New details revive outrage over Senzo Meyiwa’s 2014 murder in Vosloorus

More than a decade later, new revelations about the murder of Senzo Meyiwa have shocked South Africans and confirmed what many residents of Mzamo Acres, Vosloorus, have believed all along.

It was in this suburb that the former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper was shot and killed on October 26, 2014.

Initial allegations claimed that around 20:00 that evening, three unknown intruders, one SAPS described as a black male with dreadlocks and a firearm, burst into singer Kelly Khumalo’s home.

Inside the house were Kelly, her younger sister, Zandile; her boyfriend, Longwe; their mother, Ntombi; Senzo’s friends Mthokozisi and Tumelo, two of Kelly’s young children, and a female neighbour known as Mma Phiri.
They were allegedly dining, drinking and watching TV at the time.

Later, when news of Meyiwa’s murder broke in the early hours of October 27, 2014, police claimed in statements to the media that three strangers, one with a firearm and the others with knives, had invaded the peaceful gathering and demanded money and cellphones from the occupants.

By the time the gang was done, the robber with the firearm turned, aimed at those inside the house, and fired a single shot that killed Meyiwa, leaving the traumatised hosts and terrified guests stunned and horrified.

As news of the murder of the popular national football star made instant headlines early that Monday morning, shock spread rapidly across the country and soon sent emotional shockwaves through the international football world.

“Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana’s goalkeeper, Senzo Meyiwa, shot and killed during botched house robbery at girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s home in Vosloorus”, read the newspaper headlines.

As the nation remained shocked and puzzled, rumours began to circulate about the intruders, and the police quickly released the shooter’s description to the media.

However, the identities of the alleged shooter’s two unknown accomplices soon faded into obscurity, as police focused solely on the mystical “dreadlocked” Rastaman shooter.

Although the police never recovered the gun involved, it seemed eerily easy for investigators to track down the plump, diminutive “dreadlocked” Rastaman, who turned out to be a neighbour living in a shack in his brother’s backyard, just 500m from the Khumalo family home on Kutlwanong Street.

Then, on October 29, 2014, just days after the murder, detectives arrested a man in his early 30s with a crop of unkempt dreadlocks just one street away from the Khumalo family home.
To be continued.

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