News24.com | 'They came like rain': Accused in Mihalik murder alleges police brutality

Nkosinathi Khumalo is on trial for murder and attempted murder along with Sizwe Biyela and Vuyile Maliti.

• The alleged getaway driver in Pete Mihalik's murder accused Sea Point police of assault.
• Nkosinathi Khumalo said they wanted information on the murder of a white man.
• The police denied the claims, but Khumalo insisted that was the first of three assaults after his arrest.

The alleged getaway driver in lawyer Pete Mihalik's murder said he could not report the theft of his car on the day of the shooting because he was assaulted when he got to Sea Point police station in Cape Town.

"They came like rain," he said of the blows by three police officers who he allegedly hit him.

He was taken to the police station when his car left the scene of a traffic stop that was not related to Mihalik's murder on 30 October 2018.

The traffic officer said he walked back to the scene without his passenger. He claims the vehicle was stolen while he was getting his fine and that he was travelling alone.

Nkosinathi Khumalo is on trial for murder and attempted murder with Sizwe Biyela, who the State alleges was the passenger and the shooter, and Vuyile Maliti. All three pleaded not guilty.

Khumalo testified in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday that when he got to the police station with the traffic officer, he wanted to report that the reddish Renault Clio he borrowed from his friend had been stolen, but things went horribly wrong.

He said he was taken to a cell, kept there for three to four minutes, then taken to an office and asked questions about the murder of a white man he did not know.

He was linked to the incident through the convoy of a grey Renault Clio and VW Polo making its way out of the CBD minutes after the shooting. Khumalo claimed the traffic officer lied and that he was driving a reddish Clio.

They cuffed him from behind, and then the problems started, he testified.

"They then assaulted me with an open hand (sic). Then closed (sic) my head with a yellow plastic [bag]," Khumalo said.

"They were asking me about the death of someone. I told them I don't know anything, then they began to assault me."

READ | From phone pinging to a convoy crash: How police arrested 2 suspects for Mihalik murder

Khumalo said he only remembered Sergeant Isaac Tshabalala and did not know the name of the "tall man with spectacles" and a third person who had been present. On Tuesday, he remembered that he was also punched and said he forgot to tell his lawyer this.

The police deny the assaults.

The alleged assault was important, not just because assault was illegal, but because he alleged that he was forced into signing a statement of admissions he did not make.

In this contested document, he said he came to Cape Town from Empangeni to drive a taxi for Maliti in Sea Point. Before he knew it, he was watching a gun being handed over while he was in a vehicle, and hearing that a white man was to be killed.

He said his second assault happened when he was taken to Khayelitsha and slapped. He fell, and a policeman broke a branch off a tree and allegedly hit him with it until it broke. He said another officer kicked him in the head while he was down. Again, he forgot to tell his lawyer that he was also punched.

"It was really hard for me during that time," he said, by way of explanation for the omission.

The trial continues.