Defence attorneys in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial are expected to cross-examine a police cellphone data expert after he gave damning testimony in court last week against some of the accused and, possibly, Kelly Khumalo.
THE SENZO Meyiwa murder trial is expected to resume on Monday morning with defence attorneys planning to cross-examine a police cellphone data expert who told the High Court in Pretoria last week that he had established cellphone contact between some of the accused and Kelly Khumalo.
Colonel Lambertus Steyn, who is an analyst and investigating officer at the SA Police Service Cold Case Unit, is expected to be cross-examined by the attorneys of the accused.
The five accused are Muzikawukhulelwa Sthemba Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Ncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Nkani Ntuli. They are facing charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Steyn has told the court that cellphone data evidence established a link between the accused contacting each other before the murder of the former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper.
Steyn also said accused number five, Ntuli, had made cellphone contact with Meyiwa’s girlfriend at the time, Kelly Khumalo, twice before the fatal shooting. Ntuli had contacted Khumalo in August 2014 and in October 2014, about a fortnight before the goalkeeper was murdered.
Steyn has also found pictures of accused number three, Ncube, which showed he had dreadlocks a day before and on the day of Meyiwa’s murder.
The court also heard last week that a SIM swap was done on Meyiwa’s number just a day after he was gunned down in Vosloorus.
Legal commentator Elton Hart, who runs the law clinic at the University of Johannesburg, told eNCA last week that the matter of the SIM swap had to be investigated as it was a crime.
Hart said the authorities had to find out who did the SIM swap and potentially charge that person for defeating the ends of justice.
“The question of who did that must be answered,” he said.
Hart also said former footballer David Mathebula needed to answer to the court about what happened to his cellphone after the court heard from Steyn that the SIM-swapped Meyiwa number had been inserted in a phone previously owned by the former Kaizer Chiefs footballer.
Hart also told news broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the State still had to do more to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaking on the bombshell testimony from Steyn, Hart said the State now needed to show by cellphone triangulation that the accused were indeed in the vicinity of Khumalo’s house on the day of Meyiwa’s death.
“What they are doing is showing the accused had conversations with Kelly Khumalo. They need to do cellphone triangulation, where they were on that day, that they were in the vicinity of the Khumalo house. Then we will know the net is tightening around them,” he said in the TV interview.
“So far, there is not enough, because the accused can say we knew each other. Knowing each other does not prove they were the perpetrators who led to the death of Senzo Meyiwa.”
Hart said, so far, only Zandile Khumalo had identified Ntanzi (accused number two) as an intruder as the neighbours had testified that they did not see the accused.
“The identity is still on a rocky patch. The State still has a high mountain to climb so that the court can say there is no doubt,” he said.
Hart also said he believed the State was correct in not bringing Kelly Khumalo to the witness stand, as it would be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot.
“She wouldn’t want to implicate herself, which is why the State does not want to use her. In her testifying, she can implicate herself,” he said.
Hart said it was also possible that the accused could take the stand to place their versions before the court about why they had been in contact with Kelly Khumalo.
