By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has found a written statement by a witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial does not exist, after defence lawyers had challenged the admissibility of a typed statement by the police witness made on 31 May.
Constable Sizwe Zungu, who claimed to have seen all five of the accused in Vosloorus on the weekend that Meyiwa died, was giving evidence.
The Bafana Bafana captain was shot at the home of his girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, in October 2014.
The State charged five men for the crime and believes it was a robbery gone wrong. It is adamant that the statement by Zungu met all the requirements of an admissible statement.
On Friday, advocate Charles Mnisi, representing Mthobisi Prince Mncube, signalled he could not cross-examine Zungu without his written statement.
This after Zungu told the court his typed statement contained errors, which he then corrected.
The State said there was no written statement, only the typed one that had been disclosed.
Prosecutor advocate George Baloyi said Zungu had made notes from which his statement was crafted.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng asked the State and defence teams to address him on the admissibility of the statement and whether Zungu had made two statements.
He also asked that Zungu go to KwaZulu-Natal over the weekend in pursuit of those notes.
On Monday, the court heard the notes had been shredded, with Baloyi reiterating there was no written statement.
While none of the defence teams prepared written arguments, Mnisi said it was Zungu’s own evidence that he had written his own statement, which he initialled on each page, signed, and commissioned.
Mnisi asked the court to listen to the recording and submitted the State had the written statement, thereby inferring it had hidden the statement in question and purposely not disclosed it.
Accepting that Zungu may have said that, the court asked the witness a series of questions about the so-called written statement.
Zungu testified he did not write his own statement and he was referring to corrections made to the typed statement.
He reiterated the only statement he made, the one before the court, was made on 31 May 2023.
The judge said it was not Baloyi’s duty to defend anyone, but rather to bring the case before the court to adjudicate.
“It is a truism and trite in the law that a prosecutor’s duty is to seek conviction at all costs,” he said.
Evaluating the evidence before him, Mokgoatlheng found the so-called written statement did not exist.
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