Police investigate Meyiwa case before charging accused, court hears

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The investigating team in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case has refrained from charging accused #1 and #2 with the murder of former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa when they were arrested and continued with the investigation while they were in custody.

Muzi Sibiya was first arrested on the 30th of May 2020 for drug dealing, while Bongani Ntanzi was arrested on the 16th of June 2020 for a murder case in KwaNongoma.

On Friday morning, state witness Sergeant Vusumuzi Mogane from the National Cold Case unit reads out a number of Occurrence Book entries, which indicated that Sibiya was booked out on several occasions following his arrest for further investigation in the Meyiwa’s murder as well other cases including the drug-related matter and illegal possession of ammunition.

According to Mogane, Sibiya, who was arrested on 30 May on a drug-related charge, confessed to the Meyiwa murder a few hours later and was remanded in custody the following day for further investigation to implicate a traditional healer in the Meyiwa murder.

Mogane: He took us to that traditional healer.

Baloyi: Where?

Mogane: In Palm Ridge?

Baloyi: Do you remember his name?

Mogane: No, I don’t remember his name. Sergeant Mogola continued with the investigation.

Sibiya was further remanded to appear in court on 1 June 2020 on another matter, while he was booked out again on 2 June for further investigation.

On the 5th of June, still not having been charged for the Meyiwa case, Sibiya was booked out for pointings-out at the crime scene of Meyiwa murder in Vosloorus as well as at the Basothong Hostel where previously Constable Sizwe Zungu told the court he’d seen all the accused in a meeting the day Meyiwa was shot and killed.

Ntanzi who was arrested on the 16th of June for the Nongoma murder case, was also booked out for further investigation on the 17th when he was taken to a boardroom where he was interrogated on the Meyiwa case.

Mogane says it was during this booking out of the accused that he’d told them he was at work in Westonaria the day Meyiwa was killed.

The following day, Ntanzi was booked out for 18 hours and was among other things taken to his workplace where it was discovered he had not been at work on the day of Meyiwa’s murder.

Ntanzi was only returned to the cells in the weeing hours of the 19th and later that day was booked out for his first confession before Colonel Mohale Raphadu at the Moroka Police Station.

The defense on the back of this testimony and other cases brought before the court by the state, requested that matters be stood down for further consultation with their clients in preparation for Mogane’s cross-examination on Monday.

Earlier, the State’s attempts to have the warning statements of defendants 3, 4 and 5 admitted as evidence in the main trial and not as a feature of the trial within a trial failed. The State argued that the defence’s position, “a bare denial”, that their clients had not made any statements meant the admissibility of the statements was no longer in question and should not be part of the trial within trial which is confined to the issues of admissibility.

The court ruled the statements should still form part of the trial within a trial.

The court will resume on Monday when Mogane will face cross-examination from the defence.