Senzo Meyiwa case postponed till March as forensic investigations continue
The trial of five men accused of the murder of the Bafana Bafana star will proceed in autumn as forensic work continues.
CAPE TOWN, November 27 (ANA) – The murder suspects in the Senzo Meyiwa trial were on Friday remanded in custody until March 20 next year while investigators wait for further forensic reports, the National Prosecuting Authority said.
The five accused, who are in custody in connection with other crimes, appeared briefly in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court.
The NPA said the postponement was to allow the investigating team and prosecutors time to consolidate the report from forensic investigations.
“But also to make sure that information is consolidated into an indictment so that the form and shape of the final charge sheet is informed by developments around the forensic investigation.”
It would see all other investigative work the prosecutors have called for concluded, NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said.
Meyiwa was murdered at the home of his girlfriend, actress and singer Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus on October 26, 2014.
The five suspects were linked to the case exactly six years to the day, following pressure from the family and AfriForum advocate Gerrie Nel to revive what had become a “cold” case.
Meyiwa, the goalkeeper for Bafana Bafana, was shot in the chest in an apparent botched burglary.
But there has been intense speculation as to the real motive for the crime, as well as reports of conflict within the senior investigating team assigned to it by Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Ngwema said the NPA remained confident that it had a good case, and could not exclude that more arrests may follow.
“We feel confident that we still have a good case and we are very certain that the accused we have right now are the right ones, and we don’t rule out the possibility of adding more accused pending on how the forensic reports and other follow-up investigations conclude.”
He added: “And if investigations lead us to other people, then certainly those people will be arrested and charged and added to the current accused.”
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
