A convicted killer who was sentenced to 55 years in prison has told the court he murdered his victim on the orders of alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack.
Abongile Nqodi, 35, was sentenced in the Khayelitsha Priority Court last week for the murder of Nicholaas Heerschap, 74, who was shot in a hit meant for his son, outside their home in Melkbosstrand in 2019.
The son, a former member of the Hawks, Warrant Officer Nico Heerschap, was investigating Modack’s security company at the time.
Nqodi told the court he was a member of the 28s prison gang and the Terrible West Siders, which operated in Woodstock.
In his plea and sentencing agreement, he confessed that together with three accomplices, Riyaat Gesant, Fagmeed Kelly and Mario Petersen, he drove to an address in Melkbosstrand to kill the Hawks detective on July 9, 2019.
The court heard that upon arrival, they noticed a white man reversing a Toyota Land Cruiser out of the yard.
Nqodi and Gesant, who was a back-up shooter, went up to the vehicle and Nqodi shot the driver twice in the head.
The victim turned out to be their intended target’s elderly father.
The court heard they were paid R25 000 for the hit, which was split five ways, reports IOL.
Nqodi also told the court that he met with Modack later in Kuils River where he was “congratulated on a job well done”.
He said Modack allegedly told him not to be concerned about legal fees as it would be covered, and allegedly gave him the name of the lawyer who would be representing him.
Nqodi confessed to murdering his victim on instructions he received from Modack and Moegamat Toufeeq Brown, the leader of the Terrible West Siders.
He also fingered Modack as the one who paid for the hit.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, Eric Ntabazalila, said the court sentenced Nqodi to 25 years imprisonment for murder with five years suspended, 10 years in jail for the illegal possession of a firearm, another 10 years imprisonment for the illegal possession of ammunition, five years for participating in gang activity and five years for conspiracy to commit murder.
“The court ordered that sentences imposed for participating in the activities of a gang, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition, run concurrently with the sentence handed down for murder.
“The court ordered that 12 years of the sentence for murder, run concurrently with the sentence he is serving for a case he was convicted for, at the Cape Town Regional Court.
“He is currently serving 15 years in that case,” he said.
During arguments for aggravation of sentencing, prosecutor Advocate Adenaan Gelderblom said that the murder was premeditated, and aimed at the Hawks officer who was investigating Modack.
“He [Nqodi] has agreed to confess against other gang members involved in the murder of Nicolaas Paulus Heerschap.
“He will also testify as a state witness in the case of the murder of a tow truck driver, the attempted murder of Andre Naude and the conspiracy to kill Cape Town lawyer, William Booth, to which crimes he has already confessed and did pointing-outs related thereto.
“The State takes cognisance that its case would have been faced with challenges without the voluntary cooperation of the accused,” Gelderblom told the court.
Modack has been in prison for over a year and is due to go on trial soon to face an array of charges including the murder of Anti-Gang Unit commander Colonel Charl Kinnear.