By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The high court in Pretoria on Monday ruled that Ten10 Films, which produced the documentary Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star for Netflix, can continue filming the former Bafana Bafana star Senzo Meyiwa’s murder trial.
This after advocate Malesela Teffo, the legal representative of four of the five men accused of Meyiwa’s murder, raised concerns about the presence of the production company in the courtroom.
Earlier in the day, Teffo argued that Netflix has sought to benefit financially from Meyiwa’s death, saying that Ten10 Films was not part of mainstream media.
Ten10 Films’s lawyer, Advocate Ben Winks, argued that they were in fact mainstream.
“My client has not done anything illegal and if they have, why have they not been reported to the police and if it is alleged that our client has breached in any way the guidelines of the court then certainly that could be brought to my lord’s attention but we don’t understand there to be any allegation that there’s been a breach of the court’s guidelines, the practice manual’s guidelines,” Winks said.
The State has also agreed with Teffo, flagging how the production house did not pay much attention to the sub judice rule.
Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela agreed that the application was approved but then revealed that it was approved because the registrar was under the impression that Ten10 Films is a media house.
He found that Teffo and the state presented no facts nor evidence sufficient to recuse Ten10 Films.
Maumela said: “As I sit here, the only information I have is from the bar, from advocate Teffo that Neflix is not a media house. I don’t have any evidence to order anybody out of the court.
“My final ruling is that the court is not ordering anybody out from participating in the proceedings of this case.”
He did state that his ruling to allow the production house in court was based on their commitment not to release a sixth episode in the Senzo Meyiwa docuseries before the end of the trial.
Meyiwa was gunned down at the residence of his then-girlfriend and singer Kelly Khumalo in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg on October 26 2014. The trial continues on Tuesday.