SURPRISING revelations on former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa’s murder trial within a trial in the North Gauteng High Court on Thursday, 25 January continued to emerge.
Defence lawyer Advocate Thulani Mngomezulu accused the lead investigator, Brigadier Bongani Gininda of trying to bribe accused two Bongani Ntanzi with R3 million to implicate the other four accused.
This emerged during the cross-examination of Gininda by Mngomezulu.
The five men are charged with killing Meyiwa in October 2014 at his then-girlfriend’s mother’s house, Kelly Khumalo in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni.
“You requested him to work with you to cooperate. That’s why you offered him R3 million as long he was going to implicate the right people,” he said.
Gininda denied the allegations and said he was shocked by such remarks.
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“I’m shocked that the State or the police are bribing the accused or suspects with R3 million. I’ve never heard that. It's the first I’ve heard that. But I must say, my Lord, it’s not true. These are absolute lies,” he said.
Gininda also said the unit he leads didn’t have that budget at the time.
“There's no budget, my Lord, that I have to make such an offer. I don’t have a budget of R3 million for the unit during that time,” he said.
He said he had no reason to even offer any bribe because Ntanzi cooperated with the police.
“Why would I do that? The accused cooperated with me, and he told me he is willing to make a statement freely and voluntarily. After that, on the 19th in the morning, he confessed,” said Gininda.
He said it wouldn’t make sense to bribe someone on the 21st when he had already made a confession.
