Insolvency lawyer killed in targeted hit

Days before he was killed, Bouwer van Niekerk was told to resign immediately as the attorney for the business rescue of an alleged major Ponzi scheme or he ‘won’t see the end of the week’. Van Niekerk (43) was shot and killed in a boardroom at the law offices of SmitSew (Smit Sewgoolam) in Johannesburg on Friday in a targeted hit. News24 says multiple sources revealed he received a phone call from a woman speaking Afrikaans on 31 August. The woman told Van Niekerk to resign as the attorney for the business rescue practitioners on NTC Global Trading Fund. A similar threat was made to business rescue practitioner Kurt Knoop, with the phone calls taking place minutes apart. Knoop confirmed he resigned last week. It is unclear if Van Niekerk would have followed suit, but he is believed to have said in response to the threats that they were ‘merely whetting my litigation appetite’, a phrase he often uttered, according to a person close to him. Thabo Letopa, the dir­ector of NTC Global Trade Fund, which the state believes is a pyr­amid scheme with more than R476m in invest­ments, said he too feared for his life. He insisted that he had noth­ing to do with the assas­sin­a­tion, Letopa told the Sunday Times. 

The Johannesburg-based lawyer’s murder sent shockwaves through the legal and insolvency community. A prominent litigation lawyer told News24 the killing was ‘designed to send a hard message’ to lawyers and insolvency practitioners not to threaten vested interests. Jo-Anne Mitchell-Marais, chairperson of the SA Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association, which represents professionals in the liquidation, insolvency and restructuring industries, said Van Niekerk’s murder would have dire consequences for the profession. ‘These murders have, without a doubt, led to fear among lawyers and insolvency practitioners. I’ve already had calls from colleagues asking whether it is worth remaining in the profession.’ Van Niekerk’s death comes two and a half years after the murder of Cloete and Thomas Murray, a father-and-son pair of insolvency practitioners who were shot dead in Johannesburg. Their murderers are still free. They were also working on a high-profile insolvency at the time of their killing.

At least four men arrived at Van Niekerk's office just after 10am for a pre-arranged meeting under the pretext of discussing a potential new case. According to News24, Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said only two of the men went inside, and while in the boardroom, gunshots were heard. The men fled the scene. A manhunt was under way while the motive for Van Niekerk’s murder was ‘unknown at this stage’, Nevhuhulwi said. Reflect­ing on Van Niekerk’s slay­ing, the SA Restruc­tur­ing and Insolv­ency Prac­ti­tion­ers Asso­ci­ation (Saripa) said the murder had left the industry shocked. According to Business Day, the industry is now call­ing on author­it­ies to come to its res­cue, warn­ing that fail­ure to do so weak­ens the coun­try’s justice sys­tem. Saripa said Van Niekerk was a respec­ted legal pro­fes­sional who worked on com­plex, high-pro­file mat­ters that were often incrim­in­at­ing.