Following a cluster of concessions about how critical evidence was mismanaged by police on the night of Senzo Meyiwa’s murder, Sergeant Thabo Mosia could have ended the state’s case as he ended his testimony this week.
Mosia, a forensic officer and the prosecution’s first witness, made the last of his damning concessions on Wednesday while responding to state advocate George Baloyi, telling the prosecutor that the scene of Meyiwa’s murder was “compromised” and “not handled properly”.
Moreover, the state’s second witness, Sergeant Mlungisi Mthethwa, testified on Thursday that, after receiving a “shooting in progress” call at around 8.53pm on the night of the crime and proceeding to the scene with an officer he identified as Sergeant Mathebula, there was nothing immediately pointing to a crime having occurred at the house where Meyiwa was killed.
“From what we could see from inside the house, one couldn’t see if something had happened there. If I’m not mistaken, there were two alcohol cans on the [living room] floor,” Mthethwa testified.
Evidence from ballistics expert Captain Christian Mangena — who was among the state’s experts that secured the 2015 murder conviction against paralympian Oscar Pistorius for killing his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, in February 2014 — is expected to be challenged by the defence due to Mosia admitting the scene may have been tampered with.
These admissions followed a pattern Mosia made since his roughly 14-day stint in total on the witness stand, which began on 25 April.
For example, Mosia testified that senior officers who had no forensic experience directed him on what evidence to collect. He also conceded he was not a forensic expert, despite the state calling him to testify as one.
“I was not supposed to start that crime scene. I was supposed to call the crime scene management team before starting the case,” Mosia testified on 2 June under cross-examination by advocate Zandile Mshololo.
Mshololo represents the fifth accused in the trial, Fisokuhle Ntuli, while the first four accused — Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa — are represented by attorney TT Thobane.
They are accused of murdering Meyiwa in October 2014 at the Vosloorus, Gauteng, family home of the footballer’s then girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, in what the state claims was a botched armed robbery.
At the Pretoria high court on Wednesday, Mosia ended his cross-examination by Mshololo by saying he stood by his June 2019 statement, wherein he wrote that the four hours it took for him to be assigned to Vosloorus to begin collecting evidence could have damaged the integrity of the crime scene.
“All delays in reporting the matter to relevant people might have compromised the crime scene,” reads Mosia’s June 2019 affidavit, which Mshololo read out in court.
The affidavit is contained in the second case docket opened for Meyiwa’s murder.
When Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela granted the prosecution an opportunity to re-examine Mosia, Baloyi asked whether the situation under which Mosia deposed the June 2019 affidavit was voluntary.
Baloyi was alluding to previous testimony from Mosia, who said on 31 May that when Colonel Joyce Buthelezi asked him to depose the June 2019 statement, Mosia did not know that the affidavit would be used in a second docket. Mosia, testifying under cross-examination on 31 May, alleged that Buthelezi did not inform him of the reasons why a second statement was required.
However on Wednesday, Mosia changed his tune and said he had deposed the June 2019 affidavit “voluntarily” and that he knew for what purposes he was requested to write a second statement.
Responding to Baloyi as to what he meant by the crime scene being compromised, Mosia asserted: “The crime scene was not handled properly in relation to the time I calculated [time lapse before Mosia got the call] and that brought questions to my mind.”
This questionable collection of evidence could also cast doubt over the evidence of police ballistics expert Mangena, who is expected to provide evidence linking the alleged murder weapon, which the state claims was a 9mm Parabellum, to Ncube, accused number three.
Baloyi, while outlining the prosecution’s case on 22 April, said the alleged murder weapon was found in Ncube’s possession and a picture of the gun — captioned, “my killing machine” — was allegedly found on the third accused’s phone.
Bullet remains found at the Vosloorus crime scene, the state contends, will be matched to the 9mm Parabellum.
But on 2 June, Mosia conceded that police “failed” to record important steps in the collection of evidence and that the exhibits, including the bullet remains, had been stored in his office safe instead of being lodged in the evidence register at the Springs police station in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.
It will be up to Mthethwa and his colleague Mathebula to disprove the defence’s contentions of a compromised crime scene, as, according to Mthethwa’s testimony on Thursday, both officers were the first officers at the scene, as far as he knew.
Baloyi told the court that Mathebula would also be called to testify.
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