SHAIN GERMANER
THEY may have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges against them, but Bradford “Bad Brad” Wood and four co-accused were allegedly armed to the teeth on the day the bodies of four illegal miners were found under their watch.
Wood, Nico Pretorius, Herbie Trouw, Willem Coetzer and Mickey Mazelem are facing four charges of murder and five of attempted murder after a violent gunfight with illegal miners at the Aurora Mine in Benoni last year.
Wood, who headed security at the mine, alleged that it had been a nerve-racking and confusing few minutes in the shaft, where a shot fired by one of the miners had turned into a firefight, resulting in numerous deaths.
The murder trial of the group began yesterday, and according to two security guards on duty on the day of the incident, the former Big Brother star had brought a cache of guns to combat a group of illegal miners at the Ndlovu shaft.
Dumisani Mdlalose had been working as a security guard for the mine in August last year, and told the court how Wood, along with the other four accused, had arrived as part of an attempt to remove the illegal miners in the Ndlovu shaft.
Mdlalose told the Delmas High Court how Trouw, an underground manager for Aurora, had arrived at the shaft at around 9am to tell Mdlalose and a fellow security guard that a group was set to investigate the mine for illegal workers.
Coetzer, the mine overseer, arrived next, and shortly after, Wood followed in his BMW X5.
Mdlalose said Mazelem, Pretorius and three other employees of Wood’s security company arrived a few minutes later. The men began to arm themselves.
Wood allegedly opened the boot of his car and removed numerous small firearms, arming himself with a scoped automatic rifle and a pistol, while providing handguns and large amounts of ammunition for Pretorius and Mazelem. The group then put on safety equipment such as hard hats and gumboots.
The five men then entered the shaft. The next Mdlalose saw of the group, they had apprehended five illegal miners and contacted the police to come for the arrests.
In a similar statement, fellow security guard Sifiso Mahlangu confirmed the preparation and arrests.
While Wood’s original statement submitted to the court said he had been armed with large and small firearms, it did not mention him equipping his colleagues.
Wood said the group had been several kilometres underground in the disused tunnel, with no light but a single torch and lights on their helmets, when they heard voices and saw other lights ahead of them.
A single gunshot from the other side rang out, and Wood fired dozens of bullets in the direction of his attackers before fleeing.
Wood and Pretorius’s defence lawyer, Christo Meiring, pointed out the differences between Mdlalose’s testimony and his police statement taken on the day of the incident.
Meiring observed that Mdlalose’s police statement had neglected to mention the distribution of weapons from Wood’s car, nor whether Mazelem had also entered the shaft with the group.
“We have established it appears you have forgotten quite a few important things in your statement,” said Meiring.
Meiring also attempted to discredit the security guards who did not fall under Wood’s company, saying that another witness’s testimony accused them of accepting bribes to allow illegal miners inside, a fact vehemently denied by Mdlalose and Mahlangu.