Singer Zandile Khumalo has told of how Senzo Meyiwa’s wife, Mandisa, allegedly assaulted her sister Kelly Khumalo on the day the late soccer star was killed.
took to the stand on the second day of the soccer star’s murder trial in the Pretoria high court on Wednesday, starting her testimony with howMeyiwa was loaded into a car that made its way to Botshelong Hospital in Vosloorus on the East Rand.
“As we were in the car and adding pressure to the wound, we tried to keep speaking to him [Meyiwa] so that he could keep his eyes open. As we were en route, I saw his eyes become wide open and he was looking up,” a teary Khumalo said.
“I kept touching him on his face and asked him to stay with us until we arrive at the hospital. I then lifted his shirt up and held his stomach where I could feel that his temperature was no longer the same as when I was touching his face, he was now cold on his stomach,” she recalled before she started to cry hysterically.
Court was then adjourned for five minutes to allow her to calm down.
Once the court was back in session, Khumalo continued with her testimony and revealed how they bypassed security at the hospital to rush Meyiwa so he could be attended to.
“I screamed and asked for assistance because we had someone who was shot inside the car. They then came with stretchers and I showed them where the car was. He was loaded onto the bed but you could tell that he couldn’t move and they placed him on the stretcher. He was then taken inside and we followed. We were not allowed to get inside his room where he would get examined. We were asked to wait in the waiting room,” she said.
Khumalo then explained that her mother broke the news to them that Meyiwa had died. She then revealed that Chicco Twala arrived at the hospital as they were crying after hearing the news.
According to Khumalo, after some time, a few Orlando Pirates soccer players also arrived at the hospital alongside Senzo’s wife, Mandisa, and her friends.
“Once they [Mandisa and her friends] got inside, they started pulling Kelly by her hair and started to assault her. I then went up to Mandisa and told her that what she was doing wasn’t right because Senzo was not a person who liked commotion,” she said.
State advocate George Baloyi then proceeded to ask Khumalo for details surrounding the time she left the hospital, where she went afterwards and what the situation was like once they went back home.
“When we got home, the house was covered in yellow tapes. When we got inside the house there were many people including police who kept introducing themselves to us. There were also neighbours and a lady from a government department and they all spoke to us, trying to comfort us,” she said.
According to Khumalo, Meyiwa’s phone was underneath the stove. They then looked for everyone else’s phones and realised that all the phones were still in the house.
“As we looked around the house on the tiles, we saw something that looked like it had burnt,” she said before adding that the kitchen door was damaged and that there was also a scotch hat in the kitchen. She also said the crutch she and Tumelo had used to hit the alleged intruders was also in the kitchen.
Baloyi then brought out photographic evidence and asked Khumalo to identify the items. She then identified some of the items before proceeding to answer questions about the testimony she had made on Tuesday.
Khumalo then revealed that the day after the incident, she, Meyiwa’s childhood friend Tumelo Madlala and Kelly left their home in Vosloorus and went to Mulbarton. She said they were then fetched and taken to the police station to make statements and draw up an identity kit of the intruders.
Meyiwa was shot and killed in October 2014. He was in the presence of his then-girlfriend Kelly, her mother Ntombi, Zandi, Zandi’s boyfriend Longwe Twala and Senzo’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Madlala.
The trial continues.
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