Cape Town - After seven years of court proceedings, the former co-head of a city security company was this week convicted of planning to murder his business partner.
City Bowl Armed Response owner Alan Kusevitsky this week said he was relieved at the conviction of Grant Smith.
And he recalled how after hearing that his life was in danger he had helped police foil the plot.
Kusevitsky had assisted police by pretending he did not know about the plan, all the while knowing he could be killed at any moment and working closely alongside the man who wanted him dead.
These events unfolded seven years ago and led to a protracted court case.
The case, which involved members of City Bowl Armed Response being called as witnesses and which exposed an affair between the two accused in it, finally ended on Tuesday when Smith was convicted in the Cape Town Regional Court of conspiracy to commit murder.
“I’m so relieved. It was definitely worth the wait,” Kusevitsky said.
“When this started my daughter was 1 and my son was 3. My daughter is now 8. My family has had to live with this for seven years.”
Kusevitsky suspected Smith, the former general manager of City Bowl Armed Response, of defrauding the company and was investigating this when he discovered Smith had put up R15 000 to have him killed.
Smith gave the money to his then-mistress and the company’s paramedic head, Joanne Neethling, to hire someone to carry out the murder.
Neethling, who was arrested when she handed over the cash to an undercover police officer, pleaded guilty to her role in the saga and was sentenced to three years in jail in 2010. She has since been released.
This week William Booth, for Smith, said Smith, who is out on bail, was considering an appeal against the conviction.
The case was postponed to next month for sentencing.
Kusevitsky told Weekend Argus that if Smith decided to appeal, he would be fine with that.
He was simply relieved the main court proceedings had been finalised.
He recalled the moment in 2008 when he realised his life was in danger.
On a Sunday in late November in 2008, one of City Bowl Armed Response’s security guards had told him of the murder plot being planned by Smith and Neethling.
The next day a shocked Kusevitsky approached the Organised Crime Unit in Bellville to report what he had heard.
Instead of going into hiding or leaving Cape Town with his family, he had to carry on going to work.
“I had to pretend for a few days that I didn’t know (Smith) was planning to kill me. This was while the police planned a sting operation… I was walking past his office. (Neethling) was in there with him at times. It was tense.”
Kusevitsky feared that while the police were fine-tuning the sting, Neethling would get fed up trying to find a killer and would simply hire a random hitman.
“For a week I kept phoning (the police) and asking: ‘Can you do it now? Can you do it now?’”
Neethling was arrested on December 4, 2008, while Smith was arrested five days later.
“There’ve been so may court appearances and so many postponements.”
Kusevitsky said it felt at times that the case was being intentionally dragged out.
Despite the intense media interest in the case shortly after Smith and Neethling were arrested, City Bowl Armed Response had thrived as a business.
Saturday Argus