Accused number two’s legal counsel in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, advocate Sipho Ramosepele, confirmed in court that disclosing the accused’s cellphone numbers in court, as well as those associated to them, has resulted in cyberbullying. He said this before the Pretoria high court on Wednesday.
Ramosepele requested that phone numbers of family members not be read out in full. This is because someone called the mother of accused number two on Tuesday.
He made this statement as Pinky Vythilingam, the Vodacom forensic liaison supervisor, was testifying in the case about the accused’s mobile actions.
“After some of the names and numbers of the people on exhibit DD5 annexure, a call was place to accused number five’s mother by some idiot, spewing vitriol and idiocy.
Defence wants family members’ numbers kept secret
“We have discussed with the state that in such a situation, we think that, especially for my client, it will be on a case-by-case basis. Because some of the names are sensitive. And therefore if we refer to some of the numbers, we should refer to the last four digits,” Ramosepele stated.
He went on to request that if they want to mention names of people in court, they should mention only the index.
“And should we want to refer to a particular name in annexure DD5, we can only mention the index. This because we in front of court together with the court have the name next to that index.”
Presiding judge on the case, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng, interjected and asked if evidence should not be known.
Judge questions non-disclosure of names
“In other words, the evidence must not be known? With the numbers, I understand, what about the names? I will not allow that because I will be accused, again of not doing things the correct [way]. So, the evidence that is heard in court must be heard in court. If there is someone who is eavesdropping in Zola or whatever, it is not the court’s problem.”
Meyiwa was shot and killed in a robbery at his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s house in Vosloorus in October 2014.
Five men believed to have been involved in the shooting are behind bars, standing trial for the crime.
