Meyiwa trial: Accused says his legal representative seemed disengaged when he signed confession

JOHANNESBURG - The second accused in the Senzo Meyiwa trial said the man who was supposedly his legal representative when he signed a confession statement, seemed disinterested and disengaged throughout the process.

Bongani Ntanzi spent a fifth day on the witness stand on Wednesday, detailing the alleged assault that he endured at the hands of police before he signed two confession statements.

The court is hearing the evidence to determine the admissibility of the statements - which must be made freely and voluntarily by law.

Ntanzi and another of his co-accused signed the incriminating statements in 2020, but insists it was not done voluntarily.

He spent the day consistently distancing himself from Dominic Mjiyako.

READ: Meyiwa murder trial: Bongani Ntanzi claims to have signed confession statement unknowingly

Ntanzi told the court that after Mjiyako introduced himself as a lawyer who had been sent by his family, he sat in Magistrate Vivian Cronje’s office at the Boksburg court busy on his phone.

While State prosecutor Advocate Ronnie Sibanda insists Mjiyako was Ntanzi’s lawyer, Ntanzi questioned why he would have told the magistrate himself that he needed a shower and to call his family if he was legally represented.

Despite records from Ntanzi’s possession of ammunition case in Tlhabane in the North West showing that Mjiyako was representing Ntanzi, he claimed he had never met Mjiyako until the day he signed a confession at the Boksburg Magistrates Court.

This is in stark contrast with his lawyer’s Thulani Mngomezulu’s version who told the court that Ntanzi does not know Mjiyako and has never met him.

The defence has asked to be given records of the Tlhabane matter on Thursday.