THE North Gauteng High Court heard that some of the beer cans that were consumed on the day Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead were removed from the scene.
This was confirmed by the third state witness and Meyiwa’s childhood friend, Tumelo Madlala, during his cross-examination by lawyer to accused five, Advocate Zandile Mshololo on Tuesday, 15 November.
According to Mshololo, the police were able to only find two cans of alcohol on the scene.
But Madlala said they drank more alcohol and some was still in the fridge when Meyiwa was taken to hospital.
Mshololo asked if other cans were removed when the police arrived, and Madlala said he couldn’t disagree because they left the house to take Meyiwa to hospital, so he wasn’t there. He said he agreed that they might have been removed because he couldn’t see them in the photos.
Mshololo asked how the court would know or determine the state of their sobriety when some of the cans were removed from the scene.
She further asked if Madlala had consumed alcohol when he identified accused number two, Bongani Ntanzi. And he said yes, he had, but he could see him.
Mshololo further accused Madlala of betraying Meyiwa by selling their photos to Netflix.
She asked if he saw himself as a reliable friend for selling the photos just after Meyiwa’s death, and he said he was reliable because the family asked that he share them.
Mshololo said: “Because of money, you gave out your friend’s photo to people that you didn’t know or what they will do with them.”
But Madlala said it was not people he didn’t know – but it was Meyiwa’s brother, Sifiso, and their cousin, Siya.
“When the Netflix people told me they wanted to do the documentary, I refused and that’s when they came back with Sifiso and Siya, then I agreed,” he said.
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Asked how much he was paid for the photos, he refused to answer and said Mshololo should rather call Netflix as he couldn’t remember.
Mshololo asked if he shared the money with the Meyiwa family, stating that she wanted to know if they had benefited from the photos.
Madlala replied that according to his knowledge, he was the only one who benefited from the photos that were in his camera.
