Lieutenent-Colonel Nkosikhona Hadebe has conceded that when accused 1, Muzi Sibiya, was booked out of the Alberton Police Station’s holding cells to conduct the pointings out that was done in an unprocedural manner.
Under cross-examination by Advocate Zandile Mshololo this morning, Hadebe says the SAPS officers guarding Sibiya should have signed the suspect out and handed him over to him for the interview and the pointings out.
“The procedure is that a person will be brought to my office. Someone would sign him out and I would then start with the interview,” says Hadebe.
Mshololo: And it will not be your duty to book out the suspect and that will be the duty of the officers guarding him.
Hadebe: That’s correct.
Mshololo: And that never happened.
Hadebe: That’s correct.
The Lieutenant Colonel whose 36 years of experience has also come into question, previously told the court that, fearing the suspect could escape from custody none of them had wanted to help in booking the suspect out, which led him to sign him out by himself.
According to the defence, Sibiya was tortured and forced to participate in the pointings out by the police including members of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police and the SAPS’ Tactical Response Team.
They say Sibiya never gave directions to the crime scene of the former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper’s murder at his former girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo’s Vosloorus home in 2014, which Hadebe has denied.
He has also denied shot-down suggestions that the presence of the EMPD officers during the pointings out, on the back of allegations of prior torture, could have posed a threat to the suspect.
Sibiya was arrested in Tembisa on the afternoon of the 30th of May 2020 for drug dealing and a few hours later, according to the state, he made a confession in relation to Meyiwa’s murder at the Diepkloof Police Station.
When he was booked out for pointings out on the 5th of June by Hadebe, the suspect was still under arrest for the drug dealing charge and not the charge of Meyiwa’s murder. The defence has questioned how the suspect would volunteer information in relation to a crime he was not arrested for.
Mshololo: The accused was under the impression that he was talking to you on the case of drugs. He says I was arrested for drug dealing. It means he understood the allegations against him to be that of drug dealing.
Hadebe: No.
Mshololo: Please tell me. What is it exactly that was explained to him?
Hadebe: Can we read this? He was asked if he was informed of the reasons for his arrest as prescribed in section 35. His arrest. (He says) Yes, I was informed of my arrest and I am also in custody for drug dealing.
Mshololo: Now, I am saying from this response he knew when he was under arrest for drug dealing, not for murder.
Hadebe: That was secondary.
Mshololo: Did he, at any stage, tell you that he was under the arrest of murder?
Hadebe: No
Mshololo: Then why do you say this was necessary
Hadebe: Because of the answer he gave me.
Hadebe and Sergeant Matsobane Maphakela, the photographer who took pictures of the suspect on the day of the pointings out, have concluded giving evidence in court.
Leiutenant-Colonel Mohalo Raphadu is currently on the witness stand.
He took down the other confession statement by accused 2, Bongani Ntanzi, at the Moroka Police Station in Soweto, which once again the state has contested as having been taking following the suspect’s torture.
This is the second confession statement by Ntanzi the court is hearing of during the trial within a trial following the conclusion of Magistrate Vivian Cronje’s evidence in which she told the court about the submission she took down from Ntanzi at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on the 24 of June 2020, eight days following his arrest.
The trial continues.
Live stream of today’s trial:
