Cape Town - “I could foresee trouble coming.”
This was the spine-chilling description of a former cop as he laid bare the events that led up to the assassination of Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective Charl Kinnear in the Western Cape High Court.
The shocking testimony by Bradley Goldblatt exposed the numerous warnings he gave that Kinnear was in danger in the weeks leading up to his murder.
Goldblatt, who provided access to the LAD platform to Zane Kilian in order for Kinnear and his colleague to be tracked via the pinging of their cellphones, has been indemnified from prosecution, despite evidence showing that his platform violated the privacy rights of individuals.
In his much-anticipated testimony in the mammoth underworld trial against alleged kingpin Nafiz Modack, Goldblatt revealed that it had cost just a few thousand rand for those accused of plotting Kinnear’s murder to have access to his whereabouts and personal information.
He told the court that he had no authority to run the platform and sold pings to Kilian for R2 100 for 50 pings.
He said he used MarisIT credit checking platform, to which he sold access to Kilian for just R5 000.
He says Kilian became a client in 2019 and was regarded as a “bad payer”, but this changed in March 2020 when he suddenly started purchasing more pings and paid upfront and even bought pings in bulk and allegedly told Goldblatt it was being arranged through Modack.
Goldblatt said a month before Kinnear’s assassination, he noted that Kilian’s use of the platform had become excessive and he found that one number had been pinged multiple times.
After some research he discovered that the number belonged to Kinnear and subsequently conducted his own research on the numbers pinged by Kilian and discovered the numbers of
Kinnear’s colleagues at AGU as well as criminal lawyer William Booth.
After reading a newspaper article about the shooting at Booth’s home a few months earlier, he realised there was a possible safety risk and contacted the Hawks.
“I could foresee trouble coming because I knew about Booth.”
Goldblatt said he met with Warrant Officer Wynand Olivier who reported it to his superiors.
Goldblatt said he blocked Kilian’s usage and lied to him, saying the system was down, but later Olivier told him that Kinnear had been provided with protection and that he should reinstate Kilian’s usage on the platform so the Hawks could track him.
Goldblatt also revealed that as the usage became more excessive he started becoming nervous and was calling Olivier up to three times a day as he was worried that something would happen to Kinnear.
He was played a telephone recording between Olivier and former AGU boss André Lincoln, where Lincoln allegedly told him that Kinnear was being protected by the SAPS Task Force.
The State also revealed a series of WhatsApp texts between Goldblatt and Kilian amid requests for more pings.
The trial continues.
Cape Argus