Senzo Meyiwa’s murder trial

Many were left feeling distraught about the fate of the surviving victims of the senseless attack at the home of singer Kelly Khumalo.

Also in the house was Kelly’s elderly mother Ntombi, as well as her two young children, her younger sister Zandile and celebrated Orlando Pirates’ star goal-keeper and Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa (who was also Kelly’s boyfriend).

Two of his close friends, Mthokozisi Twala and Tumelo Madlala, as well as Longwe Twala (the son of well-known township pop artist and producer Sello Twala), was also in present during the shooting.

They all survived the attack that claimed Senzo’s life and were later considered lucky to be alive.

The country was left stunned and livid by the savagery of the unprovoked attack on a group of unarmed young people who had just gathered at the house of their friend’s mother to chill, dine and share a few drinks while they watched overseas soccer on television.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, apparently two armed men, one armed with a firearm and the other with a knife, burst into the house through the kitchen door and demanded money and cellphones from the terrified occupants.

During interrogations by the police investigators soon after the shooting incident, all six reiterated their version of events and their horrifying ordeal at the barrel of a gun and the sharp end of a knife.

When a known young local Rastafarian by the name of Zamokuhle Mbatha was later arrested by the police on October 29, 2014, barely two weeks after Meyiwa’s murder, there was jubilation and a sigh of relief that it would be just a matter of time before all three suspects arrested and brought to book for Senzo Meyiwaa’s murder.

But alas, that was not to be so.

During his second appearance at the Boksburg Magistrates Court, Mbatha’s case was struck off the roll and the presiding magistrate demanded that he be released from police detention and set free to go home. The magistrate cited the “lack of evidence” that positively linked the local dreadlocked Rastafarian to the murder of Senzo and he was released on December 11, 2014.

Meanwhile, the Meyiwa family was hit by another stroke of bad luck when the father of the murdered soccer star, Sam Meyiwa, who has been a staunch campaigner for justice for the murder of his son, succumbed to grief and died of a heart attack.

With the head of the Meyiwa family now gone, the role of pursuing the murder of Senzo and keeping the police investigations running shifted to the dead soccer star’s brother Sifiso.

Out of frustration with the slow progress of the investigation, the family welcomed the offer by the civic body to offer legal services to the family.

Then sometime around October 2020, Brigadier Bheki Clele announced the arrest of five suspects linked to the murder. The arrest of the five was confirmed when they appeared in court at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court. All five suspects openly denied killing Senzo and claimed they knew nothing about Senzo’s murder.

And now, six frustrating years later, the Pretoria High Court is still trying to find the truth about which one of the five men pulled the trigger that killed Senzo.

And it is the startling revelations that indeed one of the men made contact with Kelly two nights before Senzo was murdered. It was also revealed that just a day after the soccer star was murdered, the alleged gunman again made contact with Kelly.

And now the impasse in the trial is the rejection of this version by the defence advocates who, regardless of the testimony currently being present in court, reject that Senzo died at the hands of intruders. They claim he was killed by one of the six people who were inside the house.