The State witness in the Senzo Meyiwa trial has told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that he has no record of the case he opened against the police following the alleged beating that he says he suffered at the hands of police in January 2019.
He says the case was opened about a year after the alleged beating.
Mshololo: If you were beaten by the police in 2019 why did you take so long to open a case?
Thwala: I guess it was due to fear.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwaTrial #SenzoMeyiwa
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 12, 2023
Under cross-examination by Advocate Zandile Mshololo for accused 5, Fisokuhle Ntuli, Thwala says he has no idea what happened to the case, which he opened in “January or February of 2020”.
Thwala: Does it impress you that I was beaten?
Mshololo: No.
Thwala: I see how you do things. It looks like it impresses you that I was beaten up.
Thwala says he went to the Dr about a day after he got back in KZN.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwa
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 12, 2023
Thwala, who is the second witness who was in the house the night Meyiwa was shot and killed in Vosloorus, says following the alleged torture he went to see a doctor.
However, he has also admitted in court that he has no medical records from that visit to the doctor.
“All I can say that there were police that arrived and took me to the doctor with the purpose of wanting those records. They had seen the pictures. I don’t know what happened thereafter. But I don’t have anything on me,” says Thwala.
Mshololo: If you were beaten by the police in 2019 why did you take so long to open a case?
Thwala: I guess it was due to fear.
Mshololo: When you opened it, where was that fear?
Thwala: I think it was because of the strength that I got from the people and those who accompanied me as well.
Meanwhile, a statement by Meyiwa’s brother-in-law, Mlungisi Edward Hlophe, which paints a completely different picture of what could have happened inside Kelly Khumalo’s mother’s house, has once again been mentioned in court.
In the statement that is contained in the controversial docket docket Vosloorus Cas 375/1/2019, which was opened five years after the incident, Hlophe makes mention of a fight between Kelly’s sister, Zandi and her boyfriend, Longwe.
Reading from a statement, “I would like to state that Senzo Meyiwa was my brother in law and I am married to his sister, Nokuthula Hazel Hlophle. I heard about his unfortunate killing on the day of the incident, the 26thof October 2014.”#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwaTrial
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 12, 2023
“I went back inside my car and called Tumelo Madlala,” reads the statement in part.
“I wanted to get the truth of what exactly happened. Tumelo told me that there was a fight in Kelly Khumalo’s house. Zandi was fighting with her boyfriend and Senzo Meyiwa was trying to separate the two, Zandi and the boyfriend,” read Mshololo further from the statement.
This would be contradiction of 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.
Thwala was questioned by Hlophe why he only made this statement five years after the incident had happened.
In 2020, Muzi Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli were charged with Meyiwa’s murder, attempted murder of other witnesses, robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of ammunition.
They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial continues.
VIDEO: Cross-Examination of State Witness Mthokozisi Thwala continues:
