There were no robbers who shot dead Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa on that fateful evening in October eight years ago. Instead, the former captain was shot dead by Longwe Twala during an argument with Twala’s then girlfriend Zandi Khumalo.
This was the sensational claim made by Siyabonga Miya, the former footballer’s cousin, who has become the family spokesperson since Meyiwa’s father Sam died last July.
To add on to this, a statement approved by Tumelo Madlala suggests that Longwe, the son of musician Chicco Twala, killed Senzo Meyiwa and ran off.
This damning evidence was revealed by the defence counsel for accused number one to four, Timothy Thobane, during the cross-examination of Madlala at the high court in Pretoria on Monday.
In the statement, Madlala alleges that he could not disclose that Longwe had killed Meyiwa, because he did not have a firearm.
The statement reads: “I was for the first time to see Longwe Twala, and I did not tell anyone or the Meyiwa family that Senzo was killed by Longwe Twala, because he did not have a firearm with him, instead he ran away.”
Thobane asked Madlala to explain what made him to put this in writing, to which Madlala said the statement was written by a police officer.
Madlala asked that all the questions about that paragraph be addressed to the police officer who wrote the statement
Thobane asked: “You accepted [that] this statement is yours. How did it come about that you said those things?”
To which Madlala answered: “You should ask that question to the person who took my statement, because I do not recall.”
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
Two years ago, Senzo’s cousin, Miya claimed Longwe, the son of music mogul Chicco Twala, was the one who pulled the trigger after he got into an argument with Twala’s then girlfriend, Zandi.
Miya was speaking to Newzroom Afrika in October 2020 when he said the police investigators looking into the Meyiwa case had found a gun allegedly used in his murder on October 26, 2014.
In the past, a number of law enforcement officers have said the case is too complex and would likely never be solved. Several leaks have surfaced in the media over the years about the murder.
This includes the claim that there was no robbery or robbers involved, which was reported by the Sunday Independent last November and a City Press report in August, which claimed Meyiwa’s girlfriend Kelly Khumalo ordered the hit on the former goalkeeper’s life and paid hit men R45 000 instead of the agreed upon R250 000.
Meyiwa was at Kelly’s Vosloorus home when he was shot dead. At the time of his death, police said armed gunmen had stormed the home and shot Meyiwa dead during the melee.
In the house that fateful day was Meyiwa, Kelly and Zandi, their mother Ntombi Khumalo, Twala, Meyiwa’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, and Kelly’s then 4-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, Kelly’s daughter with Senzo.
In November 2019, the Sunday Independent reported that Meyiwa had been “mistakenly shot”, allegedly by one of the seven people present, but witnesses claimed it was an imaginary robbery gone wrong in part of a cover-up which involved senior police officers
The Sunday Independent also reported that Ntombi had handed Meyiwa’s phone to a neighbour after the shooting, supposedly in a bid to strengthen the robbery story.