Glenn Agliotti, the man charged with murdering mining boss Brett Kebble in September 2005, pleaded not guilty to four charges on Monday morning in the South Gauteng High Court.
The Kebble murder trial got under way after numerous postponements since Agliotti’s arrest in November 2006.
State prosecutor Dan Dakana added two more charges to the indictment against Agliotti on Monday morning. They are the attempted murder of Allan Gray fund manager Stephen Mildenhall in August 2005 and conspiracy to murder Mildenhall and mining bosses Danie Nortier, Mark Bristow and Mark Wellesley-Wood.
The two other charges against Agliotti are the murder of Kebble and conspiracy to murder Kebble.
Bouncer-turned-boxer Mikey Schultz was the state’s first witness on Monday morning. Schultz, dressed in a black suit and tie, testified about an alleged hit-list Kebble gave to his security boss, Clinton Nassif.
On the hit list were the names of a number of businessmen and noseweek editor, Martin Welz.
The Scorpions, who took over the murder investigation from the police in 2006, came under fire for dishing out indemnity agreements to Nassif, Schultz and other people implicated in the murder. The state has argued Agliotti and Kebble’s former business associate, John Stratton, were the masterminds behind the hit.
Stratton currently lives in Australia and efforts to extradite him to South Africa has been under way for a number of years.
Agliotti will not be prosecuted by state prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who headed the Scorpions’ investigation into the criminal network around Kebble. Prosecutions boss Menzi Simelane removed Nel and his team from the case earlier this year to focus on prosecuting Selebi.
The prosecution will be led by Johannesburg prosecutor Dan Dakana.