'They cooked up evidence': Defence lawyer points finger at Longwe Twala

A defence lawyer in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial on Monday alleged the evidence was “cooked up” and the shooter is not among the five men on trial.

Advocate Thulani Mngomezulu, representing Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, said the investigation into the case is “far from the truth”.

He suggested an alternative scenario — that Meyiwa was killed when a shot was fired from a gun owned by Longwe Twala during an argument with his then-girlfriend Zandile Khumalo. Twala was in the Vosloorus house where the footballer died in October 2014, with the Khumalo sisters, their mother and two of Meyiwa's friends.

Mngomezulu said some witnesses had described the murder weapon as a revolver, contrary to the expert witness testifying Meyiwa was shot with a 9mm pistol.

“That evidence is part of the cooking of this case. [Ballistics expert Chris] Mangena and the rest, they all cooked this evidence in this investigation. They know who they were protecting, it's a cover-up. Everything is a cover-up here,” he said.

Sgt Batho Mogola, who was part of the team that investigated Meyiwa's murder, took offence to this, saying: “I view that as an insult when you say we have cooked.

“We are not bored to cook something up and present it before the court, that will mean South Africa is something else in justice. We are here in this court for the evidence we have to be tried. It's not for your judgment to say the evidence has been cooked.”

Mngomezulu continued his cross-examination of Mogola intended to cast doubt on the police investigation.

He asked Mogola why he did not take statements from Meyiwa's family during the investigation. Meyiwa’s family had received reports from eyewitnesses immediately after he was shot — one of them from Kelly Khumalo to Mandisa Mkhize, Meyiwa's wife.

Mogola said he had not received an instruction to do so from lead investigator Brig Bongani Gininda.

Mngomezulu suggested Meyiwa was shot when he was separating a fight between Longwe and Zandile.

“When Longwe came to Kelly's [mother's] house he was drunk, he had a .38 special revolver. According to my witnesses, three shots were fired and three people were hit. Senzo was shot dead, Longwe shot himself in his ankle and the other shot was the one fired on the floor and as a result, Zandile was wounded,” he said.

Mngomezulu introduced a statement by a sangoma, Nompilo Sangweni, who cleansed Kelly a few months after the murder, in 2015.

According to the statement, Kelly was thinking of killing herself after the funeral.

Sangweni, who claims to help people by communicating with God and ancestors, said she had seen a shadow of a man following Longwe Twala after praying for him.

“In my spirit I saw he had a spirit of a dead person and that person was appearing to me as a male, dark in complexion and white clothes.” Meyiwa was wearing a white T-shirt on the day of the shooting.

According to Mngomezulu, the sangoma asserts Twala admitted to the shooting, saying he was struggling to sleep.

Mngomezulu said he plans to subpoena Kelly.

TimesLIVE