“He should have known harm would come to Colonel Kinnear.”
This is the opinion of a top Hawks detective assigned to investigate the murder of slain Anti-Gang Unit detective, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, the Western Cape High Court heard Thursday.
After weeks on the stand, Captain Edward du Plessis appeared determined while coming under cross-examination by defence teams at the mammoth underworld trial of alleged kingpin, Nafiz Modack and several others.
The group have been slapped with over 100 charges for various criminal cases centred around the death of Kinnear, who was assassinated outside his Bishop Lavis home on 18 September 2020.
Du Plessis, who has revealed how Kinnear and others - including lawyer William Booth - were allegedly tracked by accused Zane Killian, told the court after his appointment to the National Task Team he received a threatening call informing him of a R1 million bounty on his head.
He explained that while working at the Hawks office in Bellville he received a call from a private number, where a man told him: “Daar is ‘n miljoen op jou kop.”
Cellphone records were subpoenaed from Vodacom and cops later charged Modack’s co-accused, Petrus Visser, with intimidation.
Visser has denied placing the call.
Responding to questions posed by Killian’s lawyer, Advocate Pieter Nel, Du Plessis told the court that he did not believe Killian’s version that he did not know what was being done with the ping information.
He revealed that when analysing Killian’s pings, it was found that 72% of these were done for Modack.
The adamant detective told the court that after the botched hit on Booth at his Higgovale home and before the murder of Kinnear, he believed Killian should have known Kinnear was under threat.
He told the court: “He should have known harm would come to Colonel Kinnear.”
Du Plessis said Kinnear’s killer must have obtained the information from Modack and stated that Kinnear was not being tracked to gauge where he would affect arrests, but to find out when he would be arriving home.
Modack’s lawyer, Advocate Bash Sibda, objected, saying Du Plessis was stating allegations as fact, but the detective hit back saying Killian stated this himself during his bail hearings.
Another accused, Amaal Jantjies, also denied any guilt on the money laundering charges after bank records revealed that she had received R64 000 from the Empire Investment bank account.
She claimed she worked for an attorney known as Karriem Abdul and that the payments were for clients fees that she was instructed to receive in her personal bank account.
The case continues.