‘He would have killed me and comforted my family’

A CITY security company boss, whose business partner tried to have him murdered nearly eight years ago, believes the man would have pretended to mourn at his funeral had the killing gone ahead.

“I’m quite sure (he) would have comforted my wife and my tiny children. It sickens me...

“My beautiful children could have grown up without a father because of that man, that man and his greed,” Alan Kusevitsky, the head of City Bowl Armed Response, said yesterday.

Kusevitsky spoke of his trauma on the witness stand while his former business partner, Grant Smith, sat 2m away in the dock in the Cape Town Regional Court.

Kusevitsky was testifying in aggravation of Smith’s sentence.

In September, Smith was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for plotting to kill Kusevitsky in 2008.

At the time Kusevitsky had suspected Smith, then the general manager of City Bowl Armed Response, of defrauding the company and was investigating this when he discovered Smith had paid R15 000 to have him killed.

Smith gave the money to his then- mistress and the company’s paramedic head, Joanne Neethling, to hire someone to carry out the murder. But the plot was foiled.

Yesterday sentencing in the matter resumed in the regional court.

While testifying, Kusevitsky said the planned attempt on his life had shaken him.

“To this day I suffer from insomnia.”

He said at the time his two children had been 1 year and 3 years old.

Kusevitsky said the possible impact of his murder on his children, had the culprits succeeded, still rattled him.

“That has plagued me the most. It’s something that has sat heavy on my heart all this time.”

He said the matter had placed strain on his marriage because his wife had constantly worried about their family’s safety. She was still fearful. Earlier during yesterday’s proceedings, Patricia Cawood, a social worker from a private practice, testified in mitigation of sentence.

She said after looking into Smith’s behaviour following his arrest, along with court papers and other reports into his circumstances, she felt a sentence that did not involve jail time would be suitable for him.

Cawood, who had two faceto-face sessions with Smith, said he had one previous conviction.

But said she had not found any evidence of delinquency, substance abuse or psychopathy in his history.

State prosecutor Johan Swart asked if she was aware that in 1985 Smith had been convicted on various theft and fraud charges.

Cawood replied: “I don’t know about this.”

She conceded she would have liked it if Smith had told her.

Swart said Smith’s omission of those convictions amounted to dishonesty. Cawood said because of her limited time with Smith, she could understand how that information may not have surfaced.

During cross- examination Cawood admitted she had been tasked to identify mitigating factors for Smith and she had been hired to do so.

Swart, therefore argued her findings were not objective.

The only other accused in the case, Neethling, was arrested when she handed the cash meant to hire a murderer to an undercover police officer.

She later pleaded guilty to her role in the saga and was sentenced to three years in jail in 2010 and has since been released.

Sentencing procedures against Smith are expected to resume next month.

When Weekend Argus tried to photograph him outside the Cape Town Regional Court yesterday, he fled, using his suit jacket to cover his face.

HAUNTED: Alan Kusevitsky.