'They had all done deals. I had been in the cells for a month' - Glenn Agliotti
The bouncer with a get-out-of-jail card and other shady characters...![]()
Mikey Schultz, the tattooed boxer, pummelled his opponent Oupa Mahlangu with vicious body blows, then knocked him out just 47 seconds into the second round.
The former bouncer stepped into the ring at the Wembley indoor arena in Johannesburg on September 25 for the first time in over a decade.
His return to boxing came nearly four years after he allegedly fired six rounds into mining magnate Brett Kebble on September 27 2005.
The 34-year-old remains undefeated with 13 wins and two draws, and for now he is also free to carry on with life.
Schultz is one of numerous gangsters who have landed Section 204 deals and plea bargains, securing their freedom as long as they tell on each other and provide truthful evidence.
Their testimony across several criminal cases provides much-needed ammunition for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to force convicted drug peddler and murder accused Glenn Agliotti to dish up details on gifts and payments totalling about R1-million he made to Selebi - and which the state alleges is proof of their corrupt relationship.
Selebi, who is on trial in the High Court in Johannesburg, has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
The former police commissioner is in the dock - largely because of Agliotti's testimony, although the NPA's decision to prosecute him resulted in former President Thabo Mbeki suspending the NPA's former head, Vusi Pikoli, saying the deals were "a threat to national security".
At the time, Pikoli said in documents presented at the Ginwala inquiry into his fitness to hold office: "It is indeed difficult to imagine anything more subversive of the fight against organised crime, than a corrupt police chief who is on the take and in the pocket of organised crime."
Meanwhile Schultz and two of his henchmen, Nigel McGurk and Faizel "Kappie" Smith, stand to get off on charges relating to the murder of Kebble.
Their deal was instigated by security company boss Clinton Nassif, who allegedly arranged for them to kill Kebble.
Nassif also secured a deal for himself to get off on charges relating to Kebble's murder and the shooting of former Allan Gray chief investment officer, Stephen Mildenhall.
His deal included a get-out-of-jail card on charges relating to insurance fraud, income tax and VAT charges and "any" drug-related charges and offences relating to "illegal investigative methods", money laundering and racketeering and "other attempts and conspiracies to scare or kill someone".
In exchange, he is a state witness in the Selebi trial and two other high-profile cases involving some of the same players.
In one of these, the multimillion-rand "Paparas trial" Stephanos and Dimitrio Paparas and Stanley Poonin stand accused of drug smuggling. Agliotti and Nassif both received suspended sentences for their roles in the matter, as part of plea bargains they struck with the state.
Nassif had to forfeit £8 000 that he received as payment for his role in the drug case. They were caught out after the Scorpions seized hashish worth an estimated R250-million in July 2006, thanks to Anthony Dormehl.
Dormehl was recruited by Selebi's nemesis, Paul O'Sullivan, to snitch on the syndicate and he, in turn, received indemnity from prosecution.
Nassif is also expected to give evidence against Agliotti in the Kebble murder trial, in which Agliotti is the sole accused for now.
In an earlier affidavit, Nassif - who was Kebble's chief security adviser - spills the beans on how and why Kebble was killed in an alleged assisted suicide plot.
He said he had recruited Schultz, who roped in Smith and McGurk.
Nassif also demanded that a host of other alleged criminals linked to him get an opportunity to make deals with the then Scorpions. These include former employees Stephen Saunders, Henry Beukes and Dick Diedericks, his former right-hand man Mauro Sabattini and the two unidentified shooters of Mildenhall.
These deals have riled Agliotti. "They had all done deals. I had been in the cells for a month," he told the court.
"My life had basically been put on hold ... I was frustrated and angry."
Meanwhile boxing promoter Branco Milenkovic said Schultz was scheduled to fight again on October 30.
"People want to see him. He is a crowd pleaser ... you get boxers and you get fighters," he said. "Mikey is a fighter, he is not one of those guys who ducks and dives and runs away."
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