By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A specialist forensic pathologist has told the High Court in Pretoria that Senzo Meyiwa was shot in the chest at close range and rapidly succumbed to the fast-bleeding wound.
“In this case he probably would have survived seconds, minutes, definitely not hours,” pathologist Dr Johannes Steenekamp told the Pretoria high court on Tuesday.
Steenekamp, told the court on Tuesday that he had been a district surgeon in Johannesburg since 1979.
The now retired, Steenekamp conducted 500 to 600 autopsies per year until he stopped working in 2016.
“The heart and the lungs are important organs. This type of injury can cause a fatality, sometimes instantaneously. I think, in this case, he was a fit young man. He probably would’ve survived seconds, minutes, definitely not hours.”
The court also heard that the gun that killed Meyiwa was pressed against his chest, leading to the bullet lacerating his heart and lung.
“The right chest cavity contains 1700ml of free and clotted blood. We refer to this as internal blood loss from the heart and lungs. This was a result of the left lung collapsing,” Steenekamp said.
Various witnesses had testified to the fact that Meyiwa was still alive when his then-girlfriend Kelly Khumalo, her sister Zandile Khumalo, and friends Tumelo Madlala and Mthokozisi Thwala rushed the former Bafana Bafana captain to the hospital.
Zandile told the court that Meyiwa kept squeezing her hand while he was being rushed to hospital.
Neighbour Khaya Ngcasthe also testified that Meyiwa was still breathing when he found him lying in the passage shortly after he was shot.
Meyiwa was with his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo at her mother Ntombi’s home in Vosloorus.
The state is expected to bring in a ballistics expert on Wednesday to give testimony to the gun that killed Meyiwa.
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