Johannesburg - Convicted drug trafficker
Glenn Agliotti provided the R2m for mining tycoon
Brett Kebble's "assisted suicide", the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Tuesday.
On September 22 2005 when arrangements were initially made to carry out the killing, state witness and one of the hitmen Nigel McGurk told the court he received a call from Agliotti asking him to "call off the boys".
This infuriated McGurk, who was employed by Kebble's head of security Clinton Nassif, because it meant another person was now aware of what he and two other state witnesses, boxer Michael Schultz and Faizel Smith, were about to do.
Agliotti is facing two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, one of attempted murder and a murder charge. Two of these charges relate to Kebble's death.
The broad-shouldered and balding McGurk said he especially had not wanted Agliotti to know about it.
"Because he talks too much... he was the last person I wanted to know what I'm about to do," he told the court.
"I was never fond of
Glenn Agliotti," he said. Agliotti used phrases like "show me love, show me love", and referred to Schultz and McGurk as "the boys", which irritated him.
Nassif had told them Agliotti knew about the shooting because "he's got the relationship with
Brett Kebble... and he's getting the finances".
Nassif, Schultz, Smith and McGurk were to split the R2m to help Kebble to kill himself.
McGurk testified he met Agliotti at a club called The Grand a few months after Kebble was shot and that he still had not been paid.
Agliotti then told McGurk that he had already paid Nassif the money owed.
Defence attorney advocate Laurence Hodes SC dismissed McGurk's comments linking Agliotti to the money as "ridiculous" and described the meeting at The Grand as "nonsense".
He repeatedly asked McGurk why the meeting at The Grand did not appear in his statement.
McGurk said the information emerged during consultation, when his memory of the events was jogged further.
"Something goes off in your mind and you remember what happened. I can't answer in any other way... I'm sorry it doesn't satisfy you."
Big motivation Hodes said McGurk spent five days giving the statement, yet did not mention that "in your mind Mr Agliotti was responsible for the money".
"I will argue to the court that it's an after-the-fact fabrication," Hodes said.
McGurk, at pains to explain himself, said: "I know you don't like this answer... but through consultation I explained I had that meeting at The Grand... then I got my money."
McGurk told the court no specific amounts were mentioned at the meeting with Agliotti, but that he had specifically asked for payment for "shooting Kebble".
The money was a big motivation for McGurk who said after he had been paid, he had "closure" on the killing.
He told the court he had done wrong, but he did it for the money.
"I knew it wasn't right to do what we did. But Mr Kebble wanted to go. The man had the biggest balls I have ever seen."
McGurk said Kebble had the "biggest kahunas" because he endured three attempts at committing his "assisted suicide". McGurk, Schultz and Smith bungled the killing three times, first because their car overheated, then because their gun jammed twice.
McGurk said he told Schultz not to tell Kebble's head of security Clinton Nassif that the gun had jammed.
"It didn't look too professional," he said, stirring muffled giggles from the gallery.
Judge Frans Kgomo asked McGurk if he knew at the time of the murder, on September 27 2005, that killing Kebble was wrong. He replied: "Yes".
Hodes repeated the line of questioning he used on Schultz during his cross examination on Monday, asking McGurk whether, to his knowledge, Agliotti had "aided" or "procured" the murder of
Brett Kebble, to which McGurk, like Schultz, replied "no".
- Sapa