The trial of the five men accused of killing Senzo Meyiwa has hit yet another snag after the court postponed the matter to Monday to determine how much time will be given to one of the defence lawyers to study the second docket they received on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, Advocate Zandile Mshololo received the docket opened in January 2019 which placed Meyiwa's girlfriend Kelly Khumalo and others as the accused who have to answer for his murder.
Mshololo lifted the thick file in her hand, informing the court that she had just received it in the morning from the state and needed to go through it.
In the docket, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) for South Gauteng wanted Longwe Twala, Kelly Khumalo, Gladness Khumalo, Zandi Khumalo, Tumelo Madlala, Mthokozisi Twala and Maggy Phiri to be charged with murder and defeating the ends of justice.
However, the DPP North Gauteng took a decision based on the docket opened the year Meyiwa was killed, that the five men on trial in the Pretoria high court had to answer for the murder.
Mshololo wanted to question the state's first witness Sgt Thabo Mosia on a statement he made which is contained in the second docket. She told the court that she will request the people who made the decision to charge the five men before the court to explain what informed their thinking.
“The state must provide reason for the decision it has taken...We have been made to plead before this court when we were not in possession of such crucial information,” Mshololo said.
Last week, Adv Malesela Teffo told the court that in the 2019 docket, Khumalo, who was Meyiwa’s girlfriend, allegedly shot Meyiwa by mistake and then she and the others hatched a plan to hide what had happened and say that a robbery had taken place.
Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela had to remind Teffo several times that the docket he kept referring to was not before court.
Mshololo said she wants time to study the document in order to understand why two directors of public prosecutions arrived at a different conclusion on one crime.
She said the state’s decision to only give her the docket on Wednesday violated the rights of her client, who is accused No 5.
“The non-disclosure of such document to accused No 5 violated my client’s rights to be given further particulars, all information that is in possession of the state in order to be able to prepare his defence.
“Now the whole docket is only disclosed when the trial has already started. Accused number five has been prejudiced by the behaviour of the state, as a result...I need to go [and] read the docket and consult with my client before I can proceed,” Mshololo said.
Prosecutor Adv George Baloyi said he requested the docket back in March but only got it on Wednesday to make it available for the defence teams.
Earlier, Mshololo questioned Mosia on why he did not investigate what had happened to the cellphones that were stolen from the witnesses on the day of Meyiwa’s killing.
Mosia could only reply by saying: “I cannot answer.”
She further questioned why Mosia left the crutch stick which one of the witnesses said had been used to hit one of the suspects.
“This crutch belonged to one of the people who were inside the house, hence I felt it not necessary to do any investigation on it,” Mosia said.
The defence has been trying to prove to the court that the scene Mosia attended to on the night Meyiwa was killed had been contaminated and that the evidence the forensic expert gathered was compromised.
Meyiwa was killed at his then girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s home in Vosloorus, on the East Rand, in an alleged robbery that shocked the nation.
Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifisokuhle Nkani Ntuli have been charged with his murder. The five face charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of firearms without a licence and illegal possession of ammunition.
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