By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court has heard that an eyewitness will testify that singer Kelly Khumalo shot Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa dead by mistake.
Defence lawyer Advocate Malesela Teffo told the court the version of events will be presented by a witness who has not yet been called in the trial.
Teffo said the witness would testify that Meyiwa was shot by Khumalo, using a revolver that belonged to Longwe Twala. Meyiwa was shot and killed at Khumalo’s mother’s house in Vosloorus in October 2014.
The singer and reality TV star was among five people in a Vosloorus home during an alleged house robbery when the soccer was gunned down in 2014.
In a recent interview, Kelly said she was not bothered by tongues wagging on social media and suggesting she could be linked to the soccer star’s death.
“The noise is external [and] has absolutely nothing to do with me. When I’m needed, and when the time is right, the world will hear my voice. They will not hear my voice when they feel they should,” she said.
Kelly’s lawyer Magdalene Moonsamy was excused from court proceedings in April and she would continue making formal submissions regarding the outcome and other observations about the trial because her client remains a victim due to the state being uncertain whether she is a witness.
“My client has been co-operating and has been compliant with all the requests made by the state and police. She’s waiting for her day to find closure as well. I don’t see how they can be prejudiced against a victim, “she said.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had a charge sheet that included singer Khumalo and Twala, being prosecuted for the murder of Meyiwa.
This was said on Tuesday in the Pretoria high court by defence lawyer Teffo, who added that the NPA’s Gauteng head, advocate Andrew Chuke, went back on his initial 2019 decision to charge Khumalo, Twala and other adults who were “accomplices” in “unlawfully and intentionally killing Senzo Meyiwa”.
Teffo said a second case docket, which was opened in 2019 and had Colonel Joyce Buthelezi from the police’s national headquarters in Tshwane as the investigating officer, showed that the people in Khumalo family home had “hatched a plan to conceal the murder”.
He added that his clients — Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa — were being made “scapegoats” by the NPA. The fifth accused in the matter, Fisokuhle Ntuli, is represented by advocate Zandile Mshololo.
The five face charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition, all of which they have pleaded not guilty to.
He produced an NPA charge sheet showing that Chauke had recommended that Khumalo, her mother Gladness Khumalo, sister Zandi Khumalo, Meyiwa’s friends Tumelo Madlala and Twala, and neighbour Maggie Phiri be charged for murder and defeating the ends of justice.
Teffo, who was cross-examining Sergeant Thabo Mosia, the prosecution’s first witness, said the state’s theory that two African men entered the Khumalo family home with the intention to rob, whereafter Meyiwa was shot and killed, was “nonsensical”.
He called on Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela to acquit his clients and force the NPA to continue charging the people Teffo said were the real suspects in Meyiwa’s murder.
Teffo said he would call a witness to testify that, while Meyiwa was lying dead on the floor, the people in the house cleaned it and staged a botched house robbery.
The defence advocate added that his witness will testify that, once the crime scene was staged, they put Meyiwa’s body in his BMW X6 and Kelly Khumalo drove the car to nearby Botshelong Private Hospital on the pretence of trying to save Meyiwa’s life.