Pretoria – The defence representing the five men accused of killing soccer star Senzo Meyiwa was not pleased with the State having to clarify “inaccuracies” in the statements that were made by the witness who was present on the day of the shooting.
Mthokozisi Thwala took the stand at the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria on Thursday.
Before he was to be cross-examined by the defence, State prosecutor George Baloyi tried to get Thwala to clarify ‘‘inaccuracies’’ in the statements he had made to the police.
Baloyi’s attempts were met with objections by the defence, which said he wanted to cross-examine his own witness.
However, Baloyi said he was allowed by law to clarify "inaccuracies" he had picked up in Thwala's statements before he could allow him to be cross-examined by the defence.
After a long back and forth, Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela ruled in Baloyi’s favour.
Earlier, Thwala testified that he made numerous statements regarding what he saw on October 26, 2014 when the former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper and Bafana Bafana captain was killed.
The soccer star was killed while visiting his then girlfriend and mother of his child, Kelly Khumalo, at her family home in Vosloorus, in Ekurhuleni.
Regarding the “inaccuracies”, Thwala said because he made many statements, in some instance, he was misquoted and, in one statement, the person who was writing confused the description he had given about the suspects.
Advocate Sipho Ramosepele, who represents two of the accused, cross-examined Thwala and went on to cast doubt on his sobriety on the day of the incident.
“How do you rate your sobriety on a scale of 1 to 10?,” he asked Thwala.
“I was okay,” he replied.
Thwala said he had only had two cans of Hunter’s Gold (a cider).
In one of the statements which was previously read out in court by the defence, an unnamed witness told police that a woman by the name of Ma Phiri cleaned the house before police could arrive because she did not want any evidence of the drinking in the house.
Following up on the information, Ramosepele asked Thwala what happened to the empty alcohol cans.
“I can’t remember very well, if they were taken to the bin or what. I can’t remember,” he replied.
He said the person who allegedly cleaned the scene before the police arrived would come and answer for themselves.
Thwala will continue under cross-examination on Friday.
IOL