A prominent Joburg businessman has admitted that his cash funded the R1 million killing of Brett Kebble - but maintains that it was by accident.
"I didn't know what I was paying for," James Murray, a former business partner of self-admitted Kebble shooting mastermind Clint Nassif, told The Star yesterday.
Murray claims he was tricked into paying Kebble's hitmen when he attempted to pay back money he owed to Nassif after a failed property deal.
He was responding to claims made against him in a DVD recording of convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, aired yesterday in the Jackie Selebi corruption trial.
In the recording, Agliotti - the only person to be charged for Kebble's murder - reveals that Murray was the person who had paid the three hitmen allegedly hired to carry out Kebble's shooting as part of an "assisted suicide" plot.
"After they arrested me (for Kebble's murder), I said 'Do you want to know who paid for it?', and I had no role to play in it. I gave them the paper trail. James Murray, an associate of Nassif ... he owed Nassif money, he paid Nassif. Nassif paid (Kebble hitman Mikey) Schultz," Agliotti said in the recording.
Speaking to The Star, Murray explained that Nassif had put a R1m deposit on a property he owned on the Pecanwood golf estate, but failed to buy it.
After two years of waiting for Nassif to pay up for the property, Murray said he decided to sell it to someone else and to give Nassif's deposit back to him.
"He (Nassif) then sent me a letter instructing me to pay the R1 million through to three entities, which I remember being three companies ... I did what he asked."
Four to five months later, Murray said he was shocked when the Scorpions told him what the money had been used for. He said he had severed all ties with Nassif because "I want nothing more to do with the man".
Murray also denied claims made by Agliotti that he had paid R200 000 to buy Selebi's support - an allegation that is not part of the State's case against Selebi.
In one of his multiple affidavits, Agliotti claimed Murray gave him cash to pay Selebi if the company he was partners in with Nassif, Xantium Technology Holdings, received two contracts it sought.
After Xantium's document did not comply with tender requirements and the contract was awarded to Mecer, Agliotti said he repaid the R200 000 to Murray.
Murray yesterday said he had demanded his money back after Nassif told him that the cash was for Selebi, "who I had never even met".
"I had paid the money to Glenn as a consulting fee ... It had nothing to do with Selebi," he said.
In the DVD recording, Agliotti also revealed for the first time what he believed had driven Kebble to orchestrate his own death.
"His problem was, it was an assisted suicide because now after the fact we all know why ... Because at the time he got into so much financial trouble. He'd gone to Investec to raise big money and couldn't see the way out ...
"He then planned it with Nassif and I believe that they met with Schultz, I don't know, I can't confirm that ... but they planned it, they prayed about it, they had dry runs, they had the whole thing."
Agliotti insists in the DVD that the Scorpions charged him for the murder, even though he was not involved in it, to pressure him to testify against Selebi.