‘Phones were in police custody’ – Senzo Meyiwa murder accused dismisses gun photo

The defence in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has sought to poke holes in the testimony of a cellphone analyst after alleged communication between the accused was established.

Gideon Gouws returned to the witness stand for further cross-examination by the defence in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.

Gouws examined the data extracted from the cellphones of accused two, Bongani Ntanzi and accused five, Fisokuhle Ntuli.

Both Ntanzi and Ntuli’s phones had two SIM cards.

The analyst, in his evidence-in-chief, testified on Wednesday that the records showed the accused had been in communication with each other.

A picture of a firearm downloaded from Facebook was found on a memory card retrieved from Ntanzi’s phone, according to the records.

An image of a news article about the Meyiwa case was also discovered.

Phones were in police custody

During the trial proceedings, Ntanzi’s attorney, Sipho Ramosepele questioned Gouws about his evidence before the court.

Ramosepele told the witness that his client denied ever downloading a photograph of a gun on his SD card because his cellphone was in custody of the police.

It was heard in court earlier this week that Ntanzi’s phone were seized while he was detained at a police station in Pretoria in February 2021. But his lawyer claimed that two phones were confiscated immediately after Ntanzi’s arrest on 16 June 2020.

“He never had access to those phones again,” Ramosepele said, before pointing out that the firearm image was downloaded on 4 January 2021.

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“That will be some time later after his arrest,” the attorney continued.

In his response, Gouws stated that he is unable to comment on Ramospele’s assertions.

“I can’t comment on that. This is according to the data created on that day. Not according to me,” he said.

Ramosepele stated that Ntanzi also denied porting his number to a different network service provider.

Gouws had testified that the accused changed from Vodacom to Cell C although it was unclear when this happened.

The attorney, however, argued that his client maintains that he has always used Vodacom and MTN.

“This was not extracted by me. This was extracted by the download device information embedded on the card itself,” Gouws replied.

Watch the trial below:

Two contact numbers linked to Ntanzi’s co-accused, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya and Fisokuhle Ntuli, were found on the Vodacom SIM card.

The linkages were done by Colonel Lambertus Steyn, who testified before the court last year.

The court previously heard how one of the accused, Mthobisi Mncube, also had photos of guns, ammunition, an axe and a panga on his phone.

One image with a firearm was saved under the name “my killing machine”.

Senzo Meyiwa’s murder

Meyiwa was shot and killed while visiting Kelly Khumalo at her mother’s residence in Vosloorus, Gauteng, on 26 October 2014.

According to Ntanzi and Sibiya’s confession statements, Khumalo ordered the hit on Meyiwa.

Sibiya, Ntanzi, Mncube, Ntuli and Mthokoziseni Maphisa are on trial for the footballer’s murder.

Ntanzi has been pointed out by at least two witnesses as one of the armed intruders who entered the Khumalo household on the fateful day.

All five men have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.

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