Senzo Meyiwa and Kelly Khumalo were lovers when he was shot.
(Photo by Gallo Images / Daily Sun / Lucky Morajane)
Kelly Khumalo again took centre stage at the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, with second accused Bongani Ntanzi’s confession stating that the singer was called by one of the accused minutes before her footballer boyfriend was killed in October 2014.
State witness and magistrate, Vivian Cronje, returned to the stand on Monday to read out the contents of the confession statement she took from Ntanzi in June 2020.
This was after Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng ruled last Thursday that the confessions signed by Ntanzi and accused one, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, were made freely and voluntarily. The court is now hearing the confessions for the first time after they were admitted into evidence.
During the trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of the confessions, some of the information in them had been redacted.
“I believe I need to be protected from a group of people who I was with when this whole thing happened. I was already pointed with a finger as a warning when this thing was done, and I was still a young boy,” Cronje said on Monday, reading Ntanzi’s words.
The magistrate detailed how the 2014 murder of the Bafana Bafana captain was planned and executed at the home of his girlfriend, Khumalo, in Vosloorus, Gauteng.
Ntanzi, in his confession, said he did not trust the police because they could be easily bribed. He further emphasised that he was brought to Cronje to make the confession because he was there when the murder happened, even though he did not kill Meyiwa.
The statement said Ntanzi received a call from accused number five, Fisokuhle Ntuli, who is referred to as Sifiso Ntuli in the confession document.
“I went to the [Vosloorus] hostel, where we met in Muzi’s [Sibiya’s] room. Carlos [accused number three, Mthobisi Mncube] and Mthokoziseni [accused number four, Mthokoziseni Maphisa] arrived,” read Cronje.
The statement further said Ntuli and Maphisa then called Khumalo and told her that they were okay and on their way.
“We met another [VW] Polo Vivo along the way where we got firearms. They all had their firearms and I had a small one in my pocket. A call came in then, which I think was from Kelly. Carlos answered the call and kept on referring to the speaker as ‘sister’,” reads the confession.
In January, legal expert Elton Hart told the Mail & Guardian that the National Prosecuting Authority had a Kelly Khumalo problem because the state began introducing evidence against one of its star witnesses, with the the singer also a complainant in the case after having allegedly been assaulted and her phone stolen on the night of Meyiwa’s murder.
Ntanzi’s confession added that he and Mncube went inside the house and Mncube pulled out a gun and asked for money and cell phones.
“Carlos gave me a phone. There was also a money container that he took. Carlos was about to open something when Senzo Meyiwa stood up and there was then a scuffle,” the admission detailed.
“During this scuffle, Meyiwa then took a chair and hit Carlos. Kelly Khumalo directed Carlos where the thing he wanted to take was.”
After the scuffle, two gunshots went off and they left the house, according to the confession.
After leaving the house, Ntanzi told Cronje that they drove to the hostel and he was threatened by Ntuli.
“We went to room 1B, where Sifiso threatened me and said if I say anything he will kill me. He then gave me R15 000 and I did not say anything as I was shivering and had never seen anything like this before,” continued the confession.
On Friday, Lieutenant Colonel Moholo Solomon Raphadu, who had taken Ntanzi’s first confession on 19 June 2020 shortly after his arrest, read the statement into the record.
According to the statement read by Raphadu, Ntanzi said after the footballer was murdered “I then left with Nkani [Ntuli] to Johannesburg where I slept over. The following day Nkani took me to Daveyton where I stayed for some days. Nkani later returned and took out an amount of R30 000 and gave it to me.”
Ntanzi’s confession reveals a dispute allegedly arose over the amounts to be paid, leading to a meeting at Mahlabathini.
“It escalated to such an extent that Sibiya had leaked information about the incident [Meyiwa’s murder]. A meeting was convened by the family, headed by Sibiya’s father. He told them to keep quiet about the incident of the killing of Senzo Meyiwa,” said Ntanzi.
All the accused have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.