Nel said that instead of making the representations to National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi, Teffo should have taken the matter to Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi.
RESPECTED legal eagle advocate Gerrie Nel said it was strange for advocate Malesela Teffo to approach the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) and make representations in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act for his four murder-accused clients to be acquitted when a court was presiding over the trial.
Nel, a former National Prosecuting Authority senior prosecutor who now heads Afriforum’s private prosecution unit, told broadcaster eNCA that the court case must be allowed to continue until its conclusion.
“Absolutely peculiar. We are busy with the trial here. The trial started so the frustration is continuing. This should never happen. All these issues should be sorted out during a pretrial process. When a matter in the high court starts, that is what everybody expects it to do,” said Nel, who is representing some members of the Meyiwa family in the murder trial.
“We should be dealing with the merits of the matter. We haven’t even completed one witness. I am very critical of the whole process. There was supposed to be an application on jurisdiction; that was abandoned. Then there is an application in terms of Section 87 which cannot be heard because Section 87 is only available to an accused before evidence is led.”
Nel also highlighted that instead of taking his representations for a review to the door of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi, Teffo should have taken the matter to Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi.
Last month, the North Gauteng High Court postponed the high-profile matter to September 5, but the sitting this morning was set aside for Teffo to argue on the jurisdiction of the Pretoria-based court to hear the matter as the murder took place in Joburg.
Teffo has abandoned the argument over the court’s jurisdiction but insists that his clients are not the right people to be charged and prosecuted for the murder of the famous footballer.
Earlier this month, Teffo wrote directly to Batohi, asking her to stop the prosecution of his four clients, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa.
The fifth accused, Sifisokuhle Ntuli, is represented by advocate Zandile Mshololo.
Meyiwa was killed in 2014, while visiting his girlfriend and the mother of his child, singer Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus.
In the house, that day were Meyiwa, Kelly and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother Ntombi Khumalo, Longwe Twala, Meyiwa’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly’s then 4-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.
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