Location of where Meyiwa's body found 'immaterial' to case, judge tells court
The judge in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has told the defence that the contradictions in the various witness statements are of no "material difference" to the case.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng’s remarks during court proceedings on Thursday came during the cross-examination of Meyiwa’s childhood friend Mthokozisi Thwala.
Thwala was one of the people present in the house when the former Bafana Bafana captain was shot and killed in 2014.
The witnesses who were in the house when Meyiwa was killed have given the court different versions of where Meyiwa’s body was after he was shot.
“Just for my adjudication, is it material if Senzo was lying in the dining room or lying next to the TV or towards the passage and the arch?” Mokgoatlheng asked.
“Does it make any difference? The fact of the matter is all the witnesses say that he was shot. Even if he was in the bedroom, does it make any difference to the case we are handling? Hy was geskiet, he was shot. He was shot in the house in the kitchen, and I am saying it's a small house.”
Three witnesses; Thwala, Zandile Khumalo and Khaya Ngcatshe have all given different views of which sections of the house Meyiwa was lying after he was shot.
Khumalo told court that Meyiwa was crouched between couches, while Ngcatshe said the football player was lying near the passage.
Thwala’s told the court that Meyiwa was lying on the dining room floor.
“Without being disrespectful to the people of the house there. I did explain how he was lying, that his feet were on the mat and his entire body was stretching towards the passage. What I am saying is that the (Khumalo) house is very small.”
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