Najwa Petersen acted like a "tour guide" as she led one of the men hired to kill her husband Taliep around the couple's house on the night of the murder, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.

Jeff Snyders (33), the second of the so-called "hitmen" to give his version of the December 2006 slaying, also told how he assured a bound and bloodied Taliep that murder was not on the agenda.

An emotional Snyders told Judge Siraj Desai that he wanted to apologise for what he had done.

He said it was a relief when he was finally arrested six months after the murder, and he was able to tell the truth to police.

Snyders, who worked as a mechanic in the car repair workshop of co-accused Waheed Hassen, told the court Hassen had said there were people who wanted to be robbed so that they could lodge an insurance claim.

'An in-and-out job'

These wanted to be tied up and beaten to make things look genuine.

It was "just an in-and-out job", Hassen had said.

They drove to the Petersens' home, where the outside gate and front doors had been left open, found Taliep watching television upstairs, and tied his hands behind his back with a cable tie.

Hassen had produced a gun once they were inside the house, which Snyders said he assumed was to make the whole thing appear real.

A woman who he now knew as Najwa came out of a room, and tried to embrace Taliep, who gave her a head butt. She tried again, and Taliep moved backwards in a bending position.

"It occurred to me to kick him," Snyders said. "I wanted to kick him in the chest, but I actually got him in the face."

People were prepared for beating

Asked by his advocate Roelf Konstabel why he kicked Taliep, Snyders said: "Accused three [Hassen] had told me outside the house the people were prepared to get a beating, and this is what I did."

Beating people was what robbers did, he said. He himself had been robbed.

"Did you get a beating?" asked Desai.

"Yes, your honour," replied Snyders.

At that stage he had no idea of the identity of the people they were supposedly robbing.

Najwa led Hassen from room to room, he said. Hassen has previously testified he collected money from a bedroom safe, and valuables from other rooms.

"Accused one [Najwa] was almost like a tour guide in her house," Snyders said. "She led accused 3 to that room, and to her son and daughter-in-law's room."

Snyders stayed with Taliep

Snyders said he stayed with Taliep, who was crying as he lay on the floor.

He asked Taliep if he had kicked him too hard. Taliep looked into his eyes, and he saw blood on Taliep's nose and mouth.

"I said I did not mean to kick you so hard: I will wipe it off," Snyders said.

He removed one of the gloves he was wearing and put it at the corner of Taliep's mouth to absorb the blood.

He also got a box of tissues from a sofa and "put them under his head on the cold tiles".

He then heard Najwa ask Hassen: "When are you going to finish with him, when are you going to shoot him?"

Pleading Taliep

Snyders told the court: "At that moment the deceased said to me, 'I have children: don't kill me'. I told him: 'No one's going to be killed; that's not how I understand the thing'."

He asked Hassen what the woman was talking about.

"I said I did not come here to kill people. Fuck the job," Snyders said.

His habit when he was angry with people was to walk away from them, and he went outside to the bakkie they had come in.

Sitting in the bakkie he heard a boom-like noise, and soon after Hassen came out with the gun in his hand.

"I said, 'what the fuck was that, Waheed?' and he told me to drive," Snyders said.

The next morning a client at the workshop asked if he had heard the news that Taliep Petersen had been murdered.

Snyders said he bought a newspaper with a report of the killing and went to Hassen's home.

"I threw the paper in front of him and said, 'Waheed, what shit have you landed me in'. He just looked at me, and said 'it's not me, Jeff'.

He did not say anything more. He just sat there like a zombie."

Sapa

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