Laurance Hodes, defence counsel for murder-accused drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, spent all of Monday morning taking Clinton Nassif through numerous differences between his statements and his testimony.
Nassif was the former head of security for mining magnate Brett Kebble, and is the fifth witness to take the stand in Kebble’s murder trial, which began in the South Gauteng High Court exactly a week ago.
Hodes reprimanded Nassif for not saying before Monday that he had shelled out R500Â 000 for the shooting of Stephen Mildenhall, former chief investment officer of Allan Gray, on behalf of the Kebbles in 2005. “It’s day six and suddenly you decide to bring up new evidence,” said Hodes.
“You played the biggest role in the shooting of Mr Mildenhall. You negotiated the fee with Mr [John] Stratton, you decided who would be used to have Mr Mildenhall shot. You kept control of the situation thereafter. You were the one who paid for the shooting from your own pocket … The accused had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
‘Pressure cooker’
Nassif disagreed, saying that Agliotti was the middleman between himself and Kebble’s business partner, John Stratton, who gave the instructions on the shooting. “Mr Agliotti was a social friend of John [Stratton] and Mr Kebble. He was the pressure cooker, he was the one who put the pressure on.”
Hodes also showed that Nassif’s versions differed in who decided he would receive R1-million from the Kebbles for the Mildenhall shooting. “How I came about the R1-million fee was I sat with Mr Agliotti, and came up with a fee. After paying the guys who were gonna do the job, we were gonna get some money,” said Nassif.
Hodes retorted by asking why he had not mentioned this in either of his statements.
Nassif also changed his version when describing a meeting held with Stratton and Agliotti, where it emerged that Stratton’s instructions had changed from murdering Mildenhall, to injuring him. “You have given three permutations,” said Hodes.
Agliotti has pleaded not guilty to four charges — the murder of Kebble and conspiracy to murder Kebble, the attempted murder of Mildenhall, and conspiracy to murder Mildenhall and mining bosses Danie Nortier, Mark Bristow and Mark Wellesley-Wood.
The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, supported by M&G Media and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, produced this story. www.amabhungane.co.za.