The third gunshot that was fired while the alleged two intruders already fled the house, running towards the park, moments after the former Orlando Pirates keeper Senzo Meyiwa was shot, is expected to be interrogated on Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, the state’s third witness, Nthabiseng Mokete – a neighbour who was with her friend Yolanda Motha in the car on the street when Meyiwa was shot at Kelly Khumalo’s home – told the North Gauteng High Court that it was after she had seen a man with dreadlocks and a taller one who wore a hoodie, that a third shot went off.
According to Mokete, the first shot was fired when Mokete was seated in the back seat of Motha’s car, right before a slender man of average height sprinted past their car in the direction of the car.
Mokete said while she and Motha argued about whether the sound was in fact that of a firearm, a second shot went off and it was at that time that a man with dreadlocks and the other one wearing a hoodie ran past their car, also in the same direction as the first man.
“I told her maybe we should get out because gunshots were going off and people were running. I think she then opened her door and as she did that, there was another gunshot for the third time. I remember I tried to open the door and I was scared at that time, I remember hearing Zandi’s voice and I could somehow see her and I think saw me as and she said Nthabiseng call an ambulance,” Mokete recounted.
Spotting a brown woolly jersey, sitting in the stand, her eyes closed, as if to recall the events of that fateful evening, Mokete says, “When Zandi said that she was already exiting by the gate, running towards us, I then decided to pick up the child. Zandi is running and I thought maybe I should also run.”
It is the state’s case that two intruders entered the Khumalo on the 26th of October 2014, demanded cellphones and money before a scuffle ensued during which Meyiwa was shot and killed.
According Zandile Khumalo’s evidence one of the intruders had dreadlocks while the other one who was taller wore a hoodie that covered his head.
Khumalo never made mention of the third man, who is now the first man that was seen by Mokete while she and Motha were in the car.
During cross-examination, the defence is expected to question on whether she only heard a gun shot sound or whether she did in fact who fired the third shot. She is also expected to be grilled on whether she can categorically say if the men she saw running were running from the Khumalo household or could have been people running away to safety from the same gunshot sounds she had heard.
The trial continues.
