Meyiwa trial: Police accused of ‘planting’ bullet projectile
One of the defence advocates in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has told one of the forensic investigators that the bullet projectile found on the crime scene was planted.
Lieutenant Colonel Thobeka Mhlahlo, who was on the witness stand in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, was one of the forensic investigators tasked with probing the scene of Meyiwa’s death in October 2014.
“I’m going to put it to you, that thing that you are referring to as a fragment from the door, and that bullet which you say you was found on the kitchen top, those things were never there. It was put there,” Mnisi told the court, where five men are facing trial for Meyiwa's murder.
Mhlahlo failed to respond to Mnisi’s assertion.
Mnisi’s line of questioning comes after police witnesses testified that the bullet projectile found on the countertop in the Vosloorus home was discovered a day after Warrant Officer Thabo Mosia inspected the scene.
Another two police sergeants who were on the scene, Patrick Mthethwa and Timothy Mathebula, also told the court that they did not see a bullet projectile in the kitchen on the day Meyiwa was killed.
But Mhlahlo’s evidence states that she’s the one who found the projectile behind the glass jars in the presence of Mosia and Lieutenant Colonel Zwane.
“We also looked on top of the cupboard, and there were other items, including a jug. We found the bullet head behind the glass jars on the cupboard,” she said.
Mnisi was not the only defence counsel who accused Mhlahlo of tampering with the crime scene.
The counsel for accused number four, Zithulele Nxumalo, put it to the court that both she and Mosia had a hand in reconstructing the murder scene a day after Meyiwa was killed.
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