Senzo Meyiwa’s murder docket’s whereabouts unclear, Cele says

Police Minister Bheki Cele admitted in an interview on eNCA on Wednesday that there was confusion surrounding the whereabouts of the docket for the Senzo Meyiwa murder case.

Cele believes the docket is with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The NPA disputed this, saying it has been sent to the office of National Police Commissioner Khehla Sithole.

“I believe the document is supposed to be with prosecution, but I’ll have to confirm that,” Cele said.

The police minister said he was “satisfied that police have done a good job”.

“I spoke to the family twice… because my brief was at the edge of people being identified and people being arrested, I will stop there,” he said.

These comments echo ones made while speaking to journalists at the ninth Popcru Congress at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) on Wednesday.

“It’s been a long time. By now we should have found the results. I am on a year on the matter. I find it satisfying to me that we are going somewhere,” he said.

“The family said it is very well satisfied with the work of the police,” he added.

The family did indeed say that in their view the South African Police Service (SAPS) had done all it can. The family, however, blames the NPA for failing to prosecute Meyiwa’s alleged killers.

As for AfriForum, the lobby group which announced on Tuesday morning it would be representing the family in privately prosecuting Meyiwa’s alleged killers if the NPA failed to do so, Cele said their intentions were not pure.

“AfriForum said they were here to embarrass the justice system, not solve the case. To me, that was a telling statement. We are not here to embarrass anyone. We are here to solve the matter, and I want to insist the matter will be solved,” he said.

This follows AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel saying at Tuesday’s media briefing: “Hopefully, [from] what we’ve seen, it means that us taking up this [case] will be an embarrassment for the criminal justice system. But we don’t mind that. Maybe it’s time that we embarrass the criminal justice system.”

He added that he hoped this may lead to the NPA “upping their game”.

Update: This article was originally incorrectly headlined that the murder docket was admitted to be missing.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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