The trial against four police officers accused of killing Mthokozisi Ntumba will resume on Thursday with police officer Dumisani Mashamba expected to take the stand.  

Mashamba was patrolling with the officers in the area of Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on the day Ntumba was killed.

Ntumba was shot and killed during a student protest over historic debt and non-registration in Braamfontein, on March 10, allegedly by the police. 

On the day of the shooting, Ntumba, 35, was coming out of his doctor's appointment. 

Officers Tshepiso Kekana, 27, Cidraas Motseothatha, 43, Madimetja Legodi, 37, and Victor Mohammed, 51, face charges of murder and three counts of attempted murder and have pleaded not guilty.                              

On Monday, the trial in the Johannesburg high court heard testimony from Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) investigating officer Judy Thwala that the officers did not report the incident in the police occurrence book.

She said an entry was then put two days later on March 12 about the incident but there was no specification of what had happened.

During Thwala’s cross-examination which concluded on Wednesday, Emmanuel Netshipise, lawyer for accused 2, Motseothatha, accused Thwala of wanting to influence the outcome of the post-mortem results after she visited the pathologist on the day he examined Ntumba’s body.

“Your presence there affected the independence and integrity of the post-mortem report… I put it to you you were there telling the pathologist that there is a gun[shot] wound. Your presence there was to influence the outcome of the process,” said Netshipise.

But Thwala disagreed, informing the court that officers who fetched the body had already filled an SAP 180 form which identified that Ntumba’s body had bullet wounds.

She further said she was present at the post-mortem as an observer and did not do or say anything to the pathologist performing the post-mortem.