By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The State in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial submitted its heads of argument to the Pretoria high court in the section 174 application brought by Mthokoziseni Maphisa.
This after Maphisa, accused 4 brought an application for his acquittal on Monday.
According to Maphisa, the State failed to prove his involvement in the football star’s 2014 murder.
Meyiwa was shot at the home of his girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, in what the State believes was a hit.
Maphisa has argued that not only is there no proof of his involvement in the plan to kill Meyiwa, but the State’s main witness, Constable Sizwe Zungu, had no proof that there was such a plot at all.
Maphisa’s lawyer, Zithulele Nxumalo, argued that the charges against his client should be dropped, citing a lack of independent evidence linking him to the alleged conspiracy to murder or commit robbery.
Nxumalo said the evidence of Zungu was not corroborated in all material respects, arguing that the material aspects of the evidence were contradictory and affected his credibility.
During the proceedings, State prosecutor Ronnie Sibanda on Tuesday said that the application for discharge ought to be dismissed.
Sibanda submitted that Zungu’s presence at the Basotho hostel on the day of the murder with the accused corroborates his evidence. Sibanda submitted that cellphone expert witness evidence linking Maphisa and his co-accuseds’ cellphones to towers in the vicinity of the crime scene was also corroborated.
“The presence of Zungu at the hostel can be corroborated. The presence of accused number 3 and number 4 can be corroborated by objective evidence that was brought by Ms Pinky Vythilingam before this court,” he said.
On the argument made by Nxumalo on the state not calling all eyewitnesses to the stand, Sibanda argued that it was no duty on the state to call every available witness.
The state has made it plain that the position of Kelly Kumalo will be considered after the conclusion of this case. Hence, she was not called as a witness. We have made Kumalo available to the defence and other witnesses that we have not called, and it closes the state case,” he said.
Maphisa, Mthobisi Mncube, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi and Sifisokuhle Nkani Ntuli are on trial for Meyiwa’s murder. The state alleges they acted in furtherance of a common purpose. They have all pleaded not guilty.