The second state witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has come under fire for inconsistencies in his evidence on Thursday. Sergeant Patrick Mthethwa says he received a call about a shooting incident at 20h53 while he and his colleague were at the Vosloorus Police Station.
Mthethwa has told the North Gauteng High Court that he and his colleague were at the Vosloorus Police Station and by 22h00 he was already back at the police station writing his statement.
This is inconsistent with the evidence of the previous state witness, Thabo Mosia, who told the court that he arrived at the scene just after midnight, about four hours after the shooting incident which the court has heard took place just after 20h00.
Mthethwa told the court that he saw Mosia at the crime scene between 20:53 and 22:00 when he was called to a domestic violence call.
Mthethwa has also testified that Brigadier Johan Ndlovu arrived not long after Mosia’s arrival, saying of the two, Mosia was the first to arrive.
“Ndlovu arrived after our second visit. It was not long before Ndlovu arrived. He (Mosia) arrived first and then Ndlovu arrived,” says Mthethwa.
Mosia previously told the court that he received a call from Ndlovu at about 23h20 and that he arrived at the scene just after midnight to be welcomed by Ndlovu who directed him around the crime scene as he (Mosia) took pictures.
The prosecution in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case has also asked the North Gauteng High to expunge parts of the evidence given by the second witness in the trial, Sergeant Patrick Mthethwa.
This after Mthethwa threw the name of Gladness Khumalo into the fray saying she had pointed at the hat that lay on the floor at the crime scene among other items.
It was at this point that the defense sought clarity as to whether Gladness Khumalo, Kelly Khumalo’s mother who was in the house during the incident, would be called to testify. In response, state advocate, George Baloyi, rephrased the question and requested the evidence which referred to Khumalo could be expunged, saying they would only decide at a later stage whether to call Khumalo to testify.
Asked if he’d seen the suspect wearing the hat, he says it goes back to the issue where he’d tried to explain how he’d come to know about the hat. The state asked him to stick to his own observation and not refer to what other people had said to him. #SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwatrial pic.twitter.com/R9FIM42HET
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) September 8, 2022
The position of the projectile also came under the spotlight. Mthethwa says among the items they found at the scene was a projectile on the floor.
However, Mosia has previously told the court that he found a projectile (front part of the bullet) on top of the kitchen unit behind the glass jar, indicating that it had changed direction after hitting the kitchen door.
On Thursday, during his evidence in chief, Mthethwa told the court that he first arrived on the scene with his colleague, Sergeant Mathebula, only to find a man who identified himself as Themba Khumalo, the bother of Gladness Khumalo.
He says they, however, had to rush to the hospital where Meyiwa had been taken because Khumalo also didn’t have information of what had actually taken place at the scene except that there had been a shooting and the victim had been taken to Botshelong Hospital.
He says before they left they entered the house but could not make sense of what had transpired.
Accused by the defense of having contaminated the crime scene by going into the house, Mthethwa denied this.
Again accused of having acted unprofessionally when he left the scene unmanned and not cordoned off when they drove to the hospital, Mthethwa said there was nothing to cordon off as he didn’t know what kind of a crime scene they were dealing with.
Mthethwa: How can I cordon off a place when I don’t know what happened there? I don’t know if there was murder, a fight or there was a shooting, people ran off. Because even if I call the photographer, they will ask me what are we coming there for.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwatrial pic.twitter.com/3P9lSdmJvS
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) September 8, 2022
Mthethwa says he couldn’t have left his colleague to guard the crime scene while he drove to the hospital because they operate in pairs, had heard there was a shooting, and couldn’t have been safe to leave one person there without all the details. #SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwatrial pic.twitter.com/bpaWWvbi2t
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) September 8, 2022
Shortly after the resumption of proceedings following the lunch adjournment, the defense asked to pause the cross-examination to allow the witness the opportunity to bring to court the pocketbook which he used on the night of the shooting.
#SenzoMeyiwatrial postponed
“This case is postponed overnight with the accused in custody. It is postponed to the 9th of September.”#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwa pic.twitter.com/PRNXxyM0zg
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) September 8, 2022
