The South African Police Service (SAPS) has released a statement accusing the Sunday Independent of “misleading” its readers with a story on the investigation into the murder of slain Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa.
“The article contains a myriad of assumptions, untruths, and innuendos which have the potential of causing unnecessary uncertainties,” the statement says.
The SAPS denies the article’s claim that Colonel Bongani Gininda has been removed or replaced as lead investigator into the murder, and said he had a “wealth of experience in criminal investigations”.
The statement does not, however, directly confront the Sunday Independent’s claim that Gininda was involved in a cover-up of the identity of Meyiwa’s alleged killer.
The publication reported that Gininda is “said to have withheld a crucial statement he had received in 2017 on who murdered Meyiwa and why”.
It also said that police sources indicated that no one at the National Prosecuting Agency (NPA) had been prepared to sign a warrant for the alleged killer’s arrest.
In the statement, national police commissioner Khehla Sithole calls on the media not to jeopardise the investigation in the statement.
“Once again the National Commissioner is appealing to the nation, the media in particular, to allow this investigation to take its course unhindered.
“However, we will welcome any information that can help bring us closer to resolving this case,” Sitole said.
READ MORE: AfriForum’s Gerrie Nel to represent Senzo Meyiwa family in court
The statement concludes by bringing up Gininda’s role in having “brought down one of this country’s biggest criminal underworld figures, Radovan Krejcir”.
“Therefore, everyone may rest assured that this investigation is being done by a team led by a good and capable investigator,” added General Sithole.
“The national commissioner is being kept updated on the investigation on a regular basis and is satisfied with the work that has been done so far,” the statement says.
Following news that the Meyiwa family had approached AfriForum’s private prosecutions unit for help in bringing Meyiwa’s killer or killers to book, it was reported that the NPA wanted all the case’s witnesses questioned again.
The reason for this is the suspicion that the witnesses in the house where Meyiwa was shot and killed in 2014 allegedly lied in their statements.
City Press has reported that a senior NPA executive told the family that all of those known to have been in singer Kelly Khumalo’s home on the night in question in 2014 had not been honest about their allegation that an armed man and his accomplice stormed into the house and then shot Meyiwa.
The executive reportedly said that “all the witnesses who were in the house at the time of the shooting lied … we suspect the shooting happened among the people who were inside the house”.
Meyiwa’s older brother Sifiso reportedly believes it is important to keep considering everyone in the house a suspect until proven otherwise.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Background reporting, Charles Cilliers)
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