Defence lawyer in the Senzo Meyiwa trial, Advocate Zandile Mshololo halted the cross-examination of forensic expert Thabo Mosia after she argued that the state did not disclose the existence of the second docket before the trial commenced, which implicates music artist Kelly Khumalo in the murder of Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Robert Meyiwa.
Mshololo asked the court to give her an opportunity to pursue the second docket and go through the contents before continuing with the cross-examination of the forensic expert. She asked to be given time as the state only provided her with the second docket on Wednesday morning.
The infamous second docket – known as case 375- alleged that singer Kelly Khumalo, who was Senzo Meyiwa’s girlfriend at the time, accidentally shot the soccer star at her mother’s house in Vosloorus on 26 October 2014.
The docket recommended that Khumalo and the six other people who were inside the house be charged with murder and defeating the ends of justice. Mshololo argued that the disclosure of the docket when the trial had already started prejudiced her client’s rights to a fair trial.
“The non-disclosure of such a document to accused number five violated his rights to be given further particulars and all information that is in possession of the state in order to prepare his defence,” Mshololo said.
She argued that this is not the first time the state had violated her client’s legal rights. “This is the second violation of accused number five’s constitutional rights. You will recall at the beginning I had to also ask for a postponement because of the late disclosure of the documents of certain witnesses, two weeks before the trial started.
“And now a whole docket is only disclosed during the trial or when the trial had already started,” Mshololo argued.
The docket, which the court heard was opened in 2019, named Kelly Khumalo, Longwe Twala, Gladness Khumalo, Zandi Khumalo, Tumelo Madlala, Mthokozisi Twala and Maggy Phiri as the suspects in the murder of Senzo Meyiwa.
Source: City Press, The Citizen, News24, Times Live, image from Twitter