Meyiwa murder: Cover-up feared

Police officer Thembinkosi Khumalo, a member of singer Kelly Khumalo's family, checks on the house where Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot. A year has passed, without arrests. Picture: Itumeleng English

Police officer Thembinkosi Khumalo, a member of singer Kelly Khumalo's family, checks on the house where Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot. A year has passed, without arrests. Picture: Itumeleng English

Published Oct 24, 2015

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Johannesburg - One year on from the fatal night on which soccer legend Senzo Meyiwa was killed, community members of Mzamo in Spruitview believe something is being covered up.

To date no one has been convicted for the shooting that took place at the family home of Meyiwa’s girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, in Kutlwanong Street. Some residents say the police need to go back to question those who were at the house that night.

It is understood those who were present included Khumalo, her two children, her mother, Ntombi, her sister Zandi, two of Meyiwa’s friends, and Zandi’s boyfriend, Longwe Twala.

“Someone knows something and needs to come out with the truth. People don’t believe that Senzo could have just been shot for a cellphone. I still don’t buy the robbery story,” says Thabani Msibi, who lives in Kutlwanong Street.

“How could the so-called robbers get far when everyone was still awake? It doesn’t make sense,” he adds, recalling that the shooting took place early on the evening of Sunday, October 26.

Msibi has questions, as much of the community do.

He says the murder has been bad for the neighbourhood. He says Mzamo is a peaceful place to live and neighbours rally around each other.

But the atmosphere has changed because the crime remains unsolved.

The house in which Meyiwa was shot stands empty today.

A neighbour, *Stella, who lives opposite the Khumalo home, says no one has been in or out of the property for months. The curtains are drawn and weeds and long grass fill the yard.

Stella still thinks about the night of the shooting when she looks across the road to the Khumalos’ house.

She remembers the night well. As the shots rang out, she thought it was a boy next door who often banged a broomstick against his shack walls.

She thought nothing of it. Only when she heard people screaming did she realise something was wrong. That’s when she rushed into the road, where other neighbours had gathered. That’s when she heard Bafana Bafana captain and Orlando Pirates’ goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa had been shot in a scuffle with robbers.

“He was carried into a car. I saw his feet and not his face. But it was a struggle to get him into the car,” she says.

Khumalo was spotted in the neighbourhood last month when she brought her mother to a neighbour’s home for a party. Other than that, there’s been no word or sight of the family.

While the community waits for answers, the police say their investigations are continuing.

*Not her real name.

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