By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Defence advocate Charles Mnisi, representing accused number three, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, was not present in court to cross-examine the state’s ballistics expert Edward Sereo at the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
Mnisi was attending another case, which is at trial stage in the regional court.
Sereo, who began his testimony on Monday, did a microscopic verification of his colleague Lt-Col Chris Mangena’s work.
Mangena testified in August 2023 that the 9mm gun found on Mncube when he was arrested in 2015 for a separate matter was the same one that killed Meyiwa.
He said he was able to determine this after examining the projectile found on the kitchen counter at the crime scene and test bullets fired from the gun.
The presiding judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng was not happy and decided to postpone the matter. He told Sereo to avail himself on Thursday for Mnisi’s cross-examination.
During the proceedings on Thursday, Mnisi told Sereo that when his colleague Mangena approached his colleagues (experts) to verify his results, he did so because he had doubts about his results.
Mnisi said to Sereo the ballistic results in the case are borderline and not clear-cut.
“Lt-Col. Mangena consulted four other experts to go confirm his positive results. He did this because he said to himself, he is not sure here. And he went to the first, second and third experts and could still not assure himself.
“He went to a fourth one. And he did this because the results were not clear for him. This was not a clear-cut case. It was a difficult and borderline case,” said Mnisi.
Mnisi also told Sereo that Mangena testified in court that ballistic experts are not allowed to receive exhibits in a police bag with a broken seal. He said in this case there was a deviation from procedure.
“There was a deviation from known procedure. It has been documented and put on record in this court that there was a deviation from known procedure. No matter how much you try to justify receiving the exhibits the way you did. There was a deviation from procedure and the exhibits were received in a broken seal,” said Mnisi.
Meyiwa, the former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, was shot and killed at the house of the mother of his then-girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg, on October 26, 2014.
Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mncube, Mthobisi Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli face charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of firearms without a licence and possession of ammunition.