Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has heard assertions that the hat collected at the Khumalo residence following the shooting of Senzo Meyiwa did not belong to the alleged killers.
This was according to advocate Malesela Teffo during his cross-examination of the State’s first witness, forensic analyst Sergeant Thabo Johannes Mosia, one of the first officers who attended the scene of the incident of October 26, 2014.
Teffo asked the officer if he had been privy to the DNA results of the hat, which was alleged to have been left behind by one of the accused following an altercation with the victims in the house.
Mosia informed the court that although he had sent in the collected items to the forensic division, he was not furnished with the results thereof.
Teffo asked if he was aware that the DNA evidence had shown that the hat had in fact been worn by a female, and that the silver walking stick had been used by Zandile Lorraine Khumalo to beat up one of the attackers.
Mosia replied that he was not aware of that as he had simply taken down the evidence from what he was told by the officer on the scene first.
Mosia told the court that he did not believe that the scene where Meyiwa was shot and killed had been tampered with.
He told the court that he had been on standby on October 26 on behalf of the Springs Criminal record and Crime Scene management division, covering three police stations in the vicinity.
According to the officer he was informed of the incident around 11:45pm and arrived on the scene around 20 minutes after midnight to find other members of the police there.
He said although he had been called to attend the scene where Meyiwa had been shot, he had not been given the address by the brigadier in charge and as a result went to the Vosloorus police station to obtain the address.
During cross-examination by Teffo, he was questioned about the time of arrival at the scene by the police officer and the work they had done on the day. Mosia told the court that he had been called in to conduct the forensic investigation, and was informed by a Brigadier Ndlovu who was the head of the Gauteng provincial detective office at the time of what had transpired.
He said he was also informed by the officer who arrived before him that the incident took place just after 8pm, although police were only called hours later. When questioned about possible tampering of the scene given that the police arrived four hours after the incident, Mosia said he did not believe there had been tampering due to some of the evidence found.
The officer said that had there been tampering he believed he would not have been able to find items such as the fragmented bullet, as well as the hat and walking stick on the ground.
He said he believed the reason the victims delayed in contacting the police was a result of them being more focused on saving Meyiwa's life by getting him to the nearest health facility.
Pretoria News