…And the plot thickens! Former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, Kelly Khumalo and accused No. 5 in the former Bafana Bafana captain’s murder trial were in contact on at least two occasions and the last time being 11 days before Meyiwa’s murder.
A few hours after the murder, the data on Khumalo’s phone was then wiped out.
The chilling revelations emerged during cellphone analyst, Lambertus Steyn’s evidence at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday morning.
Steyn has told the court that a cellphone number registered under the Asinne hitmaker Kelly Khumalo had contact with a number registered under accused 5, Fisokuhle Ntuli, on two occasions, the first time being on the 2nd of August 2014 at 22h40 with the call lasting for 110 seconds while the other call was recorded on the 15th of October 2014 at 17:33 with a call that lasted 98 seconds.
On both occasions, Khumalo received the calls.
Steyn, who says he has done about 2000 cases, has told the court that in April 2020, he received a CD containing cellphone data from investigation officer Brigadier Gininda. He says Gininda tasked him with establishing linkages between the five accused and any of the people who were in the house before the alleged two intruder stormed into the house.
According to Khumalo’s sister, Zandile, a cellphone belonging to Kelly was grabbed from her mother, Gladness’s hands by the alleged armed intruder after Meyiwa, with a bullet wound to his chest, had fallen between a couch and a TV stand in the Khumalo household’s sitting room.
Steyn could not say whether Kelly’s other cellphone from which data was wiped off immediately after 1am on the morning following Meyiwa’s killing, was already in the police’s possession when the information was deleted from it. He says even if the cellphone was already confiscated by the police, the deletion could still have happened remotely.
Earlier, the court heard how Kelly’s mother touched Meyiwa’s lower legs and begged him not to die on them.
According to the state’s third witness, Nthabiseng Mokete, who was in the car with her friend Yolanda Motha when the incident happened, MaKhumalo, as she’s referred, wailed after she was told that Meyiwa had died.
“She was busy touching Senzo’s lower legs saying please ‘don’t do that to us. What will we say to the Meyiwas?’ After she was informed that Senzo was no more, she blasted into a cry,” says Mokete.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng, on the alternative version by the defense that there were no intruders and that Meyiwa was killed by the people who were in the house, asked if she thought MaKhumalo was faking it when she cried.
“It didn’t appear like she was acting,” says Mokete.
Judge: And Kelly?
Mokete: Kelly was crying from the moment Senzo was being taken out of the car and was pushed into the hospital, she was bitterly crying.
Muzi Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli were arrested in 2020 and charged with Meyiwa’s murder, attempted murder of other witnesses, robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of ammunition.
These charges have remained the same in the new trial before Judge Mokgoatlheng.
They have all pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against them.
It is the state’s case that on the night of 26 October 2014, two intruders allegedly stormed into Kelly Khumalo’s mother, Gladness’ house in Vosloorus where Meyiwa, Madlala, Gladness, Kelly, Zandi Khumalo, Longwe Twala, and Mthokozisi Thwala were sitting in the lounge watching TV.
The alleged first intruder, who was short, had a hat on, had dreadlocks, and armed with a gun, is said to have demanded cellphones and money. This was moments before he was pushed over by Longwe Twala as he (Longwe) ran out of the house just before a commotion ensued in the house in the presence of the second alleged intruder, before a shot that killed Meyiwa went off.
The trial continues.
Senzo Meyiwa murder trial I Witness says accused 5 called Kelly Khumalo at least twice in 2014
