Five accused men in the Senzo Mayiwa murder trial stand in the dock at Pretoria High Court on July 17, 2023 in Pretoria. (Photo by Phill Magakoe/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Bongani Ntanzi, the second accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, was implicated as a firearms and ammunition supplier for contract killings countrywide, lead investigator Brigadier Bongani Gininda testified in the Pretoria high court on Tuesday.
Trial proceedings were delayed due to a dispute between the state and the defence over the dockets of an unfinalised case of murder and the unlawful possession of firearms in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, involving Ntanzi.
When they resumed, defence advocate Thulani Mngomezulu told the court that when he read the Nongoma affidavits, he found nothing linking his client.
“There is only one statement that mentions Bongani Ntanzi and that person talks about something that was overheard,” said Mngomezulu.
One of the statements was deposed to Gininda by a police informant, who the brigadier revealed died last year after an unspecified illness.
In response to Mngomezulu’s assertions that his client was not implicated, Gininda said: “That is not true — the statement mentions murders and firearms. It implicates accused two in various matters.”
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng ordered Gininda to read the informant’s affidavit, which referred to the second accused by his other name, Ntanzi Mafika.
“Ntanzi Mafika is a quiet gentleman and no one can suspect him. He is a firearm supplier and ammunition supplier,” stated the affidavit, as read by Gininda.
“Ntanzi also supplies more firearms in Marikana. He invited me to visit him.”
The statement further claimed that Ntanzi was a known hitman.
He is accused alongside Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Mthobisi Ncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Fisokuhle Ntuli for the October 2014 murder of the Bafana Bafana captain at the Vosloorus, Gauteng, home of his lover, singer Kelly Khumalo.
The informant’s statement said: “I overheard him [Ntanzi] talking to Maphisa that they did a good job by killing a union member in Marikana. I heard the person who was killed is very powerful.”
It added: “I asked him when he started killing people and he said it is a man’s job to make a better life. I warned him about it. He used to keep a small quantity of firearms in his room and the roof of his room.”
Gininda, continuing his testimony on interactions with the police spy, said Ntanzi was implicated in robberies and linked to accused number five, Ntuli.
“He [the informant] further told me the AK-47 [one of the arms in the second accused’s arsenal] was used to rob a Shoprite [store] by Ntanzi and Nkani [Ntuli] in 2014, and a police [officer] was shot.”
Gininda’s testimony follows from what he told the court on Monday — that Meyiwa was murdered through a planned hit, and not a botched robbery, as the state has claimed since the trial began in April 2022.
Mngomezulu maintained that his client was unlawfully arrested and kept in custody so that he could be coerced into making a confession.
Ntanzi’s alleged confession forms part of the trial within a trial in the Meyiwa case, to ascertain whether the second accused’s admission to officers after his October 2020 arrest can be entered as the state’s evidence.
The five men on trial for Meyiwa’s murder have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.
The trial is set to resume on Wednesday.