Senzo Meyiwa’s long-time friend, Mthokozisi Thwala said he opened a case of assault with police and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) against two police officers who allegedly tortured him in an attempt to extract a confession from him, yet no progress has been made in the matter.
Thwala told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday that two police officers came to fetch him from uMlazi in Durban in 2019 and took him to Johannesburg where they severely assaulted him.
He said the officers wanted him to confess to killing the soccer star.
After the alleged assault, he filed a complaint against Colonel Joyce Buthelezi and Warrant Officer Meshack Makhubo.
During cross-examination on Thursday, he said Ipid only came to him once and he has never heard from them again.
“Ipid officers came once at my workplace to take statements. They were also shocked when I was telling them what happened. They said they would investigate the matter. But up until now nothing has happened. It clearly shows that police are the law unto themselves,” he said.
After realising that there was no movement in the case, Thwala said his lawyer tried to follow up on the matter and he was told the case had been given to another investigating officer.
Meyiwa was gunned down at the Vosloorus home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo in a suspected robbery, on October 26, 2014.
The people who were in the house on the day Meyiwa was murdered, were Kelly Khumalo and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother Ntombi Khumalo (MaKhumalo), Longwe Twala, Meyiwa’s friends, Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly’s then four-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.
Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifisokuhle Ntuli are on trial for the murder.
The trial continues with Thwala's testimony.
IOL