Triads implicated in shooting outside court

 

Chinese businessman Bao Guo Guang had a spring in his step when he left the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court this week, confident he would soon be cleared of raping and killing his wife’s 20-year-old niece.

But he barely got out of the court precinct on Monday when two men pumped six bullets into him.

Before the smoke from their CZ88 and Luger pistols had cleared, the two assassins raced up Bamboo Lane in a Toyota Yaris and vanished.

Guang, 37, died an hour later in hospital.

Police and a source close to the local Chinese community believe the hit was the handiwork of the Triads (Chinese mafia).

 

Guang’s attorney, Peter Nortje, said his client claimed to have paid the family of Zifang Chen, the young woman he is alleged to have killed in May, R1.3 million to compensate them for the fact that she died in his “care”.

She was his wife Mei’s niece who lived with them and worked in Guang’s clothing distribution business.

Chen is alleged to have plunged to her death on May 8 from Guang’s fifth-floor flat at The Towers in Pinetown while Mei was in Joburg on business.

That night Guang had arrived home after drinking and he and Chen argued. Chen is alleged to have grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed Guang during the argument. A bloody trail revealed he then went to the bathroom. Her body was discovered on the driveway a few minutes later.

Nortje said his client feared for his life because Chen’s family demanded cash after her death.

The truth about what happened between Chen and Guang will probably go with them to their graves but, according to Nortje, Guang was confident he would be cleared of the murder rap.

But the 14 Chinese families who live in The Towers, the majority with the surname Chen and who are involved in variety of trading businesses around Durban, apparently don’t believe that story.

“He kept on telling us the girl’s family was demanding one million yuan to settle the ‘debt’. Guang told us he paid the money,” said Nortje.

However, attorney Sam Garbaran, who represented the Chens, refuted the claim.

“That’s not true. He (Guang) offered Zifang’s granny one million yuan when she came to South Africa to fetch her granddaughter’s ashes, but she refused the offer,” said Garbaran.

 

After his court appearance on Monday, Guang was leaving the building in the company of Nortje, advocate Willie Lombard and a Nigerian friend, Uche Godwin, with whom he had been living since getting bail on August 14.

“We were standing outside court after the hearing. I was assuring him that the evidence regarding him pushing the woman over the balcony was not damning and therefore didn’t prove he had killed her. And he was quite happy,” said Nortje.

“He was also anticipating the results of the DNA test so it would show he didn’t rape her either. One of the investigators requested a check for rape be conducted at the time of Zifang’s death,” he said.

“He didn’t strike me as a guy who has happy that he was getting away with something, but as someone who was genuinely relieved that his name was to going to be cleared.

“I was waiting for Lombard, who was on his cellphone, when the Nigerian came running to me, saying, ‘They shot him, they shot him…’

“When I looked at Guang on the floor, I knew he wouldn’t make it.”

Police found the getaway car and two guns a few kilometres from where the shooting took place. The vehicle had been reported stolen from Sophiatown.

A Chinese music CD in the car’s music player made police believe it was the work of the Chinese mafia.

“We’re 80 percent sure it’s the work of professionals,” said a police source. “They left the guns behind. One of them had its serial number filed off. I think the shooters may have already left the country by now.”

 

Another source, who is close to the Chinese community, said: “This looks to be the work of the Chinese mafia. It looked to be a very professional job.”

Rumours doing the rounds since Guang’s death that Chen’s family ordered the revenge attack were rubbished by Jack Weng, a relative of the Chen family.

“How can family do something like this to their own family member?” asked Weng.

 

SAPS spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said no arrests had yet been made. - Tribune

 

mervyn.naidoo@inl.co.za