Evidence casts doubt on Kelly, Senzo accused link

The state's claim that singer Kelly Khumalo had received two phone calls from one of the accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial before the murder “has been fabricated”, the court heard on Wednesday.

Charles Mnisi, for accused No 3 Mthobisi “Carlos” Mncube, told the court the cellphone numbers that the state believed were linked to accused No 5, Sifisokuhle Ntuli, were fabricated by state witnesses and that Ntuli never called Khumalo before the killing of Meyiwa on October 26 2014. 

Cross-examining state witness and Vodacom supervisor Pinky Vythilingam, Mnisi argued that the alleged Ntuli cellphone number that Vythilingam and another previous state witness and data analyst Col Lambertus Steyn had did not match. The one Vythilingam analysed ended with 9202 while Steyn's ended with 1330. 

The court also previously heard from Steyn that the two cellphone numbers had made calls to Meyiwa's girlfriend Kelly Khumalo on August 2 and October 15 2014, days before the Bafana Bafana goalkeeper was shot dead.

Mnisi asked Vythilingam if what is depicted on the Excel documents matched her affidavit in terms of a call log made to a number ending with 438 [Kelly's number]: “Does the number correspond with the number you have given?”

She responded: “It does not correspond.”

Mnisi asked if that did not mean that fraud was committed and she said she could not say if it was.

Vythilingam refused to comment on the issue of the discrepancies and maintained that their data is uneditable.

“This PDF format means we cannot go back and overwrite the information that is in there. We cannot add or remove [information]. Once we give it an electronic signature, it is locked and nothing can be altered. Nothing can be manipulated,” she said.

Mnisi said Steyn's evidence was fabricated to suit a certain narrative.

“The purpose of this information ... the sole purpose was to fabricate or is to fabricate a case, to trump up a case against accused 5 [Ntuli] to make it appear as if accused No 5 did have communication with the number ending with 358, which number is said to belong to Kelly,” Mnisi said.

“It is a villainous endeavour to fabricate or trump up the case against Kelly Khumalo herself ... that on this date [August 2 and October 2014] she had a conversation with accused No 5, as it is known that the number that ends with 202 belongs to [accused] No 5.”

Mnisi concluded his cross-examination on Wednesday by warning that the defence lawyers have been instructed to lay a complaint by the accused.

“We hold instructions that based on this information, we need to approach our instructing attorney to lay a formal complaint against the compilers of this information on behalf of the accused. That complaint will be premised on fraud, altering and defeating the ends of justice because this information is misleading the court,” he said.

Defence lawyer advocate Zithulele Nxumalo, for accused 4 Mthokoziseni Maphisa, told Vythilingam that none of the two calls Khumalo received before Meyiwa's murder were from Ntuli. He said one of the calls was in fact from Meyiwa to Khumalo.

On Tuesday the state was dealt a major blow when Vythilingam gave cellphone tracing evidence which showed that a cellphone belonging to Mncube, Meyiwa's alleged shooter, was nowhere near Vosloorus at the time the murder was committed at about 8pm on October 26 2014. 

According to Vythilingam, Mncube’s cellphone was picked up by the Goud Street cellphone tower in the Joburg CBD at 7.12am on the morning of the murder. It was later pinned by towers in Katlehong around lunchtime and later in Heidelberg and in the Joburg CBD at about 6.20pm. Its last activity was picked up by the Goud Street tower in Joburg at 8.32pm.

This was in contrast to the version of the state, which relied on a confession by co-accused Bongani Ntanzi. In his confession, which has since being admitted to court, Ntanzi claims that he, Mncube and Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya left a Vosloorus hostel to travel to the Khumalo household to commit the crime.

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