Senzo Meyiwa murder trial | Tumelo Madlala grilled in court

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11:37

6:49

Longwe did an ‘impossible’ act!

STATE witness Tumelo Madlala found himself struggling to make sense of his testimony at the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, 16 November.

Madlala, the third state witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, is one of the people who were in the house when Meyiwa was gunned down in an alleged botched robbery in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni in October 2014.

Defence advocate Zandile Mshololo asked Madlala if he saw who shot Meyiwa.

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THE North Gauteng High Court heard that blood tests were not done on the people who were in the house when Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead.

This was revealed by defence lawyer Advocate Zandile Mshololo, representing accused number five, during her cross-examination of the state witness and Meyiwa’s childhood friend, Tumelo Madlala.

Mshololo asked Madlala if any blood test was done on him so they could determine the level of alcohol in his system.

Madlala said no blood test were done by the police when they got back from the hospital.

Mshololo said with the lack of blood test, it would be difficult for the court to know if they were highly intoxicated or not.

Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela interjected and asked Mshololo if Madlala was the relevant person for the question.

Mshololo further asked Madlala that could the reason he didn’t hear the alleged intruders coming into the, be that he was under the influence.

“I can answer that. Not everyone in the house was drinking, but they also didn’t hear him come in,” he said.

Mshololo continued, accusing Madlala of being a bad friend to Meyiwa after his death.

She said Madlala failed to share the money he got from the pictures he gave Netflix with Meyiwa’s fiance Mandisa Mkhize and Meyiwa’s child.

The witness said he didn’t see the need to share the money because Mandisa could take care of her child.

“Can we say Mr Madlala your friendship with the deceased ended the time he was shot dead?” said Mshololo.

Madlala responded by saying: “That is a lie. That’s your own speculation.”

He further said he didn’t share the money with anyone, even with his own family.

Maumela asked Madlala that since Senzo was his best friend, doesn’t that mean that his kids become his too.

Madlala said that’s true.

The court also heard that he was paid in cash.

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THE trial of the five men accused of killing Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa is continuing in the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, 16 November.

The trial will resume with the cross-examination of the third state witness and Meyiwa’s childhood friend, Tumelo Madlala, by the defence lawyer of the fifth accused, Advocate Zandile Mshololo.

On Tuesday, 15 November before defence lawyer Attorney TT Thobane, representing the first four accused concluded his cross-examination, he told the court that his client, accused two Bongani Ntanzi, was in KZN paying lobola at the time Meyiwa was murdered.

According to Thobane, bank statements and cellphone records will reveal that he wasn’t in Joburg on the week of the shooting.

Thobane said: “The police have the bank statements of accused two, but they can’t use them because it will destroy the state’s case.”

Thobane also told the court Ntanzi was assaulted by the police after his arrest, forcing him to confess to the murder.

Madlala testified that he remembers Ntanzi.

“He is the man I was fighting with, with Senzo. Even after 20 or 30 years, I would still remember him,” he said.

Responding on the bank statements and phone records, Madlala said: “That is news to me. Let him produce them. He mustn’t lie.”

Thobane also told the court that three of his clients were in prison when Meyiwa was killed.

Mshololo is expected to continue with her cross-examination.

Before the matter was postponed on Tuesday, Mshololo got Madlala to admit that he has never seen her client before.