On the morning of Friday, September 5, 2025, while creditors of a defunct Kenyan tech startup gathered for a routine liquidation meeting in Nairobi, a far more sinister event was unfolding 3,000 miles away. In the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Saxonwold, the high-stakes world of South African corporate insolvency was violently exposed.

Well-known insolvency attorney Bouwer van Niekerk was assassinated in the boardroom of his law firm, SmitSew. According to police reports, four assailants arranged a meeting under the pretence of discussing a legal matter. Once inside the boardroom with Van Niekerk, they shot him twice in the head and fled. Nothing was stolen.

“It was a deliberate hit,” stated Gauteng police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi.

Van Niekerk, 43, was a respected practitioner known for taking on complex and contentious cases. At the time of his death, he was deeply involved in the affairs of NTC Global Trade, a company suspected of being a Ponzi scheme. Sources close to the case confirm Van Niekerk had received multiple death threats warning him to withdraw.

The murder’s ripple effect was immediate. Kurt Knoop, a business rescue practitioner (BRP) who worked closely with Van Niekerk on the NTC case and previously on the rescue of companies linked to the controversial Gupta family, resigned from his role at NTC that same day, citing threats to his own life.

“Following this morning’s shooting of my attorney, and in the interests of all parties concerned, I have elected to immediately give effect to my initial intention to resign,” Knoop wrote in a letter filed with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC).

A Pattern of Violence

Van Niekerk’s murder is not an isolated incident but the latest in a chilling pattern of assassinations targeting professionals who investigate financial malfeasance in South Africa. The insolvency and auditing sectors, tasked with following the money trail in failed or corrupt enterprises, have become a particularly dangerous frontline.

Notable recent cases include:

• Cloete and Thomas Murray (March 2023): The liquidator and his son were gunned down in a suspected hit on a major highway near Johannesburg. Cloete Murray was the liquidator for Bosasa, a company central to the “State Capture” inquiry, and had recently been appointed to investigate entities that allegedly owed Investec Bank around R200 million. No arrests have been made.
• Mpho Mafole (June 2025): The chief auditor for the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality was killed while investigating R4 billion in suspect contracts.
• Simnikiwe Mapini (December 2023): An auditor in the same municipality, Mapini was murdered while probing a suspicious R1.8 billion tender.
• Babita Deokaran (August 2021): A senior finance official at the Gauteng Department of Health was assassinated after she blew the whistle on R850 million in fraudulent payments.

The work of insolvency practitioners and BRPs often involves seizing control of company assets and records, a process that can uncover vast networks of fraud, money laundering, and organised crime. Their legal powers make them a direct threat to individuals who have profited from these schemes.

An Industry in Fear

The assassination has sent shockwaves through the legal and financial communities, prompting calls for urgent action.

The South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association (Saripa) condemned the killing as an assault on the justice system itself. “It is heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable that in South Africa, courageous, ethical professionals should have to pay with their lives simply for doing their jobs,” said chairperson Jo Mitchell-Marais. “Our members must be able to carry out their work without fear or intimidation.”

The case of NTC Global Trade highlights the stakes involved. The company was flagged by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in May 2024 for offering unregistered financial services. While prosecutors failed to secure a preservation order against NTC in March 2025, the company later entered business rescue. Van Niekerk and Knoop had recently sought a court order to compel NTC’s director, Edwin Letopa, to cooperate with their investigation.

Ian Cameron, chairperson of Parliament’s police portfolio committee, drew a direct line between this murder and previous unresolved cases. “The killings of Cloete and Thomas Murray remain the most brutal example,” he said. “Now another voice against corruption has been cut short. South Africa cannot accept a climate where organised crime dictates who lives and who dies while accountability stalls.”

As police search for the four suspects, the murder of Bouwer van Niekerk serves as a stark reminder of the physical dangers faced by those tasked with upholding financial accountability. It raises critical questions about the state’s ability to protect those on the front lines of the fight against corruption and whether the high-risk, low-protection environment will deter professionals from taking on the country’s most difficult cases.