The five accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial in the Pretoria High Court. Picture: Jacques Naude / African News Agency (ANA)
BANK records obtained by the State have revealed that the first murder accused in the Senzo Meyiwa trial was in fact in Gauteng and around Vosloorus before and after the murder of the Orlando Pirates soccer player.
Contrary to Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya’s testimony claiming that he left Gauteng in 2013 and only returned in 2015, the State has once more proven that this was untrue as they brought bank statements of the accused men to court.
As the Meyiwa murder trial continued in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, yesterday, the State announced it had managed to obtain the bank records of all of the accused except for Mthokoziseni Mncube
According to the State, the bank records showed that Mncube had made some withdrawals and purchases from his account, before the murder and on October 26, 2014, the day of the murder in Vosloorus at the Naledi Mall.
The latest revelation was yet another spanner thrown in Mncube’s defence as just last month, the State called in an investigator from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) who revealed data from the National Administration Traffic Information System (Natis) which indicated that Sibiya was in Gauteng in 2014.
RTMC investigator Chupye Christopher Matlou told the court that information on Natis showed that Sibiya had booked his learner’s licence test twice, in July and September 2014 in Gauteng.
He further told the court during March proceedings that when Sibiya failed his learner’s test in Brakpan, he then applied for another booking and managed to secure one in Boksburg.
Matlou added that for each of these bookings, Sibiya had provided a Vosloorus address, proving that he was a Gauteng resident at that time.
Sibiya’s legal defence has had a difficult time in the course of the trial, as he alongside his co-accused Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi previously failed in barring the State from submitting their confessions, and in the case of Sibiya, his pointing-out statement as well.
Both Sibiya and Ntanzi in pleading for the courts not to admit the confessions as evidence alleged that they were assaulted and tortured by the police into making the said confessions as they pleaded not guilty.
A trial-within-a-trial was initiated by the courts in October 2023 to determine the admissibility of the confessions, and concluded last month with Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng ruling that the confessions were made ‘freely and voluntarily’ and were therefore admitted as evidence.
The trial continues.
goitsemang.matlhabe@inl.co.za