“They assaulted me. I screamed and screamed.”
This was how the man who was present when Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was shot and killed described his alleged torture ordeal four years ago.
Mthokozisi Thwala was allegedly taken by police from Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal under the false pretence that he was going to point out suspects arrested in connection with Meyiwa’s 2014 murder.
But little did he know that he was going to be assaulted for hours. Thwala, who testified for a second day in the trial of five men accused of Meyiwa’s murder, told the Gauteng high court in Pretoria that in January 2019, while preparing for an ANC rally at Moses Mabhida Stadium, two police officers came to his home in KZN and allegedly told him that he needed to prepare to head to Johannesburg for an identity parade.
The two police officers who visited him allegedly told him that suspects had been arrested. Twala is Meyiwa’s friend. Thwala was taken to Pretoria, where he was allegedly tortured and pressured to “admit” to killing Meyiwa.
Thwala detailed how two men entered an office in Pretoria, where he was being kept, and asked about the murder.
He said when he told them he was confused, the men allegedly assaulted him. “They assaulted me, they removed me from the corner and they assaulted me. I screamed and screamed.
“As I was still asking [why they were assaulting me] one of them went out and came back with a bag.”
The men allegedly asked if he still refused to “admit” he killed the football star. While testifying, Thwala bowed his head and broke down in tears.
“I was asking myself what was this bag for because I was still seated in the corner. He opened the bag and took out a big rope. One that ties a cow when you are about to slaughter it. They took out something like a mat and they tied my hands at the back. They also tied my legs,” he said.
He said one of the men took a tube and “closed my month and nose at the same time... I couldn’t breathe and even thought I was gonna die They were taking turns”.
He was later untied after he had pissed on himself. and the men removed a mat which he apparently urinated on. The officers left him in the office, he said.
Five people are currently on trial for Meyiwa’s murder.
Thwala earlier gave the court graphic details of how Meyiwa was killed. He said when Meyiwa was declared dead, his singer-girlfriend Kelly Khumalo and his wife Mandisa Mkhize comforted each other at the hospital.
He also told the court that Meyiwa’s family asked him to ask Khumalo for his ID because they wanted to move him to a private mortuary.
The trial continues today.
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