Advocate Sipho Ramosepele told the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial in the Pretoria High Court on Friday that accused number one was brutalised while in police custody.
According to instructions from the accused, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, police officials allegedly covered his face with a plastic bag and suffocated him.
He claimed that the new state witness, Constable Nakedi Thapelo Monareng, was present on some occasions when the alleged torture was carried out.
He also said Monareng was present when he was arrested, as well as when he was allegedly forced to sign a confession statement at the Diepkloof police station.
He claimed that during accused number two, Bongani Ntanzi’s arrest on May 30 2020, Monareng was part of officers who took him to his uncle’s residence.
They allegedly found the uncle and his friend at the gate and the officials went inside the room to conducted a search.
“After searching, you [Monareng and officials] then took the accused and drove him to Lethabong in Thembisa, at a building that looked like a municipality building,” said Ramosepele.
“At that place in Lethabong, he was assaulted and tortured through the plastic method being placed on his face and suffocated.”
Monareng denied that he met Sibiya on the day he was ordered by the lead investigator on the Senzo Meyiwa murder case to take the accused to the police station in Diepkloof.
“[The] suspect was handcuffed. We greeted him and he greeted back, we then spoke to Brigadier Gininda, taking instructions of where we were going.
“The suspect then got into the car and we proceeded to the police station,” said Monareng.
He denied allegations that Sibiya was tortured in the same place where he made his statements before Colonel Mhlanganyelwa Moses Mbotho arrived.
Instead, he said they found Mbotho already at the police station.
Upon arrival at the police station, said Monareng, they called Mbotho and were instructed to deliver the suspect and wait outside while they go through the confession.
After a while, they were called in to take the accused back to Gininda.
Ramosepele told the court earlier in the day that his client told him that he was tortured again before signing the statement.
He said the process to sign and initial the documents was less than 10 minutes, as the documents were allegedly prepared beforehand.
“If the accused was brutalised, he could have told me as a neutral person in this matter,” Mbotho said earlier during the proceedings.
“I am not taking sides. If I was made aware at that time, I believe something could have been done. I asked him, he should have told me.”
