MUNSHI MURDER
Beale in hiding, fears for his life
● Just hours after his colleague was gunned down in Johannesburg this week, paediatric surgeon professor Peter Beale fled his home and went into hiding.
Even his family has not had contact with him and does not know where he is.
“Keeping them in the dark is deliberate,” said a source with knowledge of the matter.
“It’s strategic. Beale’s family received a simple message via his lawyers and a close friend. They were told that he was safe, that they could not be contacted and that he will not be contacting them for now.”
Beale is charged with culpable homicide over the death of a prominent businessman’s 10-year-old son.
His co-accused, anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi, 57, was shot five times on Wednesday afternoon on the corner of First Street and Goodman Terrace in Fairwood, near Orange Grove, Johannesburg, while en route to his Houghton home.
The shooting happened moments after an unknown motorist, driving a dark-grey Mercedes-Benz with no number plates, crashed into Munshi’s black BMW.
As Munshi got out of his car, his attacker opened fire on him, shooting him in the head, chest and back.
The shooting has left the medical fraternity reeling, with some speculating that it could be linked to the court case.
Beale, 72, and Munshi, who appeared in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court last month, are accused of being responsible for the death of Mo Sayed’s son, Zayyaan. Sayed has strongly denied any involvement in the shooting,
Zayyaan died in October 2019 at Netcare’s Park Lane Clinic shortly after Beale performed what was meant to be a routine laparoscopic operation to stop reflux.
The two men, who were out on R10,000 bail each, were to appear in court again on November 16 for a trial date to be set.
The source would not say whether Beale had been placed in protective custody by the police or had gone into hiding of his own volition. A specialised team of detectives, who include crime intelligence agents, is investigating Munshi’s murder.
The source said people are very nervous, and precautions are being taken “for everyone’s safety”.
“No-one knows yet the motive of Munshi’s murder. It’s difficult to say if there is a link to the court case, but every red flag is way up in the air. There is a lot of distrust.”
Beale’s lawyer, Jeanne Albertse, said: “My client denies having received death threats.”
In an earlier phone interview, she said she was not at liberty to discuss the matter.
“The allegations are serious, that there is a link between the death of my client’s patient and Dr Munshi. If there is any truth in the allegations, I don’t want to be the one making the allegations.
“There is an attorney-client privilege between me and my client. I am not disclosing anything else other than saying he has not received death threats, according to him.”
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Sayed denied he had anything to do with Munshi’s murder.
“Naturally there is a lot of speculation about the motive for the murder and status of the case against the doctors. It seems some are now trying to use this unfortunate and tragic incident to delegitimise the ongoing court process.
“We would never do something like this. I have spent a substantial amount of funds and resources to bring this case to where it is, which is to the court to get justice.
“I am going to see this through to the end and will respect the court’s decision regardless of what it is.”
He said he had heard rumours that charges were being withdrawn,•“but that is absolute hogwash”. “The evidence is there. Beale and Munshi would not have been arrested if there was no evidence.
“People are claiming that the murder happened because the case was going to be dropped, but they are doing this because they don’t want to be held accountable.”
He said Beale still has to answer to the charges. “The one-year memorial of my son’s death is next month, and Munshi’s death has opened up so many old wounds.”
Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Mathapelo Peters did not answer questions on whether they had placed Beale in protective custody, saying: “The case will be investigated by a multidisciplinary team.”
She said the suspect’s identity is unknown.
Earlier this week, Health Professions Council of SA chair Dr Kgosi Letlape told eNCA Munshi’s death was a result of a failed legal system: “There are statutory provisions of how these matters [medical complaints] should be dealt with. In any procedural death, an inquest becomes mandatory, and depending on the outcome of the inquest — if the inquest recommends that there be criminal charges preferred against some of the participants, then you would do that.
“But to parade us as criminals, we then become vulnerable to vigilantism.”