Cop testifies how he saw Meyiwa’s body
THE trial of the five men charged with the 2014 murder of Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Robert Meyiwa has resumed in the Pretoria High Court.
Yesterday, a member of the SAPS crime prevention unit based at Vosloorus police station, Sergeant Patrick Mlungisi Mthethwa, testified.
Coming in as the second witness to testify in the high-profile court case, Mthethwa said he and a colleague went to the Khumalo house, where Meyiwa had been shot.
Mthethwa, a policing veteran with 13 years’ experience, told Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela how he sprang into action with his partner, Sergeant Mathebula, following a distress call of a “shooting in progress”.
However, Mthethwa said that when they arrived in a marked SAPS vehicle, they only found Themba Khumalo, who confirmed that there had been a shooting and the affected person had been rushed to a nearby hospital.
Mthethwa said the officers briefly entered the house, with Themba Khumalo’s assistance, and they saw two alcohol cans lying on the floor.
He said before the officers left the home for the hospital, neighbours came and told the police officers that they had observed two people running from the house towards a municipal park opposite the property.
At the hospital, Mthethwa told the court how he saw Meyiwa’s lifeless body lying on a bed.
“When we got into the hospital, it was full. We met a woman who said she was MaKhumalo. Before we met MaKhumalo, we met a nurse who led us to where the (shot) person was. The nurse pointed out the person to us, and we saw that he had been shot and he had passed away,” Mthethwa said.
“The person (Meyiwa) was lying on a bed. The victim is not someone I can say I knew personally, but I had often seen him on TV. It was Senzo Meyiwa lying there,” he said.
Asked by lead State prosecutor advocate George Baloyi if he had observed Meyiwa’s body, Mthethwa said he had.
“I do not know if I am pointing precisely, but there was a bullet hole somewhere around here,” said Mthethwa, pointing to his chest.
“We then called our colleagues to come and represent us at the hospital, so that we could go back to the house. We wanted one member to go to the house with us,” he said.
After the back-up arrived, Mthethwa said MaKhumalo agreed to go with them to the house, where the shooting had taken place.
Meyiwa was killed on October 26, 2014, while visiting his girlfriend and the mother of his child, singer Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus.