A police van patrols in front of the house where Senzo Meyiwa was murdered. (MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Hawks detective Warrant Officer Meshack Makhubo testified at the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial that Brigadier Bongani Gininda was not appointed as the lead investigator of the footballer’s October 2014 killing.
Makhubo said in the Pretoria high court on Wednesday that neither Police Minister Bheki Cele nor then national police commissioner Khehla Sitole chose Gininda to be the lead investigator. This is contrary to Gininda’s previous testimony that Sitole had appointed him.
Makhubo took the stand as the defence’s third witness in the trial within a trial to determine whether confessions made by accused number one, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, and second accused, Bongani Ntanzi, were admissible.
Sibiya and Ntanzi are among five men accused of killing Meyiwa at the home of his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, on 26 October 2014 in Vosloorus, Gauteng. The other accused are Mthobisi Ncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Fisokuhle Ntuli.
Sibiya’s defence advocate, Thulani Mngomezulu, addressing Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng, argued that Gininda was not honest with the court when he said he was the lead investigator into Meyiwa’s murder, because all officers were equal.
Mngomezulu’s argument was echoed by Makhubo, who said: “No one was appointed to lead the investigation; it was just the four of us who were appointed to investigate.”
He added: “It was never said or specified who was going to lead the investigation because we were of the same rank, we were equal.”
Makhubo said the team of investigators included Captain Joyce Buthelezi, Gininda and a Colonel Ramogale.
Explaining how he was assigned to the case five years after the footballer’s murder, Makhubo told the court that he was called by Colonel Vincent Leshabane on 19 March 2019 to come to a police station in Chloorkop in Gauteng.
“He said there was information regarding the Senzo Meyiwa matter. I asked him why I was the only one being contacted as we were four members. When we got to the office he introduced me to the people there. I knew General Shadrack Sibiya,” Makhubo said.
He said that Cele and Sitole appointed him as one of the investigators, adding that he did not know whether two other officers working under Gininda were also appointed by the same people.
Makhubo emphasised that there was no termination of employment letter issued to him by Cele and Sitole.
Before Makhubo took the stand, state prosecutor George Baloyi opposed the reopening of the defence’s case after Mngomezulu applied for a restart of the trial within a trial because there were witnesses his client Sibiya wanted to be called to testify.
Baloyi objected, saying the case had been long-running and the Meyiwa family was entitled to finality.
“We submit that should the court allow the application [to reopen defence case] Mr Mngomezulu must indicate what the relevance of each of those witnesses is,” he said.
Mokgoathleng, however, said that he had already granted the defence’s pleas to reopen, saying Mngomezulu knew what the law said about a trial within a trial. The judge added that he had listened to submissions that went beyond the requirements of the trial within a trial, but his final judgment would be based on the law.
All of the accused in the trial have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.