Pretoria – Counsel for four of the five men accused of killing former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates player Senzo Meyiwa in October 2014 has told the High Court in Pretoria that there was a well-orchestrated campaign to manage and tamper the crime scene after the soccer star was murdered.
Advocate Malesela Daniel Teffo put it to the State’s first witness, SAPS forensic expert Sergeant Thabo Johannes Mosia, that the evidence he collected after arriving at the crime almost five hours after the shooting was all stage-managed.
“I put it to you, Mr Mosia, that the evidence you collected on both occasions (of visiting the Khumalo house where the murder occurred) was all staged. When you arrived for the first time, you found what you found. It was just put together deliberately, intentionally and you, unwittingly being oblivious of this tampering with the scene, you did your job,” said Teffo.
“I do not blame you. You did your job but you were oblivious to the fact that these things were planted.”
Mosia responded that he could not have determined whether the crime scene was staged or not, but he worked with what he found at the scene.
“In most cases, the way the crime scene is found, I cannot judge any tampering or whatsoever. The only thing I must do is to secure whatever I find at a crime scene, and make sure that I do what is necessary according to my job description,” said the policing veteran with 16 years’ experience.
Unrelenting, Teffo said a Brigadier Ndlovu, who was the head of the Gauteng provincial detectives who was in charge of the crime scene, was among the people guiding the unwitting Mosia into the staged scene through tactics including intimidation.
“You said you found Brigadier Ndlovu there, and it was Brigadier Ndlovu who was pointing to you what to take, what to photograph, and what not to take. The action of Brigadier Ndlovu at that scene was to manage you, and to intimidate you as a senior,” Teffo submitted.
“That resulted from a meeting held earlier in that house before you arrived.”
Mosia said he could not comment on Teffo’s assertion.
Teffo represents Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa. The fifth accused, Sifisokuhle Ntuli, is represented by Advocate Zandile Mshololo.
Meyiwa was killed while visiting his girlfriend and the mother of his child, singer Kelly Khumalo.
In the house that day were Meyiwa, Kelly and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother Ntombi Khumalo, Longwe Twala, Meyiwa’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly’s then 4-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.
IOL