The Cape Town legal fraternity attacks
There have been several attacks on members of Cape Town’s legal fraternity. This does not necessarily mean that lawyers are involved in dodgy dealings.
They could be targeted simply because of who they legally represent and could be viewed as a threat to those they may have incriminating information against.
This is how the attacks have unfolded:
7 November 2016 – Attorney Noorudien Hassan was murdered in a shooting in Lansdowne. He had represented suspects with alleged links to gangs. He had also been on a legal team representing a suspect in a case focused on firearms meant to have been in police custody, but which were instead channelled to gangsters. This became known as the guns-to-gangs case.
30 October 2018 – Advocate Pete Mihalik was murdered in a shooting in Green Point. Mihalik had legally represented several suspected underworld figures. Mihalik had also worked with Hassan and had been on the legal team representing the suspect in the so-called guns-to-gangs case.
19 May 2019 – Attorney David Mbazwana was murdered in a shooting Khayelitsha in what may have been a robbery gone wrong. He had reportedly represented, among other, figures with suspected links to the underworld.
1 December 2019 – Attorney Vernon Jantjies was shot dead in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain. Jantjies had legally represented a suspect in a case involving suspected drug dealer Fadwaan “Vet” Murphy.
12 February 2020 – A civil attorney was wounded in a shooting in Gardens. At the time there were suspicions within the legal fraternity that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity and that another lawyer, who had represented suspected underworld figures, had been the actual target.
9 April 2020 – Attorney William Booth was shot at in an attempted hit outside his home in the city. He was not wounded. Booth’s clients had included suspected underworld figures.