Accused tells of Berry family tensions

A SELF-confessed former drug peddler and murder suspect told the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday that he was aware of tensions between the Berry family and people who lived in properties belonging to gang kingpin Donovan “Staal” Berry following his murder.

Staal, 47, and his brother, Sean “Nako” Berry, 33, were shot dead just over a month apart in May and June 2016 respectively.

The state alleges that Sean was killed after tensions rose between the Berry family and people who had worked for Staal.

Testifying in court yesterday, Gregory Malie, 34, claimed that the Berry family had stormed into a drug den in Barends Street, Salt Lake, from where Staal had allegedly run his drug business.

Malie said the family demanded cars, property and money which had belonged to Staal and that money from the drug business be handed over to them.

“The conflict started about a week after Staal’s funeral.

“Me and friends were conducting Berry’s [drug] business when [Staal’s] family approached us [at the Barends Street house and] demanded cars, money and even property. This caused a lot of conflict.” Staal was shot dead in May 2016. Malie, along with several others who lived on the Barends Street premises, were allegedly evicted and banned from returning to the area.

A few weeks later Sean was shot dead in Barends Street, not far from his own home.

On the day of the shooting, Malie said, he and another man identified as Busta returned to the area to take Staal’s younger son to visit his father’s grave.

“In the afternoon myself, my girlfriend and two-year-old baby attended a social event in Uitenhage. “We were home by 8pm that night.” He denied being near the area where the shooting took place on the night of June 19.

Asked by prosecutor Liesel Landman why he had wanted to take Staal’s son to the graveyard, Malie said he felt it was his duty to do so because it was Father’s Day and he had been friends with Staal and knew the family well.

“I put it to you that you were angry because you were put out of the residence where you stayed, property was taken from you, as well as the [drug] business.

“That is why you, along with [Grootboom], shot and killed [Sean] Berry,” Landman said.

Malie admitted that he had known Staal was involved with the Spotbouers gang, but denied being part of the gang himself.

He also alleged that Sean was a member of the Boomshaka gang.

Malie and his co-accused, Sherwin Grootboom, 25, have been charged with murder, attempted murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Both men have pleaded not guilty. Grootboom is expected to take to the stand today.