Ex-cop denies getting hitman

Former policeman Brian Treasurer. Photo: File

Former policeman Brian Treasurer. Photo: File

Published Sep 10, 2015

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Durban - The man alleged to have secured the gunman to kill Pietermaritzburg doctor Bhavish Sewram outside his Chota Motala Road surgery in May 2013 maintained on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the murder.

Testifying in his defence in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, former policeman Brian Treasurer, 53, said when he drove Sabelo Dlamini and Mfaniseni Nxumalo to the doctor’s surgery, he did not know they were going to kill Sewram.

Dlamini pleaded guilty to being the gunman and was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Nxumalo is standing trial with Treasurer.

Treasurer said he was building a crèche in Copesville and both men came looking for a job. He employed them. On the day of the murder, he went to Nxumalo’s house to meet Sabelo so that he could pay him for work done on the crèche.

He added that he had a long chat with Nxumalo about the crèche and what still needed to be done. He then took the men to the surgery because they asked him to.

“I was elated that the school was finished and I would have taken them anywhere.”

Asked by Nxumalo’s attorney, Di Franklin, why her client and Dlamini would implicate him in the murder, he said: “I won’t be able to answer that. I don’t know.”

Treasurer also said he had no reason to kill the doctor, whom he had not known.

The State’s case was that a businessman, Rajivee Soni, had hired Treasurer to get someone to kill the doctor because he had an affair with Soni’s wife. The State alleged that Treasurer had procured the services of Dlamini, the triggerman, and Nxumalo.

Soni has also been charged, and his trial is to take place at the end of the month.

The Mercury

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