Meyiwa murder trial: Police allegedly involved in torture, assault of witness

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A state witness in the murder trial of Senzo Meyiwa told the Pretoria high court on Wednesday that he had been brutally assaulted for hours, and that two police officers were involved.

“Up to now I just don’t trust the police because those ones could have just shot me and put the blame on me,” Mthokozisi Thwala, a childhood friend of Meyiwa, said on the second day of his testimony. 

Recalling events that took place in January 2019 — five years after Meyiwa was killed in October 2014 — Thwala said he was forcibly transported by two police officers from his homestead in Umlazi, Durban, to Pretoria, where he was allegedly repeatedly assaulted by two unknown men. 

He said after the assault, a female police officer called “Buthelezi” told him to give a new witness statement in which he must state that he was not in the house at the time Meyiwa was shot. 

Five men — Mthokoziseni Maphisa, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Ncube and Fisokuhle Ntuli — have been charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition over the death of Meyiwa.

The state alleges the footballer was killed in a botched house robbery at the Vosloorus, Gauteng, home of his girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo. The five accused have all pleaded not guilty.

In court on Wednesday, Thwala recalled how he was preparing for a rally hosted by the ANC at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban in January 2019 when Buthulezi and another police officer with the name “Makhobo” arrived and demanded he travel with them to Gauteng to identify suspects. 

Upon arrival, Thwala realised he had been taken to a law enforcement building in Pretoria at a location unknown to him.

After he was left in a room, two men he did not recognise assaulted him for “a good hour” while asking him why he did not want to admit that he had killed Meyiwa. Thwala told the court how his hands and legs were tied with a rope and the men then “started tubing me” while covering his nose and mouth. 

He said the assault carried on for hours before the men untied him and left. An emotional Thwala recalled that a mat was placed underneath him on which he urinated. 

After the men left, Buthelezi entered the room and said to Thwala: “So you don’t want to cooperate”. Instead of taking him home to his family in Katlehong, the officer took him to the house he had run to for help after Meyiwa was fatally shot.

Thwala maintained that he did not understand why Buthelezi took him to the neighbour’s house that day. 

He told the court that eventually, after the assault, he was taken to his family in Katlehong, where Buthulezi ordered him to change his statement to say he was not in the house when Meyiwa was shot. But Thwala wrote his statement in line with his recollection of events and sent it to Buthelezi via WhatsApp. He told the court that he still had the message on his phone.

The court adjourned on Wednesay with Thwala still on the stand and was set to resume on Thursday.