Meyiwa trial: Cellphone allegedly found in possession of accused takes centre stage

JOHANNESBURG - The defence in the Senzo Meyiwa trial has poked holes in the handling of a cellphone allegedly discovered in the possession of one of the accused.

The Pretoria High Court spent the day hearing evidence on the discovery of the cellphones that have formed part of the State’s investigation.

Five men are being tried for the Bafana Bafana captain’s 2014 murder.

The lawyer for Fisokuhle Ntuli has told the court that while a phone was found in his cell - which he shared with two others - was not found in his possession.

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It’s been a day of chuckles in the dock for the accused in the Senzo Meyiwa trial as the state-led evidence on cellphones found on accused number two Bongani Ntanzi and his co-accused Ntuli.

But Ntuli let a slightly louder laugh during the testimony of the former head of the Qalakabusha Prison Sibusiso Yaka who told the court that after receiving a tip-off in August 2020, he walked into Ntuli's cell and asked him to surrender his cellphone.

"Ntuli had much respect for me when I would say stop this, he would stop."

But Ntuli’s lawyer advocate Zandile Mshololo has questioned how the phone discovered in Ntuli’s cell was handled, suggesting that it may have been tampered with.

She posed this question to sergeant Vusumuzi Mogane - one of the investigators who collected the cellphone

Mshololo: "So you are telling this court that a detective of 15 years did not know to check the serial number of the cellphone number he has discovered and record it?"

Mogane: "Sometimes in the line of duty you don’t know what to write and what not to write."

Mshololo put it to Mogane that the cellphone presented as evidence in court was not the phone found in Ntuli’s cell.