Cape Town - The Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective who worked alongside Charl Kinnear said on Wednesday that he could not speak for the slain detective whose credibility is under the spotlight as the Western Cape High Court hears further evidence in the trial of the three men accused of killing lawyer Pete Mihalik.
Sizwe Biyela, Vuyile Maliti and Nkosinathi Khumalo are charged with the murder of Mihalik, who was shot and killed while dropping off his two children at Reddam House School on October 30, 2018.
Mihalik died of a gunshot wound to the head, while his son was injured during the attack.
Khumalo has disputed his warning statement, recorded by Kinnear. Khumalo claimed that Kinnear watched while he was being tortured by fellow police officers.
Khumalo’s new lawyer, advocate Pieter Nel, went through the statement on Wednesday as he pointed out to former AGU detective Simon Hlatshaneni that throughout the document there were inconsistencies regarding initials and signatures which are required in a document of this nature.
Hlatshaneni testified on Monday that he was a member of the AGU at the time and was often called by Kinnear to interpret English to Zulu. He was requested to meet Kinnear at 4am, a day after Mihalik was killed, for the sake of Kinnear’s interview with Khumalo.
He said that he arrived at the Cape Town Central police station where he first met Khumalo on November 1, 2018.
“To me he looked very fine and he was relaxed. It was my first time seeing Mr Khumalo,” he said.
He told the court that the interview lasted an hour and he interpreted accordingly as Kinnear recorded the information.
Advocate Nel however put it to Hlatshaneni that Khumalo had never seen him before, that he never acted as an interpreter in the interview and that the interview was not on November 1, but October 30 when his client was assaulted.
“That is not true. He was not assaulted at this interview,” Hlatshaneni said.
Nel then said: “He told the police he was not involved in the arrest offences, he knows nothing... on all those questions, the police didn’t ask those questions to him.”
Hlatshaneni responded: “The questions were put to him and the answers were coming from him... all the questions here, they were asked and he answered them.”
Nel said that, according to his client, a statement with unknown content was put in front of him and Kinnear, without reading the statement to him, told him to sign, which Hlatshaneni also denied.
According to Nel, Khumalo had previously been able to recognise the police officers who were involved in his torture in court but that they were not present yesterday.
Going into the contents of the statement, Nel said that Kinnear recorded Khumalo telling him that the driver of the Renault Clio - identified as one of the getaway vehicles - was Maliti, but undisputed evidence before the court was that Khumalo was the driver.
At that point, Acting Judge Constance Nziweni intervened and said it was unfair to ask Hlatshaneni about what Kinnear recorded as Hlatshaneni had already made it clear that he was merely an interpreter.
The trial continues on Thursday.