A pathologist who conducted an autopsy on former Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa told the court that the bullet that killed the soccer star was fatal and he couldn’t have survived for hours.
Dr Johannes Steenekamp testified in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Steenekamp found that the bullet wound was consistent with a contact gunshot wound, meaning that the gun was directly on him.
"I say that due to the fact that if a muzzle is pressed against the skin, all the elements — the gas, the heat, the gunpowder — are driven into the skin," he said.
These were some of the elements that were found on Meyiwa’s body.
He said the bullet entered through his chest, tore through the heart, and went through the right lung before exiting through the back.
According to Steenekamp, Meyiwa suffered significant blood loss, which was a result of internal bleeding.
Although his wound was fatal, he said his death was not instantaneous. His view was that he could have survived “seconds, minutes, but definitely not hours”.
Meyiwa was killed while visiting his singer girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, at her home in Vosloorus on October 26, 2014.
The State alleges that he was fatally shot by armed intruders who demanded money and cellphones.
In the house on that day, was Kelly and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother, Ntombi Khumalo (MaKhumalo), Longwe Twala, Meyiwa's friends, Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly's then four-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.
The five accused in the Meyiwa murder trial are Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli.
The trial continues on Wednesday with a ballistic expert on the stand.
IOL