Sergeant Vusumuzi Mogane, a member of the investigations team that arrested one of Senzo Meyiwa’s alleged killers took to the stand yesterday at the Pretoria High Court. Mogane testified in the trial within a trial, where the court was hearing the admissibility of confessions allegedly made by accused one and two. While the State wants the confessions of Bongani Ntanzi and Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya to be admitted as evidence, the defence has argued that they were coerced and assaulted into confessing.

POLICE GOT HEADS UP FROM AN INFORMER

Mogane explained to the court that it was an informer who alerted Brigadier Bongani Gininda about Ntanzi’s possible link to Meyiwa’s murder. "In 2019, Brigadier, still a Colonel then, received information about the Senzo Meyiwa murder and we sat down and discussed the matter. The name of Bongani Ntanzi came up and an informant told us that he was involved in the matter. We found where he worked at a mine in Westonaria. We looked for him but we couldn’t find him. Eventually, we discovered that he was in Phokeng, Rustenburg, and that he had other cases linked to him," Mogane testified. He said there was another big case from Kwa-Nongoma, KwaZulu Natal, which he was involved in and another case in Vosloorus but that had nothing to do with the Meyiwa matter. "We observed him all day and eventually cornered him in his room with his girlfriend. I told him he was a suspect in the Nongoma case of murder where a gun was also discovered. I then read him his constitutional rights and arrested him."

ACCUSED TOLD THE POLICE HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT SENZO’S MURDER

Mogane said he asked Ntanzi about the Meyiwa murder on the 17th of June 2020. "We asked him where he was when Senzo Meyiwa was killed and he said he did not remember anything about that day. He said he knew about it because it was all over the news. Ntanzi told us he was at Sibanye Stillwater Mine where he worked. We went to the mine the next day and records showed Ntanzi was not at work, contrary to what he’d told us," he said, adding that Ntanzi denied any involvement in the murder of Senzo Meyiwa." At one point, Mogane says, they went to Ntanzi’s room in Phokeng to search for the hoodie that was illustrated in one of the identikits. "There were several coloured hoodies but we couldn’t find the one we were looking for. However, we found ammunition. We asked the accused why he had them and where he got them from, but he couldn’t answer so we arrested him again adding a charge." The court will resume this morning.