A police van patrols in front of the house where Senzo Meyiwa was murdered. (MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Mthokozisi Thwala, the childhood friend of murdered soccer star Senzo Meyiwa, told the Pretoria high court on Wednesday that he was tortured, beaten and humiliated by the police to get him to admit that he murdered the footballer.
Thwala, who was one of the people in the Khumalo house in Vosloorus, Gauteng, when Meyiwa was on 26 October 2014 in what the state believes was a botched robbery, took the stand as the sixth state witness.
He told the court how he was fetched by the police from his home in Durban in January 2019, and told that he was going to attend an identity parade in Johannesburg.
“Upon arrival, I was taken to Brigadier [Lieutenant-Colonel Joyce] Buthelezi’s office in Pretoria and told to sit down. I was then questioned and asked who killed Meyiwa,” he told the court.
“As I tried to talk, I was beaten. They first started using their hands. I started apologising, not knowing what I was apologising for. Then they said I will have to write a statement because I was refusing to talk.”
Thwala said one of the men who assaulted him walked out and came back into the room with a bag. They then continued to hit him on his back and kicked him.
“He opened the bag and took out a rope like one that you use to slaughter a cow. He also took out a mat. They tied my hands behind my back and tied my feet. They then tied my hands and feet together and my private part was exposed onto the mat,” Thwala said.
He said they then “tubed” him, covering his mouth and nose, suffocating him. “This happened until five in the morning. They kept taking turns; the other would sleep while another would tube me.”
Thwala said he urinated on the mat.
He said the men kept on referring to each other as “Morena” and spoke in Sesotho, because they thought he did not understand the language. One of them said “A re mo tlogele”, which means, let’s leave him.
“These people abused me, even Buthelezi, because she was the mastermind in all of this,” he said.
The murder trial started again from scratch on 17 July 2023 with a new judge, Ratha Mokgoatlheng, who replaced Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela after he was suspended for misconduct for failing to deliver judgments within a reasonable period.
The five people on trial — Mthobisi Ncube, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthokozisi Maphisa, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya 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.