Advocate Teffo fights for justice to be done

Not only did he manage to have a film production company removed from the courtroom but at some point angrily lashed out at both the state prosecutor, advocate Baloyi, and his defence team advocate Sanele Mshololo on the continued cross-questioning of Sergeant Mosia.

He also took a swipe at the presiding judge about why the trial was held in Pretoria and not in Gauteng South, the jurisdiction under which the crime happened.

Teffo, a former crime detective who studied law, has described his mandate in the case as a ‘brief by the Meyiwa family’, given to him to bring to justice the person or people responsible for the death of Meyiwa.

Former Bafana Bafana keeper and Orlando Pirates captain Meyiwa died on the evening of October 26, 2014, under unexplained circumstances while he was with seven other people inside the family home of his girlfriend, singer and actress, Kelly Khumalo in Mzamo Acres, Vosloorus.

The death was later described by the police as a ‘botched’ house burglary. Alleged intruders, one of them armed with a firearm, raided the Khumalo family home, and robbed the guests inside, leaving behind the eighth person in the house.

Senzo who was shot and killed in the supposed robbery.

A local Rastafarian, Zamokuhle Mbatha, was later arrested as the initial suspect for Senzo’s shooting. However, Mbatha was released two weeks later by the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court due to a lack of evidence.

Since then, no other suspects have been arrested by the police for the murder, until the police announced the arrest of five suspects who claimed in the media they were linked to the Meyiwa murder case.

The five men made their first court appearance at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court in October 2020. There was soon pandemonium in court when the five protested their innocence and denied any links with the killing of Senzo

They all refused to take to the witness stand, saying they had no case to plead.

The matter was exacerbated further when the Meyiwa family rejected the five men presented by the police in court as the suspects behind the murder. The family demanded that only the seven people who were with Senzo on the night he was killed should have been brought to appear in court to answer questions about his death.

Soon thereafter, the families of the four accused approached Teffo to represent them in their case for the murder of Senzo. The fifth accused opted for a different attorney.

Teffo explained in court that the case was filed under docket number 636/ of 2014, which alludes to the theory that there was a break-in at the Khumalo home. Evidence in the docket presented in court is that one of the men appearing with the five could have fired the fatal shot that killed Senzo during the robbery that night.

After grilling the first state witness, the state forensic officer Sergeant Thabo Mosia who was assigned to the scene of the crime at the Khumalo home admitted arriving almost four hours after the shooting.

Teffo managed to prove during his cross-examination that the crime scene, supposedly scrutinised by Mosia at the Khumalo home where Senzo was killed, was compromised, staged and presented to produce the desired outcome.

During these assertions, Teffo disapproved of Mosia’s evidence during cross-examination but managed to elicit several head-nod approvals and ‘no comment’ responses from a seemingly exhausted Mosia.

The SAPS forensic expert seemed to concede to almost all the points raised by the defence.

Teffo pleaded with Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela to consider the release of all five accused as the state had no case against them. Teffo continued to openly dismiss the theory of a botched house burglary.

To the shock and dismay of the courtroom, Teffo disclosed that he would bring to court a witness who would disclose how Senzo was shot and killed in Mzamo Acres, in Vosloorus.

He named the person responsible for shooting Senzo as Kelly Khumalo. He said the shot was fired accidentally.
Khumalo’s legal representatives have since lashed out at Teffo for linking their client with the murder of Senzo. Teffo produced a list of people he says should be pursued by the NPA and presented in court to answer questions about the death of Senzo.

Teffo has promised to solve the puzzle of the murder to prove the innocence of his clients, about what he angrily called an “f-up situation” and lies concocted by a group of fictionalised officers against innocent people.

Teffo claimed that the office of the national director of public prosecutions intended to proceed with the indictment of the seven people who were with Senzo on the night he was shot and killed.

He said those whose names are on the list are Longwe Twala, Kelly Khumalo, Gladness Khumalo, Zandi Khumalo, Tumelo Madlala, Mthokozisi Twala and Maggie Phiri.

It is still early days in the case and a lot still has to be heard.