Notorius underworld figures Mikey Schultz and Nigel McGurk are legally entitled to carry no fewer than nine firearms between them – despite having confessed to the murder in 2005 of mining magnate Brett Kebble.
Saturday Star can reveal that the former Hell’s Angel and Elite Security Services kingpin, Schultz – the trigger man in the sensational Kebble murder – was reissued with licences for five firearms on December 5.
Accomplice McGurk had four restored to him.
The licences were taken away when the two, with Faisal “Kappie” Smith, were arrested for the “assisted suicide” of Kebble.
The three, controversially, were given indemnity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against the alleged criminal mastermind, Glenn Agliotti.
Describing the reissuing of firearm licences to confessed murderers as a “red flag to the public”, Alan Storey, chairman of Gun Free South Africa, said the development indicated the police’s Central Firearm Register was failing in its duties.
“The FCA (Firearms Control Act) clearly states at Chapter 5, Section 9 (2d) that only applicants who are ‘of stable mental condition and… not inclined to violence’ be granted the privilege of a firearm licence – whether new or renewed.”
Both Schultz and McGurk have a long history of violent behaviour and have been implicated in killings and assaults on several occasions.
Schultz, 37, is now licensed to use a Vektor rifle, a Colt pistol, a 9mm Astra, a 9mm Glock and a .40 cal S&W Taurus.
McGurk, 40, has been licensed for two shotguns, a Maverick and an Eibar, as well as a .38 Special Taurus and a .40 cal S&W Heckler & Koch.
Police documents show that the five licences for Schultz were reissued on December 5 and the four for McGurk on September 8.
Kebble was gunned down in Atholl-Oaklands Road, Melrose, Joburg on the bridge over the M1 on the night of September 27, 2005. Schultz, McGurk and Smith have maintained that Kebble, who was in deep financial trouble, wanted to die, and that they assisted him to commit suicide.
The three men were promised R500 000 each to kill him.
Yesterday national police spokesman Captain Dennis Adriao confirmed that police were aware of one of the five firearm licences being reissued to Schultz, and that they were investigating how he managed to get it.
Adriao declined, however, to either confirm or deny the other eight weapons’ licences that Saturday Star can prove were given back to the pair.
Adriao was reticent, even when provided with the full particulars about the firearms in question – including the makes, calibres, codes, serial numbers and dates of issue and reissue of the firearms, along with the identity numbers of both Schultz and McGurk.
In what was a bizzarely botched killing, Schultz’s gun failed to discharge the first and second times he attempted to kill Kebble.
After inspecting the weapon, Schultz and his accomplices then returned, by his own court testimony, to finish the job.
“I could see the disappointment in his face, he gave me a look like to say ‘get this over with, you’re putting me through hell’,” Schultz testified.
“I pulled the trigger. This time the gun fired.
“I kept firing.”
Schultz, McGurk and Smith were given immunity from prosecution for the Kebble murder, according to Section 204 of the Criminal Procedures Act, because they agreed to testify against the man who allegedly masterminded Kebble’s murder, convicted drug trafficker Glen Agliotti.
Agliotti was acquitted of murdering Kebble in November 2010.
Schultz and McGurk both took part in various gun and knife fights during their time as bouncers for the Elite security firm that protected Joburg’s nightclubs and entertainment venues during the early 2000s, the years preceding the Kebble shooting.
Besides killing Kebble, Schultz and McGurk also arranged the shooting of an enemy of Brett Kebble, Allan Gray and chief investment officer Stephen Mildenhall. He survived after being shot three times in the driveway of his home in Claremont, Cape Town, at 7pm on August 31, 2005. The attack on Mildenhall, of which Agliotti was also acquitted, took place just a month before Kebble was killed.
Schultz has reportedly said Kebble informed them, after the Mildenhall shooting, that he (Kebble) wanted to kill himself because the shooting of Mildenhall hadn’t worked.
Schultz then told McGurk and Smith about the plan, before they killed Kebble.
According to a book written by journalist Mandy Weiner, Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed:
l Schultz shot himself in the toe with a friend’s gun at a club brawl in Northcliff;
l Schultz shot an alleged drug runner, Renier Groenewald, in his stomach. He killed him outside a nightclub in Blackheath, but was released from custody when ballistics found the gun to be volatile;
l Schultz and McGurk killed a member of the Hell’s Angels called Red, by shooting him dead in the Jazz Town Café during a turf war. Charges against the two were dropped a day after they were taken into custody at the Booysens police station; and
l McGurk was arrested for defeating the ends of justice during the murder of Patrick Cuetano, a doorman at a Boksburg nightclub. A tog bag filled with Cuetano’s bloodied clothes was found in McGurk’s possession, but he was later released.
When contacted yesterday, Schultz became angry when the conversation turned to the weapons’ licences.
He said: “That’s my personal thing and if you write anything about it, I’m going to ask my lawyer to sue you. That’s all I have to say.”
He ended the call: “Go and f... yourself.”
During an interview with McGurk on Thursday, he also refused to comment on the issuing of the licences.
“You will have to speak to my lawyer, Ian Small-Smith, about that,” he said. - Henriette Geldenhuys, Warda Meyer and Ivor Powell