Desperate to fill in the blanks and solve a six-year murder investigation, police have narrowed in on missing bullet cartridges and witness accounts of what happened at the exact moment Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead.
Sunday Times Daily has learnt, through sources close to the investigation, that since police recovered the alleged murder weapon, a CZ-75 9mm pistol, at Cleveland Police Station in Johannesburg in August, a team of senior detectives has been re-examining statements of those who witnessed the killing in 2014.
The gun was meant to have been destroyed by police in 2017 after the successful prosecution of the killer of Alexandra taxi boss Reggie Mohlala, but it never was. Mohlala was killed three months after Meyiwa was murdered, with sources saying that the same weapon had been used in three murders preceding Meyiwa’s shooting.
Meyiwa was shot dead when two unmasked men stormed into the Vosloorus house of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s grandmother on October 26 2014. Inside the house at the time were Kelly, her sister Zandie, their mother Ntombi, and Tumelo Madiala, Mthokozisi Thwala and Longwe Twala, who were friends of the couple.
Those in the house all claimed the attack was a botched armed robbery, which saw the alleged killers escape with Kelly's cellphone. All of the witnesses claimed that the gun used to shoot Meyiwa was a revolver.
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Last week Tuesday, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifokuhle Ntuli appeared in the Boksburg magistrate's court on charges of murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and various firearm-related charges. They were also charged with the attempted murder of Zandie Khumalo, who was shot in the ankle during the attack.
All of the men were in prison when they were charged, and will appear in court again on November 27.
Mncube, arrested in February 2015 for the murder of Mohlala with the same 9mm pistol allegedly used to kill Meyiwa, is serving a 30-year sentence for taxi-related murders in Ekurhuleni and KwaZulu-Natal, said an NPA source.
Ntanzi and Maphisa were in Gauteng's Leeuwkop prison for taxi murders, and Ntuli is in prison awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in political killings.
Sources with knowledge of the Meyiwa investigation said the team leading the investigation had, since the discovery of the gun at Cleveland police station, been scouring through ballistic reports and the Meyiwa witnesses statements.
“The ballistic experts have always believed that the bullet and bullet fragments which were recovered at the house were fired from a 9mm pistol and not a revolver — as everyone in the house insisted was used to shoot Senzo.
Pistols discharge cartridges when fired, yet no cartridge was found at the scene. Why? No robber in the midst of a robbery collects spent cartridges.
— Source close to Senzo Meyiwa murder investigation
“Pistols discharge cartridges when fired, yet no cartridge was found at the scene. Why? No robber in the midst of a robbery collects spent cartridges.
“The recovery of the 9mm pistol at Cleveland police station and its identification as the weapon used to kill Senzo now sees interesting questions needing to be answered,” said the source.
He said also crucial to solving the case was why the ballistic information gathered from the Meyiwa murder scene did not “reflect that the gun was allegedly used in the murder of three people before him, and why the ballistics report from the Mohlala murder scene never indicated that the gun was used to kill Meyiwa”.
He said detectives were trawling through the witness statements “with a fine-tooth comb”.
“The witnesses said their attackers were unmasked. We know that some of these suspects are alleged izinkabi’s [taxi hitmen]. An izinkabi is hired for a specific purpose. That is to kill. They don’t leave survivors, especially if unmasked.”
A police source with knowledge of the case confirmed that “through ballistics, police discovered the recovered weapon was also used to kill Alexandra taxi boss Reggie Mohlala in January 2015.
“It was meant to have been destroyed in 2017 after the Mohlala murder trial. If it had the Meyiwa case may have been a lot more difficult to solve.”
Another source with knowledge of the investigation said that, until January, the investigation had been littered with serious errors.
“We can’t say it was deliberate, but there was definite negligence. From the start, those in the house with Meyiwa when he was shot should have been questioned, and then requestioned.
“Look at the witness statements on the gunman in particular. Everyone describes exactly what the gun looked like. That’s impossible. In the midst of crime, when Adrenalin is pumping, a gun is in your face and you are being screamed at, everyone does not see the exact same thing.
“Also the witnesses were all in different parts of the room. Not everyone had the same clear sight of the gun.”
He said ballistics gathered from the house, which included a bullet and bullet fragments, indicated the gun was a 9mm pistol.
“The question is what happened to the cartridges? Did someone move them? If so, where are they now?”
Meyiwa’s uncle, Siyabonga Meyiwa, said the family was questioning the statement of witnesses to the murder after being told by police that detectives had recovered a 9mm pistol.
“Why did everyone in the house say it was a revolver? Everyone was very specific on this. Stuff is not tying up?” he said.
Police spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo declined to comment on detailed questions on ballistic testing in the Meyiwa investigation, including why the police who investigated the Mohlala murder had not, through forensic investigations, detected that the gun used to kill Mohlala was also used to murder Meyiwa.
He also failed to comment on what standard ballistic evidence collection procedures are followed at a crime scene where firearms have been used.
Sunday Times Daily
