Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng. (Mario van der Waal/Gallo Images)
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng said on Tuesday he found it baffling that defence advocate Zandile Mshololo believed state witness Zandile Khumalo had fabricated evidence that there were intruders in the house where footballer Senzo Meyiwa was killed in October 2014.
During Mshololo’s cross-examination of Khumalo on Monday, the lawyer said the witness — whose sister singer Kelly Khumalo was Meyiwa’s girlfriend — was inventing the evidence she was giving to the Pretoria High court .
“The reason why you are failing to give a full description of the head of the second suspect … is because there was no second suspect, there were no intruders, you are fabricating the story,” Mshololo said.
On Tuesday, Mokgoatlheng dismissed this argument, saying: “What baffles me is that after succeeding to kill Sizwe [Senzo], Kelly drove like a mad woman to hospital. Why would you go to these lengths to save Senzo if you killed him? It does not make sense.”
The Khumalo sisters were among the people in the Vosloorus, Gauteng, home of the Khumalo family, where the Bafana Bafana captain was shot. This state says this was during a botched robbery
During cross-examination, Zandile Khumalo accused the defence of changing its argument by first saying intruders had entered the house and then going on to say there were no intruders.
“If the defence believes in this theory [of no intruders] then I would like them to bring forth evidence to prove it,” she said.
“What I would like to know is when were we able to create this conspiracy theory? The police are very smart; they would have found a loophole in all of this.”
The trial started again from scratch last week, with Khumalo as the first state witness, after Mokgoatlheng replaced the previous judge Tshifhiwa Maumela.
The five people on trial, Mthokozisi Maphisa, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Fisokuhle Ntuli, have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.