Senzo Meyiwa. File photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Sergeant Mandla Masondo, the 10th state witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, told the Pretoria high court on Monday that he had found an unlicensed 9mm pistol and ammunition in the house of accused number three, Mthobisi Mncube.
But Masondo added during cross-examination by defence advocate Charles Mnisi that the weapon found in Mncube’s possession was not linked to the football player’s October 2014 murder at the family home of his girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo.
Masondo told the court that he had 20 years of experience in the organised crime unit, dealing specifically with taxi violence.
During cross-examination, he said he had been investigating a taxi-related murder case in Alexandra and had traced Mncube to the Johannesburg suburb of Cleveland.
Masondo said he and two of his colleagues had followed Mncube to where he lived and searched his room. The police officers found a firearm on top of the wardrobe. Masondo said the gun’s magazine was fully loaded with 15 rounds of live ammunition, while one round was in the chamber.
He had told Mncube that he was going to charge him with the unlawful possession of a firearm because he could not produce a licence for the gun.
Mnisi told the court that his client, Mncube, knew of the firearm, adding to Masondo: “If you had given him a chance to respond, accused three would have told you he had nothing to do with the gun found at his home, in relation to the Meyiwa murder.”
Masondo said Mncube’s Samsung GTE 2220 phone was also confiscated and booked in for a download request to check whether the accused could be linked to the Alexandra taxi murder case and to find out if he had an accomplice.
The cellphone confiscated from Mncube is the same device on which police data analyst Sergeant Moses Mabasa had found photographs of multiple guns, including one titled “My killing machine”.
The Meyiwa murder trial is now in its fifth week after it had to start again from scratch on 17 July, when Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng replaced Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela.
The five people on trial — Mncube, 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.