State accused of getting data of Kelly Khumalo’s phone unlawfully

The defence in the Senzo Meyiwa trial has accused the state of obtaining communication data on Kelly Khumalo’s phone unlawfully.

This is as retired cellphone data analyst has been recalled to the High Court in Pretoria to clarify evidence on the alleged communication between Meyiwa’s former girlfriend Khumalo and one of the accused prior to the murder.

Five men are on trial for the murder of Meyiwa.

The Bafana Bafana captain was shot and killed in 2014, while at Khumalo’s parental home in Vosloorus, on Gauteng’s East Rand.

Retired cellphone data analyst, Colonel Lambertus Steyn, says he was requested to look into the phone records of Senzo Meyiwa’s girlfriend and singer Kelly Khumalo as she was then a person of interest and not a suspect.

Steyn was responding to questions by defence counsel, Thulani Mngomezulu.

Steyn: Kelly Khumalo was not a suspect, and we concentrated on her as a person of interest. The number of Nkani, suspect number 5 with the number 202 was discovered and ownership was confirmed via e-Natis and bank statements.
Mngomezulu: But you further say she was a person of interest, what do you mean by that?
Steyn: Person of interest because she was one of the people in the house. She was one of our witnesses at that stage.

Vodacom’s Pinky Vythilingam provided the Section 205 cellphone data evidence on a PDF format while Steyn’s analysis on the data was presented in court on an Excel spreadsheet.

Mngomezulu questioned Steyn if information on excel can be edited.

Mngomezulu: When the service provider gives you the 205s, it gives them to you in a PDF format. I’m putting it to you that it is authentic and original, it cannot be tampered with once it is converted into Excel, the originality remains with the PDF?
Steyn: That’s correct.
Mngomezulu: When you proceed with the downloading for the purposes of analysing the cellphone data, it gets into another integrity of being capable of being edited.
Steyn:  The possibility is there.

Mngomezulu accused the state of illegally obtaining information from Kelly Khumalo’s phone.

“ I will argue later that the rights of Kelly Khumalo and the person named in the communication which is accused number 5 were infringed. The information obtained from Kelly Khumalo or communication to what the state alleges, was obtained unlawfully.”

Meanwhile defence counsel, Charles Mnisi, referred to several mistakes in Colonel Steyn’s affidavit.

Mnisi: I’ve counted more than five times where you could have realised that you made a mistake and made amends. Should I then not request that we get a brief adjournment so that you organise all these documents.
Steyn: My Lord I don’t see the necessity of this, can I then be excused? I don’t have the time for this. It’s not something I have prepared for this cross examination.
Mnisi: From my side you are excused.
Judge: Colonel Steyn is a colonel; he knows the law. I’m the only that can tell him to.

Steyn is expected back on the stand on Thurday morning.