By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Sergeant Vusumuzi Mogane, who is part of the National Cold Cases Unit, has been requested to present a summary of the cases that he was working on when he travelled with one of the accused for hours.
Mogane’s cross-examination continued in the trial within a trial into the admissibility of confession statements by two of the accused in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, where five men – are on trial for Senzo Meyiwa’s murder.
He led the arrest of accused number 2, Bongani Ntanzi in June 2020 and escorted both Ntanzi and Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya to make their confessions.
Ntanzi and Sibiya are two of five men accused of the Bafana Bafana captain’s 2014 murder.
Mogane has told the Pretoria High Court that he travelled with Ntanzi from the Sibanye-Stillwater mine in Westonaria on the afternoon of 18 June 2020, and only returned him to his prison cell at 2:30 the next morning.
He said he took Ntanzi with him to attend to other cases because he thought Ntanzi would be bored alone in his prison cell.
But he told the court that he could not disclose the details of those cases as they were still under investigation.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng then made an order:.
“I’m going to order that you must disclose that information, all of it, but you must disclose it in the form of a note and that note will be made available to all the counsels and it will be kept by this court.”
Mogane had complained that during the break he had seen the accused gathered around perusing a document that has sensitive information about investigations that link some of them, saying such would jeopardise the lives of the witnesses mentioned in it.
“I am worried for our witnesses in those cases and some of those cases also affect some of the accused. In all these cases, there are firearms involved. People have been shot, people have been kidnapped and others have been threatened. Now, I am worried about my witnesses. There’s a couple of case numbers on there and it is possible that they can then get onto our systems to get the names and addresses of people, “Mogane laments.
Subsequently, Judge Mokgoatlheng made an order that all copies in the possession of the defense counsels be handed back but this seemed to go against the same order, apparently at the height of his emotions.
“This document will not form part of these proceedings. This evidence has been contaminated. This court makes a ruling that this information must be expunged on the basis that other people’s lives could be jeopardised,” Judge Mokgoatlheng explained.
Advocate Thulani Mngomezulu representing both Ntanzi and Sibiya denied consulting his clients about the document.
Advocate Charles Mnisi, representing accused number three Mthobisi Mncube, said he was uncomfortable with the statement made by the judge, because he felt that how the document got to the accused should have been determined first.
Advocate Zandile Mshololo, representing accused number five Fisokuhle Ntuli, said she had not seen the document and that her client had told her that the document he and the other men were seen reading was their indictment.
Advocate Zithulele Nxumalo, representing Mthokoziseni Maphisa, said he did not understand why Mogane was worried about the contents of the document being disclosed because he had referred to one of the cases listed on it.
“In his statement read in court, he referred to one of the cases, he detailed everything. I am failing to understand why he is bringing all of this,” Nxumalo said.
Mokgoatlheng did not respond to the defence lawyers’ submissions.
Meanwhile the South African Police Service (SAPS) confirmed that the widow of a senior police officer who was involved in the Senzo Meyiwa murder investigation has been shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Vosloorus.
Brigadier Philani Ndlovu was one of the most senior police officers at the crime scene where former football star Meyiwa was gunned down at the Vosloorus home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo.
Brigadier Ndlovu, who was retired, died in May last year, a few weeks after the start of the first Meyiwa murder trial, which was sitting at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, before Judge Tshifiwa Maumela.
His wife, Nonhlanhla, has now been murdered almost 18 months later in a hail of bullets.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo confirmed police were investigating a murder case.
He said Mrs Ndlovu was driving in Vosloorus at about 12.50pm on Sunday when suspects fired at her from another vehicle that was driving alongside her.
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