Senzo Meyiwa murder accused tried to mislead cops by implicating the wrong people – lead investigator

Brigadier Bongani Gininda, the lead investigator in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case, testified that one of the accused attempted to mislead the police by falsely implicating others in the crime.

The investigator made this statement during his testimony on Friday at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, where the prosecution continued leading his evidence-in-chief.

‘Senzo Meyiwa murder a hit’

Gininda previously testified in a trial-within-a-trial held from October 2023 to March this year to assess whether the confession statements of Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya and Bongani Ntanzi were made voluntarily.

At the time, the investigator disclosed that Meyiwa’s murder was a hit rather than a robbery gone wrong.

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

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Khumalo allegedly paid for the former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper’s assassination, according to Sibiya and Ntanzi’s confession statements.

Sibiya, Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Fisokuhle Ntuli are on trial for the murder.

The five men, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are facing charges – including murder and armed robbery.

Senzo Meyiwa murder accused implicates brothers

In Friday’s proceedings, Gininda, who was assigned to the case in 2018, continued to share the details of how the police made a breakthrough in the investigation into Meyiwa’s murder.

He had testified on Thursday that the breakthrough occurred when Constable Sizwe Skhumbuzo Zungu’s father provided a statement in November 2019, implicating two suspects.

Those suspects were later identified as Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya and Bongani Ntanzi.

Zungu’s father had witnessed a conversation between the two men regarding the murder.

Gininda informed the court that Sibiya, who was arrested in May 2020, confessed to being involved in the murder, but claimed he was not the shooter.

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Instead, Sibiya implicated Makho Buthelezi, who was killed in 2019, and Makhimba Qiniselani Buthelezi as the two intruders who entered the Khumalo home, according to his confession statement.

“We did not know those names so they could have not come up from anywhere except from him,” Gininda said on Friday.

The investigator stated that the police pursued Sibiya’s claims and discovered that the Buthelezi brothers were incarcerated from 2013 to 2016.

This information was corroborated by Makhimba, who was held at Qalakabusha Prison in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

“We managed to get to him and a statement from him was obtained… as one was trying to corroborate this confession,” he said.

Makhimba was sentenced to life imprisonment for two taxi-related murders in 2022.

Accused’s confession corroborated by other evidence

Gininda also testified that Sibiya’s confession statement described one of the intruders as having dreadlocks.

This individual, identified as Mncube, was allegedly armed and killed Meyiwa during a struggle.

Mncube’s legal representative, advocate Charles Mnisi, previously admitted his client indeed had dreadlocks at some point.

“He gives a description that, in our view, based on investigations is accused three, but just changes the name to try and mislead us because the facts that he referred to are aligned to this matter.

READ MORE: ‘You will s**t’: Co-accused warned suspect he would be killed after Senzo Meyiwa hit

“This is in line with what the witnesses inside the house are saying, that the perpetrators demanded cellphones and money.

“Furthermore, in his confession, he mentions a white [VW] Polo that he says was used. The evidence that we have is that it was a [grey] Polo, so he was closely describing the right car,” the investigator explained.

Gininda added that the police were able to link the vehicle to Ntuli by auditing his ID number, which allowed them to identify cars associated with him.

“That was the vehicle that was used during the commission of the offence and it was driven by accused five.”