INSIDE R1M HIT ON MIHALIK
‘Middleman on run from cops and gangs’
● A R1m hit on Cape Town advocate Pete Mihalik was ordered from a prison cell, wellplaced sources have told the Sunday Times. The hit on Mihalik, who was shot dead on Tuesday while dropping off his two children at school, was at the behest of two senior figures in the Cape Town underworld, the sources said.
They are said to have approached a Gugulethu tavern owner serving time for armed robbery. In turn, the tavern owner approached a 35-year-old taxi boss in Khayelitsha to recruit the killers.
Two KwaZulu-Natal men, Sizwe Biyela, 26 and Nkosinathi Khumalo, 31, appeared in the Cape Town magistrate’s court on Thursday in connection with the shooting. According to the sources, they were paid R250,000 each and the taxi boss was paid R500,000. Mihalik’s murder sent specialised police units and an army of underworld members scouring the Cape Flats this week for the alleged middleman.
“It’s not taxi violence,” a source said. “This thing is big, rough and dangerous. People are freaking out. The two guys from KZN were paid big money for this.
“There is one guy outstanding, and yes, let me just say, he is the link. “Either someone is going to take him out before justice comes or he will just disappear.
“Unless he lawyers up and makes sure he’s protected, then someone will try to take him out because he is the only one who can talk and say where it [the hit] comes from.”
One source said the taxi boss was still in hiding on Friday. “Everyone is looking [for the middleman],” the source said. “He is calling people from a private number, he is so scared.”
Mihalik represented numerous gangsters‚ and initially there was widespread suspicion that his murder could be linked to one of the cases he was involved in.
A number of sources said Mihalik defended rival gangs in their skirmishes with the law, and this could have put his life in danger as adversaries felt he double-crossed them.
A source said one of the men was arrested near Atlantis and the other was arrested in “Khayelitsha or Langa somewhere”.
At the crime scene, outside Reddam House Atlantic Seaboard, “various cops arrived from stations … among them very skilled policemen, guys who are on the straight and narrow”, he said.
“Those guys started investigating … and asked questions around the houses and they got video footage which showed how the guy got out the car, walked up to the window [and] everything. They got the number plate, sent the signal out and that is how these guys were arrested.”
The Sunday Times understands there will not be a public funeral for Mihalik, and he will be cremated once his autopsy is completed.
“I think the feeling is that any kind of public memorial will end up being a bloodbath. It’s just not safe,” said another source close to the advocate.
Mihalik, 50, was killed as he dropped off his eight-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter at 7.35am on Tuesday. A man walked up to his new R2.3m Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 and fired two shots through the driver’s door window. The gunman fled the scene in a silver VW Polo driven by an accomplice.
Biyela and Khumalo, from Umlazi, were charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition on Thursday.
Further attempted murder charge
According to the charge sheet‚ the alleged hitmen inflicted “serious and potentially lifethreatening injuries” on Mihalik’s son and were in possession of a 9mm firearm. Prosecutor Helene Booysen said the state intended adding a further attempted murder charge “regarding a female child”. She asked the court to postpone the matter for seven days for further investigation.
“The accused hail from KZN. The investigating officer has asked for seven days to ascertain that the accused have fixed addresses‚” said Booysen.
She asked for the men to be held at Sea Point police station as detention in prison would endanger their lives. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said one of the men had been out on bail in connection with another killing, “which happened out of his province”.
The men were not legally represented and Biyela opted for a legal aid lawyer. A legal source said: “No lawyer wants to touch them in Cape Town.”
Prominent Cape Town lawyer William Booth, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, said: “I really don’t want to comment on the matter at this stage.
“I knew him [Mihalik] very, very well. I have known him and his wife and friends for many, many years, since he was a prosecutor in the lower courts.”
There is one guy, and let me just say, he is the link. Either someone is going to take him out or he’ll just disappear