Senzo Meyiwa trial: State and the defence battle it out at Pretoria High Court
The State has brought an application to call Colonel Lambertus Steyn back to clarify apparent discrepancies in the data he presented in court a year ago.
The Senzo Meyiwa murder trial continued in the Pretoria High Court on 1 August 2023.
JOHANNESBURG - The State and the defence are battling it out in the Pretoria High Court over whether a key state witness should be recalled back to the witness stand in the Senzo Meyiwa trial.
The State has brought an application to call Colonel Lambertus Steyn back to clarify apparent discrepancies in the data he presented in court a year ago.
Five men are being tried for the 2014 murder of the Bafana Bafana captain in what the State believes was a hit.
State advocate George Baloyi wants Steyn - the police’s cell phone analyst - back on the witness stand to answer to allegations of fraud and uttering by the defence on the Section 205 records that he testified on.
The defence made these allegations after Vodacom forensic supervisor Pinky Vythilingam told the court that the Section 205 records before her did not show a phone call from the 5th accused Fisokuhle Ntuli to Senzo Meyiwa’s girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, as was previously testified by Steyn.
Last year, Steyn told the court that Ntuli called Khumalo on the two occasions before Meyiwa’s murder.
On Monday, Advoca Baloyi argued that there may be a failure of justice if Steyn is not brought back to the stand to clarify his evidence – saying the allegations by the defence must be put to him.
But the defence has dismissed the State’s application as an attempt at damage control – and that Steyn’s testimony concluded last year is sufficient and should be argued at the end of the trial.