Moments after former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, Senzo Meyiwa, was shot, his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s sister, Zandile, ran out of the house to seek help from the neighbour, MaPhiri, but she came back to the scene of the shooting without having received any help.
This is because neighbour MaPhiri started crying and panicking after she told her Meyiwa had been shot. MaPhiri told her relative Nthabiseng, but she too started crying and panicking instead of calling for help before Zandile realized she was not going to get any help and returned back to her house.
This came out during Zandile’s testimony at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon.
Before Zandile ran out of the house, she found the cellphone she had hidden behind the couch. But her attempt to call 10111 also fell through as she froze with the phone in her hand.
“I tried to dial 10111 but I froze and I then went out to MaPhiri’s house to ask for help. There was a car outside MaPhiri’s house and Nthabiseng was there. I am not sure of how she relates with MaPhiri but they are relatives,” says Zandile.
“I noticed Nthabiseng was busy talking to someone there. I went into MaPhiri’s yard and I found her outside. I then asked her to call the police. After I’d told her she started to panic and she called Nthabiseng to be the one to make the call. Both of them were crying and I then realized I wasn’t getting any help then. I then went back to the house,” she adds.
Zandile says she, her mother, and Longwe were seated on the one couch in the sitting room, while Tumelo Madlala, Mthokozisi Thwala and Senzo Meyiwa sat on the other couch before two men, one short with dreadlocks in front and one tall walking behind, entered the house through the kitchen door.
Baloyi: How did you see that?
Zandi: Where I was seated, you are able to see when the door opens, although you can’t see by whom because the door opens to the inside.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwaTrial
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) July 18, 2023
The alleged first intruder with the dreadlocks, Zandile says, demanded cellphones and money, speaking in isiZulu.
She says it was at this moment that Kelly ran into one of the bedrooms before Longwe stood up and pushed the gunman and ran out of the house.
As the alleged second intruder was busy trying to open the door of the bedroom Kelly had run into, she says she hit her cellphone behind one of the cushions and then a commotion ensued as everyone stood up and pushed the gunman and the alleged taller intruder into the kitchen.
Zandi: Before the tall one ran after Kelly, he had been standing between the door of the kitchen into the passage.
Longwe then stood up and pushed the short one with a gun as he ran out. I then hid my phone behind the cushion on the couch I sat on.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwaTrial
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) July 18, 2023
It was during the scuffle in the kitchen that the first of three shots went off before she ran into the bathroom and Tumelo ran into one of the bedrooms.
The second and the third shots went off while she was in the bathroom and then there was complete silence.
Zandi: While we were in the kitchen, fighting with them, I then saw Tumelo’s crutch lying on the floor next to the heater. I tried to hit the second one with it but I couldn’t reach him and then Tumelo grabbed it out of my hands and used it to hit him.#SABCNews #SenzoMeyiwa
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) July 18, 2023
Zandile says, squatting inside the bathroom, through an ajar bathroom door, she managed to see Meyiwa, bent forward and holding onto his chest area, walking towards the area between the TV stand and the couch.
Kelly and her mother followed her there and the two of them were followed by the gunman who elbowed her mother and took Kelly’s cellphone before he left the house.
Zandile says she noticed Meyiwa was bleeding when she got to where he had lay with Kelly trying to assist him on the floor.
Proceedings adjourned for the day as Zandile was giving testimony on how they were trying to rush Meyiwa to the Botshelong Hospital with her sister in the driving seat.
Court proceedings on Tuesday started with the five accused in the case pleading noy guilty to all the charges brought against them as the trial started from scratch before Judge Ratha Mokgaotlheng who replaced the suspended judge, Tshifhuwa Maumela.
Muzi Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Ntuli were arrested in 2020 and charged with Meyiwa’s murder, attempted murder of other witnesses, robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of ammunition.
These charges have remained the same in the new trial before Judge Mokgoatlheng.
After a long delay to the start of the proceedings on Tuesday, punctuated by a meeting with the judge in the chambers, proceedings finally got under way after the accused signed their indictments.
They all pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against them.
It is 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.
All the witnesses that gave testimonies under Maumela will have to be called back, and Zandile has become the first to take the stand.
The trial will continue on Wednesday morning.
Senzo Meyiwa murder trial:
