Senzo Meyiwa: Crime scene cleaned before cops arrived, court hears

The Pretoria High Court has heard that the crime scene of Senzo Meyiwa’s murder had been tampered with before police arrived.

Advocate Zandile Mshololo, lawyer for the fourth accused, Sifiso Ntuli was cross-examining state witness, sergeant Thabo Mosia on Monday.

He was the first forensic officer to arrive at singer Kelly Khumalo‘s home where the Bafana Bafana captain was murdered in 2014.

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Mshololo read three statements in court detailing events where a woman only referred to as ‘Maggie (Ma) Phiri’ was seen cleaning the house after the shooting. 

“Maggie Phiri started to pick up the empties from the floor, I asked her why she was tidying up before the police could arrive at the scene. Maggie responded that she does not want the police to see that the people who were inside the house were drinking.”

After insisting that the crime scene had not been tampered with, Mosia admitted he found no blood stains on the kitchen floor despite having led testimony that Meyiwa was shot in the kitchen and it was alleged that he had bled a lot.

“The only blood swabs we took were from the kitchen wall. And more blood was from the floor of the sitting room.”

Mshololo pointed out to Mosia that his failure to perform those tests meant the investigation was unable to conclusively rule out if any of those in the house were involved in the shooting.

Mosia also told the court he never checked Meyiwa’s car for blood spatter even though it is alleged the soccer star was bleeding when he was taken to hospital.

Earlier, Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela dismissed an application by defence lawyer Advocate Malesela Teffo to have a trial within a trial.

Teffo, who is the lawyer for four of the accused, brought the application on Monday asking that the cross-examination being conducted by Advocate Mshololo, for Ntuli, be halted temporarily to allow for a trial within a trial.

Teffo accused police of using apartheid tactics by assaulting and suffocating his clients to force confessions to Meyiwa’s murder, and argued that his clients should not be sitting in the dock for Meyiwa’s murder.

Maumela said Teffo had failed to provide the documentation on time and that his application could only be entertained at a later stage when evidence related to the issues he was raising came before the court.

“The court does not find the basis to make such an order against Adv Mshololo. What Sgt Thabo Mosia [the state’s first witness] is about to testify has nothing to do with those confessions.”

Five men are currently standing trial for the 2014 murder of the Bafana Bafana captain.

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