Pretoria - The second leg of the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial started at a slow pace today in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, with a Netflix documentary series made of the former Bafana Bafana captain’s death, taking centre stage.
The defence team of four of the accused, headed by advocate Malesela Daniel Teffo, vehemently objected to the presence of Ten10 Films crew inside the courtroom.
Both the prosecution and the defence met in Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela’s chambers for more than an hour in the morning, before the start of the proceedings.
It later came to light that Teffo and his team complained about the fact that the Ten10 Films crew were allowed to take video footage inside the courtroom, as Teffo argued that they were not part of the mainstream media.
The production company has produced a five-part documentary series regarding the murder of Meyiwa, which was screened on Netflix before the trial started. Questions are posed in the series as to who had killed the soccer player, who is the mastermind and whether there is a cover-up as to who the real killer is.
Several witnesses were also interviewed which formed part of the series and viewers were also invited to add their voice as to what they think happened. The last episode in the series was screened in April, shortly after the trial started.
The defence team said this endangered witnesses in this high profile trial and people are asked to make judgments even before the trial has reached a conclusion. The court was told this was also prejudicial towards the accused.
Prosecutor George Baloyi agreed with the defence on this. “They have shown that they do not really pay much attention to the sub judice rule and they have also indicated in court that the possibility of flighting another documentary cannot be excluded. If one looks at the whole purpose of media coverage, it is basically for news channels to inform the public,” Baloyi, said.
Much of the arguments were also around the question whether the production crew formed part of the media or not. Teffo said that they were definitely not media and that they had gained entry to the proceedings through the back door.
It had emerged that the production company had, as in the case with the mainstream media, asked the judge for permission to attend the proceedings, which was granted as it was believed at the time that they were part of the media.
Advocate Ben Winks, who appeared for the production company, argued that they were very much part of the media. He said the court cannot exclude them, while allowing the other media to remain in the court.
Asked by judge Maumela whether they intend issuing another documentary while the trial is still proceeding, Winks said “there is nothing preventing them from doing so.” He pointed out that in the Oscar Pistorius trial various channels had experts who discussed the ongoing trial at the time. He said there is nothing wrong with this.
Winks, however, later told the judge that his client (the production company) indicated that it is not planning on issuing another documentary before the end of the trial. Judge Maumela commented that “this is wise.”
In his judgment on this issue, the judge said he found it worrisome that there could be another documentary series, but he was comforted by the assurance given by Winks that this will not happen.
The judge said he does not know whether the production company qualified as part of the mainstream media, but there was no reason at this stage to bar them from the proceedings.
No mention was made of the drama a month ago, when Teffo was arrested in court for allegedly contravening a contempt of court order in an unrelated matter.
Teffo resumed his cross examination late on Monday of the State’s first witness, Sergeant Thabo Mosia.
Pretoria News