Johannesburg -
Mikey Schultz’s blue eyes are cold. He lifts up a gun, focuses and shoots, red sparks flying out the barrel.
He has just re-enacted the night he pulled the trigger and killed businessman Brett Kebble.
This shot can be seen in a movie trailer on YouTube, a documentary that profiles one of the most unusual, high-profile killings in South African history.
The trailer of 204: Getting Away With Murder was released on Friday in anticipation of the movie launch on October 24.
Director Warren Batchelor has described the story of Kebble’s murder as “so bizarre, it should be fiction” and has promised audiences that Kebble’s killers – Schultz, Nigel McGurk and Faizel “Kappie” Smith – would reveal all.
Speaking to the Daily News’s sister paper, The Star, on Monday, Batchelor said that as far as he knew, the documentary was the first time self-confessed gunmen have re-enacted their crime on film.
Schultz, McGurk and Smith all received full indemnity for the Kebble killing through section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act, in exchange for testifying for the state.
Batchelor said he had exclusive rights to the story of the three triggermen.
“It took a lot of time to earn their trust,” he said. “These men simply wanted their side of the story out there. They were vilified in the press. This isn’t about them wanting fame either, it’s just them being brave enough to give their side of what happened.”
The documentary features, among others, Kebble’s brother Guy and father Roger, Jackie Selebi, convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, advocate Vusi Pikoli and investigator Piet Byleveld.
Batchelor said that while everything in the documentary had come out publicly if one dug deep enough, it would be a revelation for most of the public. “I am not regurgitating a court case.”
He said he also got an interview with disgraced top cop Selebi, conducted two years ago, after he had been convicted but before his appeal was heard.
He plans to include full interviews in extras once the docu-drama is released on DVD. Batchelor said he knew he would be questioned about the ethics of re-enacting a murder scene, but he saw nothing wrong with showing people what happened, particularly if it allowed the public to really question why section 204 notices were given out.
“Everyone literally got away with murder. These men were pawns in a bigger story, but they still got off scot-free. In the end, a man lost his life there. He was shot at close range with eight bullets.”
Batchelor said the murder scene was as accurate as they could make it. It was filmed at the same time of night, at the same spot, using the same model car and a model of the same firearm used that night.
The film may put South Africa’s justice system in the hot seat.
Guy Kebble hopes it will make people angry.
“I think, to be honest, we are sick and tired of it because justice has never been served,” he said.
He said the family could not go back and change what happened, but he hoped that by showing people what really happened to his brother nearly nine years ago, they would start to question the legal system.
“We have criminals walking our streets as heroes. Look at the Oscar case. How is that justice? It’s all wrong. In my brother’s case, nobody went on trial. It was wrong.”
Two years ago there were reports that the triggermen had been paid R1 million to film the documentary.
Organised crime investigator, Chad Thomas, asked if the men benefited in any way, quoting the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which makes it an offence to benefit from the proceeds of crime.
Batchelor denies any payment being involved.
Forensic investigator, Paul O’Sullivan, said he thought the film was disgraceful.
“On paper those men may not have been paid, but they will benefit somehow.”