Prior to Meyiwa's murder, Ntanzi sold guns to hitmen

Murder accused Bongani Ntanzi was allegedly a gun dealer supplying weapons to hitmen in KwaZulu-Natal and Marikana in the lead up to the killing of Senzo Meyiwa, the Pretoria high court heard yesterday. 

A statement from Simphiwe Buthelezi, a self-confessed middleman who claimed to have worked with Ntanzi in the illegal gun trade, was the person who led the police to him when Ntanzi was arrested in 2020.

Buthelezi, who is a convicted murderer, was set to testify for the state in the Meyiwa trial but died in 2022.

Ntanzi is one of the two men police believe went into Kelly Khumalo’s home in Vosloorus where Meyiwa was shot dead.

On Monday, the court heard that the murder was a contractual hit, according to police investigations. Buthelezi’s statement, read to the court by lead investigator Brig Bongani Gininda, painted Ntanzi as a man who started off selling guns and ammunition and then proceeded to be involved in the planning of hits in order to make more money.

Buthelezi had told police that Ntanzi was also involved in the murder of a high profile union member in Marikana, North West. The witness claimed following that incident he had overheard Ntanzi on the phone congratulating the hitman on a job well done. Buthelezi detailed how Ntanzi and accused number 3, Mthobisi Mncube, who is believed to be Meyiwa’s alleged shooter, and Mthokoziseni Maphisa would plan their crimes in a hostel in Vosloorus.

As Gininda read the statement, Ntanzi looked amused while his co-accused Ntuli and Maphisa giggled among themselves.

“Ntanzi is a very quiet gentleman and no-one can suspect him. He is a firearm supplier and ammunition. They supply the hitmen and others firearms and ammunition around the country. Sometimes he hires firearms to hitmen,” he said.

Buthelezi described himself as sometimes being the middleman of Ntanzi’s gun and ammunition dealings,  stating that he sometimes organised clients. Further, he said he used to hang out with the accused at a Vosloorus hostel, also stating that he noticed that around November 2014, Ntanzi became distant and did not talk like before.

In his statement, Buthelezi claims not to know where Ntanzi got the guns.

“He didn’t want to show me his supplier,” he said. Buthelezi said when Ntanzi was in Rustenburg, he continued making money selling guns and supplying them in Marikana.

“Ntanzi invited me to visit him in Rustenburg at Phokeng where I overheard him talking on the phone with Maphisa that they did a good job by killing a union member in Marikana, and Maphisa must make sure that Gwabeni paid them the money because he did not want to be traced with bank accounts. I heard that the person that was killed was a big person and very powerful and I asked him if he also killing people and he said to me it was a man’s job that he had to do because he needed money to make a better living and I warned him about it,” Buthelezi said. 

Further, Buthelezi said he heard that accused Muzi Sibiya had shot his girlfriend regarding the Meyiwa case and that his father further paid a policeman to cancel the case.

He said he further heard of the other accused involvement in the Meyiwa matter.

“I was very angry at them because they had killed a very important person who was the national goalkeeper of our football,” Buthelezi said. When police visited him in 2020, he said he co-operated with them, telling them what he knew about Ntanzi.

“I voluntarily decided to work with the police to trace Ntanzi in Rustenburg,” he said.

On June 16, Buthelezi took the police and showed them where Ntanzi was residing and positively identified him to the police. In his statement, Buthelezi said he was prepared to take the police to meet the witness being threatened by the accused. Despite the revelations, Ntanzi’s lawyer, adv Mngomezulu still argued that Ntanzi was unlawfully arrested.

On Monday, Gininda told the court that Ntanzi was linked to the murder through certified sworn statements he made to witnesses and an identikit compiled from descriptions by witnesses. Gininda said he was identified as the person with a hoodie who initially stood outside the house before the incident and ran away afterwards.

– TimesLive