One of the neighbours who witnessed three men running down the streets of Vosloorus and into a park after the fatal gunshots that killed Senzo Meyiwa has told the court how Kelly and Zandile Khumalo were among the people who cried uncontrollably at the hospital when the Bafana Bafana goalkeeper was declared dead.
The neighbour, Nthabiseng Mokete, was the State’s third witness who took the stand in the Meyiwa murder trial at the Gauteng North High Court, Pretoria.
Mokete had been sitting in a car outside her home when she heard the first gunshot in the vicinity, after which she saw a skinny man running down the street, heading towards the park.
Mokete told the court that after some time, she heard another gunshot, this time closer to the car, followed by another two men seen running in the same direction as the first, with one having dreadlocks.
She alleged that after a few seconds, she heard a third gunshot, but no one else was seen running away.
Defence advocate Zandile Mshololo questioned Mokete about which house the men came from, and she replied that she did not know. She also said she saw a man with dreadlocks, but Mshololo told the court she was fabricating her evidence as she had never mentioned a man with dreadlocks in her statement to the police, which was recorded on October 27, 2014.
Mokete, in her statement to police, had also said she would not be able to identify the men she saw as it was dark.
She told the court that she did not mention the dreadlocks as she had never been questioned about them.
Under examination by the presiding officer, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng, Mokete was asked if she saw any of the people who were in the house crying.
She told the judge that Kelly, Zandile, and their mother, Ntombi Khumalo, as well as Meyiwa’s friends, Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, had all shed tears at the hospital.
Mokgoatlheng asked Mokete if he had witnessed MaKhumalo crying at the hospital.
Mokete replied: “What I remember before she was informed that Senzo had passed on, she was busy touching Senzo’s lower legs and saying to Senzo, ‘Please don't die’. She would say, what will we say to the Meyiwas’. Then, after she was told that Senzo had died, she blasted into that cry”.
Mokete said it did not appear like any of them were acting.
When asked if Kelly cried, Mokete said: “She was crying bitterly from the time we arrived at the hospital to the time Senzo was put on the stretcher. Senzo was then pushed into the hospital, she was crying bitterly”.
Under re-examination, Mshololo asked the witness if she knew the difference between a genuine cry and crocodile tears.
“I have never seen crocodile tears; I don't know what you are talking about,” she said.
The witness stood down, and the next State witness on the stand was Colonel Lambertus Steyn, from the SAPS Cold Case Unit. He was witness 79 on the witness list.
He has 41 years of experience and is currently employed as an analyst.
The trial continues.
IOL