The Senzo Meyiwa trial-within-a-trial resumed for the first time in 2024 and, suffice it to say, the defence marked its return with a resounding bang.
Senzo Meyiwa trial: Gininda’s arrest warrant affidavit under the spotlight
Brigadier Bongani Gininda returned to the witness stand to face intense cross-examination from Advocate Bheki Mngomezulu, defence attorney for accuseds 1 and 2, Muzi Sibiya and Bongani Ntanzi.
Gininda, the lead investigator in the death of the former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, faced instant pressure on Monday after Mngomezulu submitted a copy of the affidavit the brigadier used to secure arrest warrants for the suspects in the Meyiwa case to the court.
The affidavit, a sworn statement submitted under oath, was a collection of Gininda’s motivations for why police believed, at the time, that there was probable cause to effect arrests against the five suspects: Carlos Mthobisi Mncube, Muzi Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Fisokuhle Ntuli.
According to Gininda, at the time, the evidence collected indicated that Meyiwa was murdered “as a contractual assassination or hit rather than a robbery gone wrong.”
The lead investigator asserted that the five suspects actively participated in the alleged assassination, in different capacities.
The evidence? Well, Gininda, in his affidavit revealed that Muzi Sibiya had bragged about the alleged hit to a close associate, who, years later, turned to police.
“A dispute ensued between the individuals and the closely associated individual disclosed to the SAPS the admissions these accuseds made to them,” the affidavit revealed.
Moreover, according to Gininda’s arrest warrant application, circumstantial evidence further pointed to Sibiya as the weakest link of the alleged hit squad, since he supposedly made incriminating remarks about Meyiwa’s murder at a family gathering in Vosloorus, “even before the death was reported in the media.”
“He is further linked by means of the formal confession he made to the commission’s independent officer on the 30th of May 2020,” the affidavit read.
If we are to believe the submissions Gininda made under oath, not only does this bring to light a new dynamic to the state’s assertions that Meyiwa was killed in a robbery gone horribly wrong, but it also poses questions about who hired the hit squad to pull off the alleged assassination.
The extent of this shocking development has yet to be determined, since, at this juncture, the Pretoria High Court is hearing a trial-within-a-trial to rule on the validity of confessions made by Sibiya and Ntanzi.
When this article was published, the Meyiwa trial was set to resume after lunch.
