Senzo Meyiwa and Kelly Khumalo were lovers when he was shot.
(Photo by Gallo Images / Daily Sun / Lucky Morajane)
Kelly Khumalo gave “orders” for police to leave her house after allegedly hiding from them, and Sello “Chicco” Twala offered to take her on an overseas holiday after Senzo Meyiwa’s murder.
This was the testimony at the Pretoria high court on Wednesday from the third state witness Tumelo Madlala, who recounted the hours after the footballer’s October 2014 murder at Khumalo’s family home in Vosloorus, Gauteng.
Drama also ensued in court when advocate George Baloyi, for the state, tried to solicit an in-court identification of the five accused before Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela. Madlala intimated that one of the two intruders who entered the house was in the courtroom, triggering a slew of objections from defence attorney TT Thobane and defence counsel advocate Zandile Mshololo.
Thobane represents the trial’s first four accused; Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa. Mshololo represents the fifth accused, Fisokuhle Ntuli.
Asked by Baloyi whether he could identify one of the alleged intruders, Madlala said: “I was even prepared to identify the person yesterday [Tuesday]. That’s why I even asked for a break yesterday because I was annoyed with being in the same room with this person.”
The state alleges that Meyiwa was killed during a botched house robbery after two men, one of whom was dreadlocked, entered the Khumalo home.
Chicco Twala, a renowned music producer, is the father of Longwe Twala, who was also in the house when Meyiwa was killed. Longwe, according to Madlala’s testimony, was dating Zandi Khumalo, Kelly’s younger sister.
Madlala said when four of the six adults who were in the house when Meyiwa was killed returned from the hospital where the footballer was pronounced dead, they went to a house in a gated community in Mulbarton, south of Johannesburg, where Meyiwa shared a home with Kelly Khumalo.
Madlala said the four were himself, the Khumalo sisters and their mother Gladness Khumalo. He said Kelly Khumalo’s two children, one of them fathered by Meyiwa, were also with the four adults at the Mulbarton house.
“I’m just not sure about the day, but while I was still in Mulbarton, Chicco Twala arrived. Because Kelly was crying, and I was also not well, Kelly informed Chicco that this is Senzo’s friend. I heard Chicco speaking to Kelly, asking Kelly whether she did not want to go overseas for a holiday,” Madlala said.
He added that Kelly Khumalo told the security officers at the Mulbarton estate that they should not allow police to enter the complex, but that the police managed to do so somehow.
“I think Kelly must have seen them [the police]. I think they wanted to peep through the blinds, and Kelly said the electricity should be switched off. After the electricity was switched off, I don’t know who Kelly called but I think a certain order was given and they [police] just left,” Madlala said, adding that the electricity was switched back on after their departure.
Defence lawyer Thobane objected to the planned in-court identification parade. Sources close to the investigation have told the Mail & Guardian that no identification parade has been conducted since the five accused were arrested in October 2020.
“Identification in the court is inadmissible and doesn’t have value. Most importantly because my clients were not taken to an ID parade [before the trial started],” Thobane said in his objection, confirming to the judge that this would have been the first identification.
Judge Maumela adjourned the sitting, saying he would deal with the identification question on Thursday.
The five accused face charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition, to which they have pleaded not guilty. They are all remanded in custody.