A new witness is expected to take the stand in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial when it resumes in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.
Five men are on trial for the murder of the soccer star in October 2014.
The court heard on Friday that the bag containing the firearm allegedly taken from one of the accused, Mthobisi Mncube, in 2015, was not sealed when a ballistic expert booked it out of police storage in 2020.
Mncube had been arrested in a separate matter.
Defence Advocate Zandile Msholo argued that anything could have happened between 2015 and 2020.
Senzo Meyiwa Murder Trial | Defence argues guns could have been exchanged at the exhibit store:
Captain Bonginkosi Mtshali, the Commander of SAP13 in Cleveland, Johannesburg, from January 2019 to October 2022, was called as a witness in the trial.
This is where the firearm that was found in the possession of the third accused, Mthobisi Mncube, when police were investigating another case in 2015, was kept.
“And from what has transpired from these records, it shows that there is no evidence from the duration of 5 years, this exhibit was kept in a sealed exhibit bag?”
Mtshali: Yes in that way I will agree with you.”
Mtshali was questioned by State Prosecutor George Baloyi as to why this firearm was not destroyed after the investigation in accordance with a directive issued in 2017.
“One can keep a gun for years before it is destroyed because there’s a lot of paperwork that needs to be done before. There’s a special procedure that needs to be followed. The national office is the only office that is responsible for firearms with serial numbers that have been filed off. The process to destroy a firearm is even longer for firearms with serial numbers that have been filed off.”
