Crane funeral date set

2003-11-14 14:16

Johannesburg - Socialite Hazel Crane, shot dead in an assassination on Monday, is to be buried next Tuesday at the Fourways Memorial Park.

Mark Pringle, an executive at Fourways Memorial Park Cemetery and Crematorium said on Friday a church service would take place at 14:00 in the cemetery's garden of remembrance.

Thereafter, Crane's body would be cremated, Pringle said.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend the service, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a close friend of Crane's. Pringle said the cemetery was making arrangements to accommodate the large crowds expected.

Crane was killed in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Abbotsford while on her way to attend the proceedings against one Lior Saat, accused of bludgeoning to death her estranged husband Shai Avissar.

Avissar, an alleged member of the Israeli organised crime network or "mafia," was murdered in 1999 and his battered body found in a shallow grave near Pretoria in 2000.

Crane's, who was to have testified against her husband's former lieutenant and long-time adversary Saat, is the third potential witness against Saat to be "eliminated".

One Julio Bascelli was shot in the head in Modderfontein, east of Johannesburg, shortly after Avissar's murder while a man called Carlo Binne was shot dead at the Johannesburg club Gecko Lounge in April 2001.

Saat, an Israeli national, was arrested for the Avissar murder shortly thereafter. He is currently contesting the jurisdiction of the South African courts to try him.

- SAPA