Accused pointed to Meyiwa crime scene – cop

Muzi Sibiya, one of the suspects in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, allegedly offered to point out the crime scene to the police after he allegedly made a confession implicating himself in the crime.

Brig Bongani Gininda, the initial investigator of the 2014 murder, is the first police officer to link  Sibiya to the  house where Meyiwa was killed in an alleged house invasion and robbery. 

Previous witnesses who include Khumalo’s sister Zandile Khumalo and their neighbours had claimed to have seen two men whose identities match that of two other accused, Mthobisi Mncube and Bongani Ntanzi, walking into the house while armed with a gun.

Yesterday, however, the court heard that Sibiya confessed to have had direct knowledge of the crime scene and even pointed it out in the presence of the police. 

Gininda to the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday that he had informed Sibiya in May 2020 after his arrest that he had evidence linking him to Meyiwa’s murder

He said Sibiya response to him was “tantamount” to a confession.

“I asked him to if he would be willing freely and voluntarily to make such statement to an independent officer and also make points out to the discussion I had with him and he said yes,” Gininda said.

Gininda told the court that Sibiya made the pointing out of the scene with another police officer and a photographer in June 2020. The photographs were included in the docket. 

Gininda said after the pointing out and confession Sibiya looked relaxed as if a “weight had been removed from his shoulders”.

“I did not detect or pick up any sign of uneasiness or panic. My whole observation was of a man who is relieved. He was looking better than how he was before, you know like when something has been taken off your shoulder. There was no sign of fear or threat,” he said.

The trial within a trial is set to determine the admissibility of the confession made by Sibiya and his co-accused Ntanzi.

Earlier this month, Const Jabulane Buthelezi told the court that they used a tactical take-down to arrest Sibiya in Tembisa, which is a method that is used to temporarily confuse the accused during his arrest.

However, his denfence counsel Adv Thulani Mngomezulu said that police assaulted him and coerced him to sign a pre-written confession.

Gininda also told the court that Ntanzi had lied about being at work in Carletonville on the day before Meyiwa was killed claiming that he had received information that Ntanzi was only at work for two hours on the eve the murder. 

He also dismissed Ntanzi’s new version that he was in KZN during time and that he had made bank transactions while away. Gininda said they could not find these transaction in Ntanzi’s bank statements. 

Earlier yesterday, the court proceedings were delayed as some of the accused complained about their handcuffs being too tight. 

This comes after accused Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokiseni Maphisa and Fisokuhle Ntuli engaged in a scuffle with a prison warden in court on Monday.

Adv Mngomezulu said the warden had mistreated his client [Ntanzi]  because of Monday’s scuffle over seating arrangements in court.

Mngomezulu told the court that his client had asked for the prison warden to be replaced.

However, presiding Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng advised the lawyers to take the matter with the correctional service department as he does not know how they operate.

“We are all aware that the department of correctional service is different from the department of justice. I don’t have the authority to determine how the so-called prisoners should be transported from their places of incarceration to court.”