'We're not going to be held at ransom by a witness'

The Pretoria high court is expected to continue hearing arguments in the application of a well-known personality who has applied for a media blackout during her testimony in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial. 

The state witness has requested that proceedings should not be broadcast live and her pictures should not be taken while she's on the stand. 

State prosecutor Adv George Baloyi told the court that the witness feared for her safety. 

“The witness is a well-known personality, she has to perform in public from time to time and if these proceedings, my lord, are carried live there is a possibility that the public might form a perception regarding her evidence and when she performs publicly her life might be endangered,” Baloyi said.

He said if proceedings were broadcast, the witness said this would put pressure on her and would also make her feel “uncomfortable”.

She has, however, not objected to journalists sitting in court and reporting on her testimony.

Baloyi also said the witness does not object to her pictures and videos taken in the corridors or outside court.

The defence team has argued against the application.

Adv Sipho Ramosepele, representing two of the accused, said everyone who testifies is under scrutiny. “The public will have their own opinion... it doesn't matter what happens out there, what matters is her story, her credibility, not the public out there.

“We are not going to be held at ransom by a witness.”

Adv Zandile Mshololo, who represents one of the accused, described the application as an “embarrassment to the South African law”.

“At this stage during the trial, we are still dealing with this kind of application. An issue which ought to have been discussed during pretrial,” she said.

On the issue of safety, Mshololo said her safety has also been compromised because the same witness also posted her [Mshololo] pictures on social media.

“My safety has been compromised but I am proceeding with the trial,” she said.

Two other defence lawyers also argued against the application.  

Attorney Dan Rosengarten, representing the media, told the court that the majority of South Africans received the news via television and radio.

He also said there was no evidence as to why the witness feared for her safety.

Rosengarten also said the witness' statement that she won't give evidence if proceedings are live “can also be dismissed rather quickly, nothing like a subpoena to get a witness to give evidence”.

“A mere suggestion of public scrutiny goes nowhere but being in open court with the court being full, she is subject to the same public scrutiny. By having her evidence reported on, what she says, she is open to the same public scrutiny.”

Five men — Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifisokuhle Nkani Ntuli — are accused of killing the late Bafana Bafana star at his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo's home in Vosloorus, on the East Rand, in October 2014.

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za