Prominent practitioner dies after highway ambush

Insolvency practitioner Cloete Murray died yesterday after succumbing to injuries after being ambushed by gunmen on the N1 near Midrand on Saturday. Legalbrief reports his 28-eight-year-old son Thomas, a legal adviser, died instantly at the scene of the shooting. Murray’s Toyota Prado was forced off the road, and an unknown number of gunmen opened fire. The National Prosecutng Authority (NPA) has assembled a team under the leadership of a designated prosecutor to investigate the incident. A senior manager at the NPA said the organisation is taking the matter ‘very seriously’ and that it will follow the prosecutor guided investigation model. ‘We are engaging very proactively with the SAPS (SA Police Service) and Hawks on this case and have assigned a prosecutor to guide (the investigation). We cannot afford the targeting of curators ... the ripple effect will be devastating,’ a senior manager at the NPA told News24. Police have not yet been able to obtain CCTV footage from cameras placed along the stretch of highway, as the control room operator did not know how to download the footage. Forensics for Justice is offering a R1m reward for information leading to an arrest or identification of the individuals involved.

Full News24 report

Murray worked on some of the most controversial matters as a liquidator and curator – particularly on major tax cases. News24 reports these included the estates of Czech gangster Radovan Krejcir and murdered strip club owner Lolly Jackson. He was also central to the country's largest tax case, that of Dave King, when the SA Revenue Service(SARS) moved to preserve assets. Another case was that of opposition leader Julius Malema, whose estate Murray oversaw. Malema owed SARS millions of rands. The tax matter has since been settled. More recently, Murray and his company, Sechaba Trust, were involved in the liquidation of Bosasa – the corrupt group of companies ran by the late Gavin Watson that bribed its way into government contracts worth billions of rands. A confidential inquiry has been ongoing for more than a year, with Murray and his team attempting to establish facts around the collapse of the Bosasa group of companies. Murray was also overseeing the liquidation of Tubular Construction Projects, a company that was involved in major corruption at Eskom's Kusile power station.

Full News24 report