Senzo Meyiwa trial: Cellphone data links murder accused to each other

The cellphone records of the men accused of killing former Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa were dissected in court on Wednesday.

Cellphone data analyst Gideon Gouws took the stand at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

Gouws analysed the contents downloaded from a Samsung cellphone found in possession of accused two, Bongani Ntanzi, following his arrest on 16 June 2020.

The court was informed this week that Ntanzi’s phone was seized while he was detained at a police station in Pretoria in February 2021.

Cellphone data

The analyst testified that because Ntanzi’s cellphone was secured with a pattern security code, it couldn’t be directly downloaded.

However, data was successfully extracted from his two SIM cards and the memory card retrieved from the phone.

“There were no contacts saved on the MTN SIM card. The contact information of the Vodacom SIM card contacts was then transferred to a Microsoft Excel sheet,” Gouws said on Wednesday.

He revealed that Ntanzi at some point changed service providers from Vodacom to Cell C.

The witness testified that two contact numbers linked to the other accused were found on Ntanzi’s phone.

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The contacts belonged to accused one, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya and accused five, Fisokuhle Ntuli.

“It was established that this number had various communication with all the other suspects, according to the data based received from Colonel [Lambertus] Steyn,” Gouws continued.

Steyn, who is retired, testified before the court last year.

Furthermore, Gouws told the court that other data found on the memory card, which totalled 5 471 pages, included a picture of a firearm downloaded from Facebook, which was deleted and then recovered.

An image of a news article about the Meyiwa case taken on 29 October 2020 was also found on the memory card.

Watch the trial below:

Gouws also anaylsed data from Ntuli’s Stylo phone.

Two Vodacom SIM cards was retrieved from the phone.

The records revealed that Ntuli communicated with accused three, Mthobisi Mncube.

READ MORE: ‘My killing machine’: Photos of guns, money found on Senzo Meyiwa murder accused’s phone

Accused four, Mthokoziseni Maphisa’s number was also saved on his co-accused’s phone.

It was previously revealed in court that Meyiwa’s then partner, Kelly Khumalo, received two phone calls from Ntuli prior to his murder.

The first call was made on 2 August 2014, followed by another on 15 October 2014.

Senzo Meyiwa’s murder

Meyiwa was shot and killed while visiting 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, Maphisa and Ntuli 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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