WATCH: Police urge Nqobile Maphsa to lay a charge

In a response to Kathorus MAIL’s enquiry about these allegations, the SAPS head office’s media spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe dismissed the allegations as ‘baseless’ and instead challenged the Maphisa family to rather lay a charge with the police so the matter could be investigated.

In the video, Nqobile, the sister of Mthokozisi Ziphozonke Maphisa, who is accused number three in the trial currently held in Pretoria, claimed her brother together with the four others was framed.

She pointed out the five men have nothing to do with Meyiwa’s murder.

“Why are the seven people who were with Senzo on the night he was killed not called to give their version of events that led to the shooting of Meyiwa?” she asked in the video.

According to Nqobile, who claimed in the video that she is privately investigating the involvement of the five accused to prove their innocence. She pointed out that she strongly believed that the presentation of the five as the killers is nothing more than a “cover-up” aimed at deflecting attention away from the person responsible for the murder.

Nqobile daringly linked corrupt officers at the police station to recruiting members of the community and offering them money to become State witnesses in the trial.

She claimed this is done by people who are in the pocket of police officers. She claimed they are trying to pin her brother and his four home boys – all of whom she said were nowhere near the Khumalo homestead in Mzamo Acres.

In the video, Nqobile also described how the families of the five accused have been devastated by their arrest and their alleged link to the murder of the famous football star.

She described the families of the five as simple rural folks.

Ngobile added that she does not shy away from the fact that her brother and some of his rural homeboys were serving various prison terms, including life sentences for the murder of a taxi businessman in Alexandra township prior to their arrest for the Meyiwa murder.

Only two of the five were picked up from their homes by the police after the group was linked to one another through their cellphones.

“They are like brothers to one another and they all grew up together in the same rural home village in KZN,” she explained.

Nqobile added that her brother and his four co-accused are well known in the eBasothwini Hostel in Vosloorus because that is where, according to her, the majority of their homeboys from the same village in KZN live.

She insisted that all five accused were assaulted by the police and forced to confess to a murder none of them knew anything about.

She urged the police to re-visit the telephone call made by the deceased’s bosom friend and homeboy Mthokozisi Twala to the Meyiwa family in Durban after Senzo was shot.

“There lies the single answer that will also be the solution to the many questions being asked about the murder of Meyiwa.”

Nqobile claimed she has evidence of local residents living around or near the eBasothwini Hostel who were offered money to become witnesses for the State.

Responding to Nqobile’s allegations, Mathe said: “The complainant is welcome to come forward and provide the police with the necessary information so that we can look into it.

“She can even share the information with the journalist if she so chooses. The matter is in court and as a result is under sub-judice. She is welcome to testify in court about this matter and be subjected to cross examination”, Mathe explained.

Mathe added that without the names of such individuals or sworn affidavit to this effect, the SAPS can do very little.

“Perhaps the journalist can request such details so we can follow it up. The state has called more than 10 witnesses on this matter and none of them have made such claims,” said the SAPS spokesperson.