A police officer who was at a hostel in Vosloorus visiting his nephew told the court that one of the five men accused of gunning down soccer star Senzo Meyiwa knew about his death before it was even on the news.
Constable Sizwe Zungu told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday that accused number one, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, told them that the former Bafana Bafana captain had died.
“We were all shocked at that statement. I even went on social media to check if it was true, but there was nothing. I even told him to verify his sources because there was nothing like that," he said.
According to Zungu, the conversation unfolded after Sibiya, accused number two, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, and accused number three, Mthobisi Mncube, came running holding guns.
It was only Ntanzi who didn’t have a gun. Sibiya and Mncube allegedly gave Zungu’s nephew the guns for safe-keeping.
He said he then rebuked his nephew, Gwabini, for handling guns.
As he was rebuking Gwabini, accused number four, Ziphozonke Maphisa, and accused number five, Fisokuhle Ntuli, walked in.
He said Ntuli was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and immediately changed into a grey one.
The black hoodie correlates with a description that was provided by some of the witnesses who were in the house when Meyiwa was murdered.
According to Zungu, a day after the murder, he saw on the news that Meyiwa was killed. He also saw that one of the accused was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and one had dreadlocks.
He said he was a bit suspicious as the description fitted those of the accused, but he was a bit unsure because Mncube’s dreadlocks were not as shown in the identikit.
He confirmed that Mncube had dreadlocks at the time, however, he said he had neatly tied them at the back and they were not loose as depicted on the identikit.
"I didn’t want to accuse them of something that they didn’t do and something I was also not sure about, so I decided to let it go," he said.
Zungu said his suspicions were raised when rumours started going around the hostel regarding the five accused being involved in the murder.
He said he raised those concerns in 2018 with Major General Vincent Leshabane, who was his cluster commander at the time.
He said Leshabane promised to look into the allegations, and after some time, he informed him that his suspicions were true.
However, he said Leshabane told him they should not speak about the matter again, saying this was for his own safety.
Zungu added that in November 2019, the families of accused number one, Sibiya, and accused number five, Ntuli, tried to kill him.
"It was early in the morning, and I was going to the shop to get something, and I saw their car parked on the side of the road.
"Inside, I noticed that there was Nkazimulo. He is a relative of accused numbers one and five. A young man from Ntuli’s family was the one who pointed a gun out of the window, but he was slow, and I managed to turn back," he said.
He said the attempts to kill him stopped after he spoke to Sibiya and asked him to speak to his family members.
Meyiwa was killed while visiting his singer girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo at her home in Vosloorus on October 26, 2014.
Zungu will continue with his testimony on Friday.
IOL