Investigating officer Brigadier Bongani Gininda has denied that he offered R3 million to accused two, Bongani Ntanzi, to implicate the "right people" in the murder of football star Senzo Meyiwa. (Anesh Debiky/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
The alleged “planting” of forensic evidence on the night of Senzo Meyiwa’s killing was laid bare when Sergeant Thabo Mosia admitted under cross-examination on Thursday that there was no proof of how or when he processed the exhibits.
Mosia, a police forensic officer, also admitted that the police “failed” to record important steps in the collection of evidence, and that the exhibits had been stored in his office safe, instead of being lodged in the evidence register at the Springs police station in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.
This admission followed advocate Zandile Mshololo contending that the reasons Mosia could not provide proof of the evidence collected, such as a bullet fragment and projectile, was the exhibits were “planted” at the crime scene, in an alleged plot to conceal the true details of Meyiwa’s murder.
Meyiwa was fatally shot on 26 October 2014 at the Vosloorus, Gauteng, family home of his lover, singer Kelly Khumalo, in what state claims was a robbery.
Mshololo represents the fifth accused in the trial, Fisokuhle Ntuli. His four co-accused — Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa — are represented by advocate Dan Teffo.
To support her contentions of evidence being planted, Mshololo showed the crime scene photographs taken in the kitchen of the Khumalo’s house.
In one picture, which Mosia said he took, there is a grey/white hat on the kitchen floor that the state claims belonged to one of the alleged intruders.
In another photograph, which Mosia said he did not take, there is a bullet projectile, or the front part of a bullet, which was found on the kitchen countertop and that Mosia said was about two metres away from the hat on the floor.
Mosia, still under Mshololo’s cross-examination, conceded that he did not investigate the countertop.
Mosia said he had left the crime scene after taking eight photographs and not collecting any DNA evidence. He had arrived in Vosloorus shortly after midnight, about five hours after Meyiwa was shot, and returned at daybreak, when the projectile was discovered.
There was a bullet fragment, or chipped bullet, next to the hat that Mosia said he “made a mistake” by not recording when and how it was found
But Mshololo rejected Mosia’s testimony, asserting that it was impossible for Mosia to miss the bullet projectile on the countertop, including the fragment on the floor next to the hat.
“That is because it [the evidence] was not retrieved from the crime scene,” Mshololo said. “They [the bullet remains] were planted; there is no record of where they were stored and there is no tracking record of when these exhibits were stored.”
Using his 2014 affidavit against him, Mshololo asked Mosia where in his statement he recorded the steps he took in securing the evidence, including that he kept it in his office safe.
Mosia said: “There is no where I recorded this information in my affidavit.”
Mosia conceded further: “There is no proof that there was a bullet fragment on the floor next to the hat.”
All five accused — who face charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition, which they have pleaded not guilty to — are remanded in custody, and expected back in court when the trial resumes on Friday.
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