MISA demands equal urgency from the SAPS in all assassination cases

MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association, condemns the brutal murder of attorney Chinette Gallichan, who was gunned down outside the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in Johannesburg in an apparent hit before she represented a mining company in a retrenchment dispute.

This senseless act of violence, carried out in broad daylight on a busy public street, is not only an attack on the legal profession, but on all workers. At this rate, specialists like Gallichan will be reluctant to take on cases that might be controversial but will bring justice for workers and clarify their rights.

“Workers across the country rely on institutions like the CCMA to resolve disputes and protect their rights. Yet this incident demonstrates that even these spaces are no longer safe. Every worker, every citizen, deserves the fundamental right to security when accessing public services. Our democracy is under threat,” says Martlé Keyter, MISA’s Chief Executive Officer: Operations.

Gallichan (35) from Krugersdorp, was killed at close range without any attempt to steal valuables.

This comes after the South African Police Service (SAPS) has yet to arrest suspects in other assassinations on prominent figures like liquidator Cloete Murray (50) and his son, Thomas (28), who were shot on 18 March 2023 while driving in their vehicle on the N1 North near the New Road off-ramp in Midrand, Johannesburg.

Murray was a well-known insolvency practitioner acting as the liquidator for high-profile cases involving corruption, including Bosasa (African Global Operations) and firms linked to the Gupta family.

In another brazen assassination well-known insolvency attorney Bouwer van Niekerk was killed in the offices of his law firm in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, on 5 September 2025 by two suspects who pretended to be potential new clients.

At the time of his death Van Niekerk was busy with a major insolvency matter involving an alleged Ponzi scheme and had been deeply involved in litigation. No arrests have been made.

MISA demands that the SAPS act with urgency and determination in all of these cases like it did with the arrest last week of Matipandile Sotheni, a highly trained former SAPS Task Team member and sniper, for the alleged murder of Marius van der Merwe, Witness D who was killed outside his house in Brakpan on 5 December 2025 shortly after testifying before the Madlanga Commission.

Issued by Sonja Carstens, Manager of #MISA's Media & Communication Department, on behalf of the Union.

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