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)
Mthokozisi Thwala, the childhood friend of Senzo Meyiwa, on Thursday dismissed testimony by Khaya Ngcatshe that the soccer star was lying alone and unattended to, on the kitchen floor of the Khumalos’ Vosloorus home where he was shot.
On 26 July, Ngcatshe, a neighbour of the Khumalos, told the Pretoria high court: “On arrival, we made our way in through the kitchen door and found Meyiwa lying alone on the kitchen floor. We tried to hold him in a sitting position before we carried him to the car.”
During his cross-examination by defence advocate Charles Mnisi, Thwala said: “I am the first person who walked in and found Senzo laying on the sitting room floor. He must have entered after me. I only left Senzo when I went to open the door for Tumelo [another of Meyiwa’s childhood friends who was in the house during the shooting].
“There was no way I could leave my friend alone, unattended, to do what? Sit in the toilet?” he said.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng asked whether it was material where exactly Meyiwa was lying after he was shot.
“The fact of the matter is that Meyiwa was shot. Is it material as to where he was lying? That house is a small house,” he said.
Mnisi said Thwala was tailoring his evidence to suit a different narrative because, in his evidence-in-chief, he had not mentioned where Meyiwa was lying.
Mnisi added that he had picked up some discrepancies in Thwala’s testimony, highlighting that on Wednesday he said he could not see the firearm the first intruder had, but in his initial statement he described the weapon as an old revolver.
In response, Thwala said the person who had taken his statement had described it as a revolver.
The murder trial started again from scratch on 17 July with a new judge, 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.