Picture File: Singer, actress and dancer, Kelly Khumalo with friends at Ukko Restaurant, Bryanston in Johannesburg, 18 May 2022. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Kelly Khumalo’s lawyer has accused the defence lawyer representing four of the five men standing trial for the murder of Senzo Meyiwa of character assassination and defaming her client.
This after advocate Malesela Teffo on Wednesday told the Pretoria High Court he had a witness who would testify the singer accidentally shot and killed the former Bafana Bafana captain in 2014.
Teffo revealed this during the cross-examination of Sergeant Thabo Mosia, a forensic police officer who processed the crime scene at Khumalo’s mother’s house in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg.
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Khumalo’s lawyer, Magdalene Moonsamy, said her client had been prejudiced publicly by Teffo’s claims in court and accused him of using the musician as a scapegoat for the defence.
“My client is definitely being prejudiced publicly and this has been going on for almost eight years.
“We cannot wait to hear that eyewitness evidence […] we are not going to stand by and be shaken by it,” Moonsamy said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday evening.
She said they were exploring their options regarding Teffo’s claims about the eyewitness, including allegations that the firearm used to shoot Meyiwa – allegedly by Khumalo – came from Longwe Twala, the son of music icon Chicco Twala.
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Moonsamy said they had kept quiet for far too long regarding the conspiracy theories about Khumalo allegedly being involved in the covering up of Meyiwa’s murder, which was described as a botched robbery.
“We have remained quiet for too long allowing the law to take its course and respecting the judicial process, which is why we anticipate that the court will test the evidence. However, this silence is going to be broken.”
She said her client was also a victim of what happened on the night that Meyiwa was killed.
Moonsamy said Teffo’s alleged attempts to blame Khumalo for the murder amounted to nothing but intimidation tactics.
“She’s also a victim in the matter. She was a victim of robbery and assault, and that is count three on the charge sheet.”
Moonsamy confirmed that Khumalo would be called as a witness during the course of the trial, saying Teffo’s claims about the eyewitness were, at this stage, premature and vexatious.
“Apart from cooperating and complying with the request of the NPA [and] police, all stakeholders who have been involved are waiting for their day in court.
“There is no greater moment than now with such an allegation, vexatious as it is, premature as it is to question an investigating officer regarding an eyewitness who will say this. It is not probable,” she said.
The seven people who were inside Khumalo’s mother’s house when the soccer star was killed, according to Moonsamy, were never called for an identity parade to identify the five men charged with Meyiwa’s murder.
She said the five suspects were identified by police based on statements taken from witnesses.
“The accused that are in the dock have not been brought before those who were in that house on the day of the robbery and the murder to identify them.
“That by its very nature is the circumventing of the process […] they were identified by the police and they were not identified by those in the house.”
Sifisokuhle Ntuli, Muzikawukhulelwa Sthemba Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Ncube, and Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa face a string of charges over the Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain’s murder in October in 2014.
The group has pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
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