What is so difficult about solving Senzo’s death?

The headlines on the front page of a Sunday tabloid came as no surprise to many South Africans, especially soccer fans who have been following the yet unsolved two-year-old murder of soccer star and former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa in 2014.

And as for the distraught family of the slain soccer star, the claim that Senzo’s soul is haunting top police heads after almost two years of intense investigative bungling of his killing, should come as a relief to the Meyiwa household. So much has been said by the police about the mysterious murder of Senzo since that fateful night of October 26, 2014, yet very little seems to have been done to get even closer to the truth.

Of course, the fact that time has rolled by so fast that we are now going into the third anniversary of his unsolved murder is in itself a serious indictment of our country’s law enforcement agencies and the urgency with which they are supposed to attend to solving crime in the country.

Not only has the delay by the police in solving Senzo Meyiwa’s killing and bringing his killers to book made a mockery of their investigative skills, but it has also set tongues wagging on just about everything that they have not done to get to the bottom of this murder most foul. Not even the man who was initially hauled before the courts by the police as a suspect in the murder was ever really convinced that the investigation into Senzo’s murder was carried out properly by the police.

In fact, there are still many soccer followers, among them Senzo’s fans, who still feel haunted by the fact that what happened to their idol seem to have ended up in a cul-de-sac. There appear to be no clues nor a solution to his unexplained death. And now to read that Senzo’s death is causing a fracas among the higher echelons of our various police investigative teams is sad and unacceptable news indeed.

Of course, it is not for me, nor Senzo’s family and fans as well as the thousands of soccer followers both locally and abroad to make assumptions about what really happened at Kelly Khumalo’s house on the night Senzo was killed, and why. Our skilled police forces are quite capable of doing that and bringing the perpetrators of this evil act to book.

But it is the period of time that it is taking them to achieve this that is encouraging the sceptics in our midst. And to read that all is not well between those tasked with finding Senzo’s killers and bringing them to book, allows those who wish to find fault with and poke fun at our police force and their investigative skills the perfect opportunity to do so.

Of course, it is not uncommon for a crime investigation to drag on for as long the one into Senzo Meyiwa’s death. But it is equally uncommon for the police not to arrest an alleged perpetrator or perpetrators and bring them to book once both the motive and the intention have been established.

And since all this and much more does not seem to have been established as yet, we all hope that as the murder case enters it’s third year, from now on, it is going to be just a matter of time before the Senzo saga is put to bed and the person or persons responsible for his death are put behind bars.

Until then, the Senzo family as well as thousands of his fans will continue to urge his spirit to haunt not only his killer or killers, but also those who seem to be dragging their feet in bringing this matter to an end.