Accused deny being with state witness on night of Meyiwa murder

Four of the five accused in the murder of Senzo Meyiwa have denied being at a Vosloorus hostel at a gathering on the day the soccer star was fatally shot on October 26 2014.

On Monday, defence lawyers continued to try to discredit the testimony of state witness Const Sizwe Skhumbuzo Zungu.

Zungu previously testified the accused celebrated Meyiwa's death with a bottle of whisky on the night of the murder at Basothong hostel in Vosloorus.

Mthobisi Prince Mncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa, through their counsel, advocates Charles Mnisi and Zithulele Nxumalo, denied they were at the hostel on the night as alleged by Zungu.

Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya and Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi have also denied being there. 

“He doesn't know you from a bar of soap. You are not his acquaintances. He doesn't know you at all,” Nxumalo said of his client Maphisa, directing this statement at Zungu. 

Nxumalo said Maphisa claimed to have seen Zungu for the very first time when he arrived to testify in court on September 7 2023.

Zungu asked Nxumalo to “remind him [Maphisa] about when he gave me the car keys on October 26”.

Nxumalo conceded Maphisa and Mncube were acquaintances and said there was nothing untoward about their friendship.

Zungu, who previously testified he knew the men were inkabis (hitmen), backtracked during cross-examination, saying he never used the word “hitmen”.

Nxumalo also questioned Zungu on why he had not, in his capacity as a constable, made arrests on the day at the hostel after witnessing illegal activity.

He testified he had been alarmed after seeing his nephew Sfiso Gwabeni and the accused in a hostel room with two of the accused holding a revolver and a 9mm pistol.

He said he knew Gwabeni had used a revolver to shoot a person named “Sinakho”.

The court has hundreds of pictures downloaded from the cellphone of suspect Mthobisi Prince Mncube.

Zungu pointed out some of the accused in the images.

Nxumalo said his instructions from Maphisa were that the pictures were taken at Lesedi in Vosloorus, next to the Lesedi shopping centre.

The photo was taken when he visited the owner of a red VW Polo shown in the picture.

TimesLIVE cannot show the pictures because of a court order barring the media from publishing the images. 

Nxumalo said Zungu, who testified he was in the picture, was not present when some of the pictures were taken.

Maphisa disputed that the person who partly appeared on one picture was Zungu. Maphisa claimed that was himself in the image.

Despite their denial, Zungu insisted he was with the accused at the hostel.

Mnisi also asked Zungu to confirm that he did not know who killed Meyiwa.

“I wasn't at the Khumalos' house,” Zungu replied.

It is alleged Meyiwa was shot in a tussle with an armed intruder at the home of then girlfriend Kelly Khumalo.

The people who were in the house that night allege two intruders barged into the house intending to rob them.

The case continues on Tuesday.  

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