When a scar or open wound still stings, leaving a mark on a country as repetitively and protractedly injured as SA, it says something about the effect of the event and the person in question.
In this case that wound was created not by a massacre or the death of a freedom fighter or historic figure, but by the murder of “just” a footballer, Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper and captain Senzo Meyiwa. That it remains so momentously significant to South Africans reveals the effect of the crime and frustration that, for a person of stature, it has taken eight years and counting to solve. It also reveals how much love there is for the victim.
The gripping, slick, true-crime Netflix documentary series Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star that aired from Friday, coinciding with the start on Monday of the murder trial of five accused in the Pretoria high court, has reminded South Africans of the scale of the issue. It has restored to brightness a spotlight that has shone for nearly a decade as theories abounded, casting a glare onto the country’s yearning for the crime to be solved, those responsible to be brought to justice and closure.
The documentary consolidates audio, video footage, interviews and reportage from the event at the Vosloorus house of Meyiwa’s singer girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, on October 26 2014. It focuses on the investigations of the past eight years, developments and conspiracy theories. The pain of loss, compounded by a lack of closure for Meyiwa’s family — especially his mother Ntombifuthi and late father Sam, who died in 2019 without those answers — is laid bare.
Perhaps what the documentary does not quite explore, focused as it is on the crime, is why Meyiwa was so loved across the partisan boundaries of Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns.
There was a certain mythology to the 27-year-old. He was awkward and prone to errors, though with obvious talent, emerging as a young keeper at the Buccaneers, whose development he joined when he left the family home in Umlazi, Durban, aged 13.
It has restored to brightness a spotlight that has shone for nearly a decade as theories abounded, casting a glare onto the country’s yearning for closure, the crime to be solved and those responsible to be brought to justice.
His friend and rival for the Bafana No 1 jersey, Chiefs’ Itumeleng Khune — then entrenched as the best goalkeeper in the country and one of the best on the continent — had the greater natural ability. Meyiwa made up for that with pure heart, a quality sports fans easily warm to.
His two penalty saves in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that saw Pirates progress past a fearsome TP Mazembe to the 2013 Caf Champions League group stage — in one of the most intimidating venues in club football — propelled Meyiwa to stardom. It came amid noticeably increasing confidence in his ability. He was spectacular as Bucs reversed years of underachievement for SA clubs in continental football, reaching the final, but losing 3-1 on aggregate against Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Then-Bafana coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba loved a player with heart. Meyiwa kept three clean sheets in three qualifiers as SA embarked on a path to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations at the expense of Nigeria. The understudy to Khune was thrust forward by the Chiefs man’s ligament injury. Meyiwa’s form would have made Khune nervous about regaining his place.
Meyiwa starred in a 2-0 win against Congo in Pointe-Noire on October 11 2014, then a 0-0 draw in Polokwane in the return match on October 15. Nine days later, a bullet in a living room where four other adults — Khumalo and friends of the couple — were present ended a life and tore a much-loved footballer and family member from the nation.
Meyiwa’s likeability also stemmed from a hint of awkwardness off the field. Few footballers are shy, though some are reserved in front of the camera or media. Meyiwa, while he had the confidence, bred from school level, of those blessed with and set apart by sports talent, retained humility in his interactions — a quietness accompanied by a friendly smile and cheeky glint in the eye.
The social “player” aspect of especially elite sports people and the pitfalls of stardom for SA footballers from poor backgrounds who are drawn into a celebrity world of extravagance and decadence they do not always understand well are evident in the documentary. It portrays a poor kid from Umlazi — the tough, sprawling township south of Durban — who got in over his head in that world.
Meyiwa's likeability also stemmed from a hint of awkwardness off the field.
As the investigation dragged on for an excruciating eight years, and conspiracies and theories flew, no one knows for sure if that cost Meyiwa his life. As the trial continues in Pretoria SA will hope for definitive answers. It will hope the elite investigative unit and prosecution did their jobs thoroughly and by the book.
When Meyiwa was shot there was a definite sense of vulnerability — that if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone, and that if such a high-profile crime could not be solved in that length of time, what hope for everyone else, particularly if you’re poor and black? Black Lives Matter (BLM) emerged as a powerful global movement in those eight years and its message resonates here.
The country needs to see the wheels of justice turn smoothly and for this crime to be solved, mostly for Meyiwa and his family, but also for South Africans.
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