Meyiwa murder trial: State cellphone analyst accused of manipulating, fabricating evidence

JOHANNESBURG - The state’s cellphone analyst in the Senzo Meyiwa trial has been accused of manipulating and fabricating evidence to link the accused with the football star’s murder.

The court is hearing technical evidence on calls allegedly made between the accused and the alleged mastermind behind the footballer’s murder- his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo.

Meyiwa was gunned down while at Khumalo’s home almost a decade ago, in what the state believes was a hit.

Five men stand accused of the crime.

The state’s cellphone analyst Colonel Lambertus Steyn was called back to the witness stand last week to clarify seeming inconsistencies in his cellphone downloads from Khumalo’s phone, and the data provided by Vodacom.

Steyn told the court that the data in the downloads would differ from the section 205 records from Vodacom because the calls she made were via internet service, Blackberry net.

But lawyer for Fisokuhle Ntuli, Advocate Zandile Mshololo has accused Steyn of tampering with evidence.

Mshololo disputed that the records that the state claims to have downloaded from Khumalo’s phone, ever came from her phone but insists they were fabricated by the state.