By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has been postponed to Monday in the High Court in Pretoria following the emergence of a second docket.
This was revealed during court proceedings on Wednesday where advocate Zandile Mshololo, who represents one of the five men accused of killing Meyiwa, asked for a postponement to study the second docket.
The State’s first witness sergeant Thabo Mosia has been testifying in court for three weeks.
He was the first forensic police officer on the scene.
Five men are being tried for the 2014 murder of the soccer star at the home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo.
Mshololo, lawyer for Sifisokuhle Ntuli, has accused Mosia of lying about the processing of exhibits from the murder scene and tampering with evidence.
She has refuted Mosia’s claim that he kept exhibits from the crime scene in his personal safe because it was a weekend.
Mosia has apologised to the court saying he got his dates mixed up.
He said after a lengthy day and night of investigations, he kept the exhibits in his personal safe before handing them in for processing on the next day.
Mshololo’s cross-examination was brought to an abrupt pause on Tuesday when the recording device in the court started malfunctioning.
Existence of two cases
Knowledge of the existence of two different dockets pertaining to the same incident were in the public domain before the trial started.
In the first case, which is currently before court, Muzikawukhulelwa S’Tembu Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli are the accused.
The men are accused of playing a role in the murder of Meyiwa, who was shot in Khumalo’s home in Vosloorus, Boksburg on 26 October 2014.
Teffo, who represents four of the accused, introduced the existence of the second case to the court during cross-examination. He handed up a draft arraignment document by the National Prosecuting Authority as evidence that the scene had been tampered with.
He explained that there were two cases being investigated on the same incident. In the one, was the accused he’s representing and the other, the suspects were allegedly those in the house at the time of the shooting.
Teffo further told the court that while both cases related to Meyiwa’s murder, they had different investigating teams which made different findings in respect to what had transpired and who was responsible.
State prosecutor, advocate George Baloyi, objected to the document being handed in, citing that it was a draft document and “never saw the light of day”.
He added that it did not have any evidentiary value, but that the prosecution would lead evidence in that regard at a later stage.
Postponement
On Wednesday, Mshololo cited the second case as the reason for requesting a postponement as she had just received the second docket and wanted to study it before continuing with her cross-examination of the Mosia.
Mosia had also deposed an affidavit to the second case, but testified that he did not know it was for a different case at the time. Mshololo told the court that she had only received the second case docket in the morning.
She also told the court that the suspects identified in the second case were Khumalo, her mother Gladness, her sister Zandi, Meyiwa’s two friends, Tumelo Madlala and Mthokozisi Thwala, Zandi’s boyfriend Longwe Thwala and Maggie Phiri.
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Video Courtesy of SABC.