‘Killer’ in attendance at Wiggill memorial service
THE man arrested for killing businessman Jeff Wiggill on June 19 went to his memorial service days later wearing the same jacket and takkies as on the night of the shooting.
This is among new details obtained by the Sunday Times that appear to indicate that Wiggill conspired with his “hit man” days before the shooting on a deserted road near Soweto.
Private investigators this week confirmed that they recognised Thulani Cele, 38, from surveillance footage of him getting into Wiggill’s Bentley coupé hours before the chairman of engineering conglomerate First Tech was found with three bullet wounds in the head.
Wiggill, it appears, knew his killer and had a R4-billion reason to want to die.
The Sunday Times was able to confirm this week that Cele was an employee at one of Wiggill’s companies, First Tech Lighting and Electrical.
Investigators now believe that Wiggill, who managed the company finances, masterminded monumental fraud over the 20 years since he and CEO Andy Bertulis founded the company.
Former First Tech executive Leon Kapp described the deception this week as an “elaborate pyramid scheme”, which was days away from being exposed when Wiggill was murdered.
Rumours surfaced this week of Wiggill’s links to a gay prostitution ring called the Black Stallions, according to investigators.
The Sunday Times has seen e-mails confirming that Wiggill paid at least one man for sex. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Cele told the police he had been Wiggill’s lover.
Cele directed the Sunday Times to his lawyer, Dumi Lesumo, who was unavailable for comment.
Wiggill’s partner of nine years, estate agent Alex Dicks, declined to comment on the allegations. Dicks has maintained he knows nothing of Wiggill’s finances.
Wiggill’s finances were in chaos and sources close to the case said this may have prompted him to arrange his own murder in order to allow his family, including Dicks, to collect on insurance.
Text messages show that at about 5pm on the night Wiggill was killed, he sent an SMS to Dicks to say he would be home late. He then drove from the First Tech head office in Benrose to Melrose Arch, in northern Johannesburg.
A combination of video footage, cellphone records and a vehicletracking device indicate that he drove around for a while and then made his way to a block of flats on Menton Road in Auckland Park.
Security surveillance shows Wiggill’s Bentley pulling up outside the entrance of the building, the passenger door being opened from the inside and Cele, who lives in the building, getting in.
Soon after the pair had driven away, Wiggill used mobile messaging device WhatsApp to send Bertulis a message about work.
At about 10pm, Ari Snyman, a security officer at First Tech, who was driving to Richards Bay to one of the company plants, received a call from Bertulis, Snyman told the Sunday Times.
Snyman said Bertulis asked him if he knew whether Wiggill had a tracking device in his car, because Bertulis could not get hold of him.
GPS coordinates of Wiggill’s car showed it was parked on the outskirts of Soweto. Wiggill’s body was later found close by.
The engine was switched off, the doors closed and the compartments inside the car were shut. There was no sign of a hurried search for items of value.
There was also no sign that Wiggill, a tall man, had struggled with his killer.
Wiggill was fit and usually went to gym at least once a day. There were no scuff marks in the dust beside the car. There is no evidence he tried to escape or fight his killer. He is thought to have knelt and allowed himself to be shot in the back of the head.
Cele, who has been released on R10 000 bail, told the Protea Glen Magistrate’s Court that he had been promised R100 000 for the killing, but Snyman said no evidence of this had been found.
Cele also told the court that a second person had been at the scene on the night. No one else has been arrested, however.
Snyman said it would be logical for Cele to have arranged for someone to pick him up.
First Tech investors, including pension funds and Nedbank and Standard Bank, potentially stand to lose hundreds of millions.
The depth of the deception at First Tech is only starting to emerge — and Wiggill’s apparent effort to disguise his death as a botched hijacking seems only the tip of it.