Star witness grilled in Brian Wainstein murder trial

Tensions ran high in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday as the defence sought to poke holes in the evidence of the State’s star witness in the trial linked to the murder of steroid king Brian Wainstein.

Advocate Amanda Nel cross-examined the witness, known as Mr X, who has been testifying against alleged underworld boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and 11 other co-accused.

The accused face an array of charges linked to the death of Wainstein and violent clashes in the nightclub security industry dating back nearly 10 years ago.

Mr X previously told the court that he was in charge of Wainstein’s security before he was recruited by Booysen to murder the steroid kingpin.

The court heard that during the plotting of Wainstein’s murder, several names were mentioned, including Booysen, fugitive Kamaal Kishor Naidoo, deceased alleged 27s boss William “Red” Stevens, and other underworld figures.

Mr X said the plan was that he would fill Wainstein’s role after the murder, as promised by Booysen, Naidoo, and slain former accused Mark Lifman, who had put out R250 000 to have Wainstein killed.

Nel further punched holes in his evidence, saying that he made contradictions in his statements to the police.

However, Mr X said that some of the information he had given was correct and said at the time he withheld information as he was afraid of Stevens, had trust issues, and wanted to see what police would do with the information provided.

The court heard that during the plotting, Booysen had scouted Wainstein’s house and the conspirators had agreed to execute the hit at the target’s home.

However, Naidoo allegedly said that Booysen had taken his time on the hit and that they had to “cut out Jerome on the hit going forward”, to which Stevens agreed.

Nel probed Mr X on whether Booysen would have committed the murder without his and Naidoo’s knowledge, however Mr X stood by his word, saying Booysen had been involved up until the point where Naidoo said to cut him.

The trial continues.

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