

The alleged getaway driver in lawyer Pete Mihalik's murder ran out of airtime and had to send a "please call me", he said, explaining what happened when his car was stolen while getting a traffic fine not long after the shooting. 

Nkosinathi Khumalo resumed his testimony in the Western Cape High Court on Monday with further questioning about his car being stolen during an important Kruger Rand deal, with the coins still inside the car. 

The State alleges that the Kruger Rand deal explanation is a fabrication, and that when he was pulled over for skipping a stop street, he was driving away from the murder with the alleged shooter, Sizwe Biyela in the car.

His evidence so far is that a traffic officer pulled him over, with no passenger, and while he was getting his fine, someone crept up to the car, and stole the reddish Renault Clio that he said he was driving, not a grey Renault Clio that the State alleges, from under their noses. He testified that they were in town for a gold coin deal with another co-accused Vuyile Maliti.

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He told the court that he sent Biyela a "please call me" so that he could tell him what happened. 

"Why didn't you just phone him?" asked prosecutor advocate Greg Wolmarans.

"I did not have airtime," he testified. 

Wolmarans pulled out phone location records, and explained what all the coding means - if a call is outgoing, incoming, or whether a "please call me" was sent. 

Then, he pointed out that there was no "please call me listed", but there were many calls between the two, recorded by cellphone towers in the same vicinity in Cape Town. 

Cellphone records also show there were calls between the two near the scene of Mihalik's assassination in Green Point on 30 October 2018.

The State alleges that Khumalo drove away from the traffic stop, left Biyela and the car somewhere else, then walked back to get his fine.

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Wolmarans set about listing the phone calls between Biyela and Khumalo around the time of Mihalik's murder on 30 October 2018, and said these prove that the two were together and Biyela was in the car with him when they were pulled over, and that he left the scene to get Biyela away. 

Khumalo denied everything, and said that he was eventually able to call Biyela while he was at the traffic stop. 

"I borrowed airtime," he testified. 

Biyela's evidence is that he was on his way to Langa with his girlfriend, who had a hair appointment at the time.

So far, records do not show any calls made to the friend who Khumalo said he had borrowed the reddish Clio from, to let him know it had been stolen.

Khumalo testified previously that the friend's phone number was stored on his second phone, which was with the "stolen" car.

All three have pleaded not guilty.