Publications
- Five men are currently on trial for the murder of Senzo Meyiwa.
- The police officers who first arrived at the scene, did not secure the crime scene and instead left for the hospital.
- It has put been put to the one of the police officers, the scene was cleaned after they left.
The police officers who first attended to the crime scene where former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot left without securing the scene.
Meyiwa was shot at girlfriend Kelly Khumalo's house in Vosloorus, Johannesburg, on 26 October 2014. Five men are currently on trial for this murder.
The State's second witness in the trial, Sergeant Patrick Mthethwa, testified in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.
He told the court he and his colleague, Sergeant Mathebula, were the first to respond to the crime.
Stationed at Vosloorus police station with the Crime Prevention Unit, Mthethwa said he received a call to respond to a shooting in progress on 26 October 2014 at 20:53.
READ | Senzo Meyiwa case: Lawyer objects to State's second witness giving evidence
After arriving at the scene, they were met by a man who identified himself as Themba who said he was the brother of Gladness Khumalo, Kelly's mother.
Mthethwa added Themba did not know much about what happened, other than that someone was shot and was rushed to hospital.
After a quick walkthrough of the house, he said they went to the hospital and only there, did they establish it was a crime scene.
Mthethwa and Mathebula then returned to the houses and cordoned it off.
During cross-examination on Friday, advocate Zandile Mshololo, representing the fifth accused, first got Mthethwa to concede he and Mathebula were with two police trainees.
Mthethwa said:
Mshololo then questioned Mthethwa about how he left the crime scene.
Mthethwa said at the time, he did not know it was a crime scene because Themba could not tell the police whether the shooting happened in the house or yard.
He testified they had to go to the hospital to find witnesses to establish what and where the shooting occurred.
Mshololo asked how they could they leave the crime scene in the hands of someone whose identity had not even been verified.
She put it to the witness they should have taken the house keys from Themba and locked it themselves.
Mthethwa conceded he would not have known whether Themba could have been the shooter and trusted Themba was Khumalo's brother merely because he had the house keys.
Using a statement by Sylvia Happy Ngobeni, Mshololo asserted once Mthethwa and his colleagues left the scene for the first time, people came into the house and cleaned up the scene.
In her affidavit, Ngobeni claimed she, Maggie Phiri and two other women went into the house to see what happened.
Phiri then allegedly started picking up empty beer cans.
Ngobeni said she asked Phiri why she was cleaning up before the police arrived, to which Phiri responded she did not want the police to see that people were drinking.
Mshololo propositioned this took place after Mthethwa left the scene for the first time.
This because Ngobeni mentioned after leaving the house, she saw police officers arrive at the house who subsequently cordoned off the scene.
Mshololo said:
"Had you not left the crime scene unattended, those people would not have been able to enter the house and clean the crime scene."
The trial continues.
