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Mosia did not register exhibits collected from Meyiwa crime scene until the following day

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For more than a day after State witness Sergeant Thabo Mosia collected evidence from the crime scene of former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa’s shooting, he put it in his safe in his office before he registered. 

“They (exhibits) were collected on the 27 of October. I kept them in the safe, in my office, and registered them the following day,” says Mosia. 

However, it was why Mosia had chosen not to register the evidence immediately that Defense Advocate Zandile Mshololo sought to get an explanation for.  

“You know why you didn’t register it immediately,” charged Mshololo suggesting that Mosia might have tampered with the evidence before it was registered. 

In his defense, Mosia says he was tired and also that his handling of the evidence was not out the normative conduct of handling evidence by the police. 

“Normally, there are exhibits that we book at SAP13 at the police station. Things like guns are those that are rushed to be booked into the SAP13. But other things ammunition and exhibits at the scene like SAP459.” 

Meyiwa was killed on 27 October 2014 at his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s home in Vosloorus, when two intruders allegedly stormed into Kelly Khumalo’s home and demanded cell phones before a scuffle ensued leading to the shooting of Meyiwa. 

Last week, Mshololo rejected a document of what Mosia said was a copy of the exhibit registry proving that he had accordingly registered the evidence.  

State Prosecutor George Baloyi intervened saying they had the copy which should be admitted as exhibit. However, Mshololo has rejected this, saying exhibits are only submitted at the beginning of proceedings and not in the middle. 

Before the morning tea break, Mosia’s competence to handle crime scenes came under scrutiny when Adv Mshololo questioned his qualifications. 

Mosia has told the court that between 2008 and 2013 he underwent several departmental trainings, which equipped him with the necessary experience and he was awarded a certificate as a Criminalistics Expert in 2013, about a year before the Meyiwa shooting.  

When Adv Mshololo put it to him that he might have been “less equipped” to attend the scene having only obtained the certificate the previous year, Mosia rejected this saying even before his 2013 certification, he had been attending crimes scenes and gaining experience.  

Mosia has come under fire from both counsels on numerous occasions for the manner in which he handled the crime scene.  

Under cross-examination, he said he took evidential pictures inside the house relying on the secondary information of what had happened as relayed to him by Brigadier Ndlovu whom he had found on the scene – the evidence which Adv Mshololo tore into labeling it hearsay since it was not obtained directly from the people who were present during the incident. He also admitted that he never took swabs of blood that he found on the kitchen wall and the lounge area because he had run into some difficulties and had to call the task team to come to assist him. The gun powder residue test, which Mosia admitted would be very key in proving if the gunshot that killed Meyiwa was by one of the people who were in the house, was also not done – painting a picture of negligence or incompetence on his side in the manner he handled the crime scene. 

Mosia has admitted that he had not, on his first visit to the scene, noticed the bullet projectile that was found on his second visit – which Mshololo has argued in court was planted in order to link her client to the crime. 

Addressing his qualifications, Mosia has also told the court that he obtained a BTech Degree from the University of South Africa in 2019 without an undergraduate degree since he was granted directed access to the BTech based on the Recognition for Prior Learning.  

Senzo Meyiwa murder trial | 07 June 2022-Part 2

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