By Editorial
Just over six years after he was gunned down, the family of former Orlando Pirates captain Senzo Meyiwa might finally see justice.
At a press conference on Monday, attended by Police Minister Bheki Cele and national police commissioner Khehla Sitole, it was announced that five suspects had been arrested and would be charged for Meyiwa’s murder.
Later that day, AfriForum, which had been roped in by the Meyiwa family to get to the bottom of the goalkeeper’s killing, broke from the police narrative. Former public prosecutor Gerrie Nel, now working for AfriForum, insisted that Meyiwa’s death was an assassination plot and not a robbery as had been earlier stated at the government press conference.
There was more head-scratching on Tuesday as the five suspects made their way into a packed courtroom, a Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding, and refused to enter the dock.
The suspects were transported to court in a vehicle owned by the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department which raised eyebrows, as this is the job of the SAPS.
In court, the National Prosecuting Authority read the charges against the accused which included murder, attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and aggravated robbery.
Before proceedings could get under way, some of the accused intimated to anyone in earshot that they were being framed. One of the accused went as far as saying he had been arrested for the crime in August – not Monday as indicated by Cele and Sitole.
Only one of the five accused had legal representation. The other four refused legal aid, stating that they had nothing do with Meyiwa’s murder.
While Cele has been promising arrests since he was appointed to the Cabinet, the confusing spectacle at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court would have left the casual observer with more questions than answers.
In a country where many of the more than 21 000 murders a year go unsolved, the government’s zeal to nail suspects for Meyiwa’s murder should be replicated.
From the court appearance of the suspects, it seems prosecutors will have to reconstitute a scrambled egg for a successful prosecution, something that is even beyond the faculties of Nasa’s top rocket scientists.
The Star